Roles & Relationships in the Family (Years 9–11) — Sociology

Conjugal roles, how roles inside families have changed over time, and the debate about the 'symmetrical family'.

Inside a family, members take on different roles and responsibilities. Sociologists study how these roles are shared and how they have changed.

Why this matters Who does what at home — earning, cooking, childcare, decision-making — affects everyone's daily life. Studying family roles helps us understand fairness, cooperation and change within the home.

Conjugal roles

Conjugal roles are the roles played by the two partners in a couple. Sociologists describe two broad patterns:

Segregated conjugal roles: partners have clearly separate tasks and responsibilities — for example one mainly earns income while the other mainly runs the home.
Joint conjugal roles: partners share tasks and decisions more equally, doing many things together.

Segregated conjugal roles keep tasks separate; joint conjugal roles overlap, with both partners sharing paid work and home life.

How roles have changed

In several societies, sociologists have recorded a shift, in many households, towards more shared roles. Reasons suggested include more women in paid work, changes in attitudes, smaller families and new technology in the home. Sociologists stress this is a general pattern; individual families vary a great deal, and many organise roles according to their own culture or faith.

The symmetrical family debate

The sociologist Willmott and Young described what they called the symmetrical family: a family in which the roles of the partners, while not identical, are more balanced and similar than before, with both sharing paid work and home life. This idea sparked debate:

Some sociologists agreed roles were becoming more equal.
Feminist sociologists questioned how equal things really were, pointing to research suggesting women often still do more of the housework and childcare — sometimes called the dual burden or double shift.

Common exam mistake: assuming the symmetrical family thesis and the feminist critique are opposites that cancel out. They can both be partly right: roles have become more shared on average, as Willmott and Young argued, while women may still carry a larger share of unpaid work (the feminist critique) — a good answer holds both findings together.

A fair conclusion

The evidence suggests roles have become more shared in many families, but not always fully equal. Families reach their own balance for many reasons, including practical needs and cultural or faith values. Sociology describes this range without prescribing how any family should divide its roles.

Exam technique: name Willmott and Young explicitly and use their term ‘symmetrical family’ when discussing changing conjugal roles — naming the study, not just the idea, is what distinguishes a top-level answer.