Sociological Analysis Of Household Chores

Household chores are a critical part in maintaining a household. When it comes to sharing these duties amongst all family members, social issues such as equality, gender roles and personal issues such as behaviour and viewpoints can impact how these roles are delegated. I applied the topic of sharing household chores to the following theories: the Feminist Theory, that believes society is based on a system called patriarchy, the Systems Theory, which closely links ones behaviour to their interactions with the people around them and Symbolic Interactionism, which looks at the way an individual looks at roles and status. In the following paragraphs, you will find a sociological analysis on how household chores are shared among family members with the previously mentioned theories applied.

The feminist theory analyzes issues from both a macro and micro perspective, feminist generally agree that family relations are based on the power and authority of men, also known as patriarchy. This plays a huge role when it comes to household chores and, according to traditional views, what is expected of the woman and man. Men are expected to be the financial provider for the family and control the household socially and politically, putting them in the head of the household position. This leads to the power imbalance between the man and woman when it comes to household chores. Working men believe it is the woman’s job to stay home to cook, clean, and look after the children while they work to support the family financially. Sociologist Barbara Risman says “If your partner is also your paycheck, you’re in a different position to make demands. So if you earn no money, or less money, you’re going to be less likely to win when you have disagreements. And this decreases the quality of the marriage”. This causes oppression of the woman because she feels as though she has no voice, rights, or value because she does not offer anything financially to the relationship. The system theory views the “family as interrelated parts in which anything that affects one part affects all other parts”.

Families also contain subsystems, the main system being the parents and subsystems made up by the children. Just like any other system, every part is connected and everyone needs to take care of their responsibilities to ensure the system functions properly. This is a common method used to delegate household chores to members of the family. Parents may apply traditional gender roles when handing out responsibilities to their children. Boys may take on more maintenance chores such as cutting grass, taking out the garbage. While girls may be given more housekeeping working such as doing the dishes, sweeping/mopping, and doing laundry. If one of these tasks is not completed, it can cause a rift in the family system. If the garbage is not taken out, or the dishes aren’t completed, this can trigger a malfunction in the system where other members of the family/system become angry at and develop resentment for the person responsible for those tasks. To avoid this, the family must develop a set of rules for completing tasks that includes what is required of each member and the consequences if tasks are not completed.

The symbolic interactionist theory focus on the concepts of status and role from the viewpoint of an individual. The relationship an individual has with their peers, parents, and other people of significance, helps create their sense of self. For example, a daughter, from a young age, sees her mother and father balance work, family and household duties and decides she wants to replicate that in her marriage. Her husband, on the other, grew up in a household where is his mother stayed at home, took care of the kids and did household chores while his father worked to support the family financially. This is referred to as role taking. The opposing opinions on how their marriage should work can cause a role strain between the two individuals. A role strain is a sense of discomfort or tension felt by one who has difficulty meeting role expectation. The husband feels discomfort because his wife’s ideal lifestyle involves both of them working. He’s grown up believing that his sole purpose was to provide for the family financially and this can cause discomfort because he won’t be the sole provider. This will also cause tension because his wife may expect him to do household chores, but he saw his mom doing all the chores and wants his wife to do the same. The wife may also feel tension because her husband is expecting her to stay at home and do household chores, something she did not see in her house growing up.

Household chores are a necessary part of every family’s day to day routine. Chores are a assigned based on multiple factors but social issues such as equality, gender roles and personal issues such as behaviour and viewpoints can have a strong influence on how an individual decides who does what chore. Through a sociological analysis of household chores and the Feminist Theory, Systems Theory and Symbolic Interactionism we can see how society impacts our decisions.