This suggest a "New Man", men who are househusbands, staying at home, usually looking after small children, while their wife, if they have one, works, usually in a highly paid job, is become active. The idea of a New Man attracted a lot of media attention in the 1990's, so the new generation of couples could have a rise in "New Man".
The generation before couples aged between 21-30 are 31-40. This is more like the middle generation for my survey, this generation of couples may show a move in transition from something.
18.7% of male organizing household tasks.
44.7% of couples equally sharing household tasks.
36.6% of female organizing household tasks.
The 41 and over age group are the age group that I will compare against; I will see if family roles have changed from this age to the young generation, 21-30.
12.1% of male organizing household tasks.
62.6% of couples equally sharing household tasks.
25.3% of female organizing household tasks. .
All in all, my research suggests that older couples, 41+, are sharing household tasks than younger couples, it also shows that as we look at age ranges from older couples to younger couples, men are more involved in household tasks than ever. In other words, over the last forty years, women are now putting their feet up and now men are more actively involved in roles traditionally undertaken by women, men are equally sharing childcare with their partners. Over 60% of couples are sharing household tasks like what their children wear, the choice of school, disciplining and babysitting. (See graph G in Appendix).
Did you feel that met your aims?
My aim was to find out if family roles had changed over the last 40 years. My research suggests that the new generation of couples are not only sharing household tasks but men are becoming more proactive than ever, such that you could say that we are in the era where the New Man is coming to existence. However, unlike the extreme New Man that stays at home and doesn't work, my data suggests that majority of men in families work either full-time or part-time. (See Graph C in Appendix).
According to graph H my hypothesis is correct, housework in subcategory in childcare is mostly shared by couples, women are undertaking what is traditionally classed as a man's role e.g. DIY, buying big products and organising holidays.
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the method you chose
In many surveys, self-completion questionnaires are sent to peoples' homes or respondents are responsible for collecting it with somewhat small enticements like competitions or gift vouchers. However, with my interview questionnaire I was responsible the survey and pen, I was also responsible for collecting and sending out the surveys. This enabled me to have a higher response rate.
The advantage of having a interview questionnaire is that usually it has a higher response rate, normally, you need interviewers that are costly, instead I replaced the interviewer with myself. Because I became the interviewer, I explained the purpose of my research, which countered many questions and authenticity of my survey.
The disadvantage of my research method is that it is only limited to where my legs can go, it cannot reach a large number of respondents, who may be far away. Tallying up all the results in different ways was very time-consuming.
Reliability
I gave my questionnaires to my next door neighbors and friends' parents. This gave me a range of family backgrounds, working class to middle class and different ethnic group of backgrounds, so therefore, my findings should give a true to life view of what is actually going on. My findings represent the people living in my area because I have used a range of age groups as well as a variety of ethnic groups.
However, I believe that my results are unreliable because, in order for a finding to be reliable, it would have to be exactly the same if a different researcher was to do it again. For that reason I would say my findings are unreliable; it would be very difficult for a different researcher to have exactly the same results as my findings. The main reason for my choice is because when I skimmed through my questionnaires, some families shared chores exactly equally, some had only the women in the family undertaking all the household chores whilst other families had the man in a home doing all the household tasks.
Each family is unique in the way they function; they may have similarities in family roles but ultimately, the roles of family's are based on situations and lifestyle: some families are orphaned based- where the responsible sibling may take on the role of a breadwinner. A man may have to become a househusband due to his partner who probably has a high-paid career. In the modern era family roles are diverse and you can't put a guarantee that you will have the same trends of families in each area.
Validity
The data that I gathered are extremely valid. One way in which it is valid is because I asked the right questions; it was linked in with my hypothesis and it wasn't unethical. Also, I read didn't read out my questions aloud nor stand next to my respondent so that the answers wouldn't be manipulated by me in anyway. But, I did stay fairly close to my respondents so that I could collect my survey without any hassles. Before I gave out my survey, I made it crystal clear to them of confidentiality and the purpose of my research - this maximized my chances of getting a more honest finding.
In contradiction, there are some aspects of which validity may be questioned; I sent out only 30 questionnaires to people around my area, Manor Park - this could give me a biased set of results. In spite of limited resources, I believe that my findings are valid. My hypothesis suggests that the dominant type of family is the symmetrical family; my data is backed up by the mass media. The mass media, whether in books, magazines or television, seems to tell us to be a more of a symmetrical family, with programmes such as "Wife Swap"- a programme that looks at different families who have problems relating to family roles and other problems. There are elephant loads of magazines aimed especially at teenagers to use "Genderquake" as use of getting what they want. There are even books telling us what to do in order for a successful family.
Improvements
If I had a chance to do this project again, there are a few things I would do differently: for example, I would analyze other variables like ethnicity, social class and the lengths of years each couples have been married for. This would give me a varied information rather than limited data. I would also distribute my survey to different areas in Newham like: Manor Park, Forest Gate or East Ham and I also wanted to distribute a larger number of surveys rather than just 30.
