joint conjugal role relationship

joint conjugal role relationship

a division of labour within a household that involves a sharing of household tasks between partners. The term was first used by Elizabeth Bott (1957) who suggested that such relationships were most often found in communities with high geographical and social mobility. The fragmentation of family and kin relationships consequent on such conditions is said to have disrupted the traditional pattern of the SEGREGATED CONJUGAL ROLE RELATIONSHIP and led to men becoming more involved in the home. An increase in working women, unemployed men and the existence of new social values are suggested as contributing to the increasing interchangeability of gender roles in the late 20th-century Despite the suggestion that such families are more egalitarian, there is much evidence that the existence of gender segregation in household tasks is highly persistent. See also DOMESTIC LABOUR, SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR.