Conjugal Role Expectations - Essay Example

Some researchers have tried to calculate the power distribution in a marriage (Tobin, 1976).

Researchers, Willmott and Young, agreed that conjugal roles had become equal between husband and wife. They pointed out the emergence of the commonly known a symmetrical family in the 1970s. In these families, the roles of husband and wife were generally the same. The couples in these families shared their time and work. In particular, husbands were the ones carrying out the domestic chores, making family decisions, and rearing children. The research conducted by Willmott and Young claimed that 72% of husbands undertook domestic tasks (Tobin, 1971).

Tobin (1971) affirms that another sociologist named Ann Oakley criticizes the views made by Willmott and Young. She points out that in the 72% figure of husbands issued by Willmott and Young, many of them did exceptionally minimum tasks. Other husbands performed only one house chore weekly. In the 1970s, Ann collected data on forty married women having one child and aged between 20 to 30 years (Tobin, 1971). Half of the sample she collected were women who were working, and the others were middle-class women. In her research, she found out that there was equality in domestic chores for middle-class women as compared to women who were working. Still, in both the middle and working class, few men participated in taking care of children as well as performing household chores. Many wives viewed these chores as part of their responsibilities and 15% of men with wives participated in the household activities. Ann argued that women are increasingly taking a dual burden in their families. They do the household chores and are expected to have relatively well-paying employment.

The domestic violence factor shows how inequality can be extreme and how other families are not equal in their relationships. Violence is supported through the social values and beliefs exposure concerning the appropriate household roles of women and men. Inequality between women and men mainly leads to occurrences of violence in the respective families. These violent cases may be psychological, financial sexual, or physical, taking place in relationships that have controlling behavior patterns (Covington, 2008).

 In conclusion, domestic violence is fundamentally violence by men to women. However, men are also under threat of domestic violence meaning that they can equally be affected. A study conducted by Mirrlees showed that many victims affected by domestic violence were women and nearly 1 out of 4 women had been beaten by their partner (Covington, 2008). Court and police records showed that domestic violence is mainly caused by the man reacting to any challenge in his authority. This is mainly encouraged with marriage as the traditional roles of wife and man still exist. Men are the ones who oppress women and abuse them unfairly. In addition, domestic violence is linked to conjugal roles and marriage. Domestic violence is unavoidable because the power men have over women is preserved.