ABSTRACT
There was considerable variation in the way husbands and wives performed their conjugal roles. At one extreme was a family in which the husband and wife carried out as many tasks as possible separately and independently of each other. There was a strict division oflabour in the household, in which she had her tasks and he had his. He gave her a set amount of housekeeping money, and she had little idea of how much he earned or how he spent the money he kept for himsel£ In their leisure time, he went to cricket matches with his friends, whereas she visited her relatives or went to a cinema with a neighbour. With the exception of festivities with relatives, this husband and wife spent very little of their leisure time together. They did not consider that they were unusual in this respect. On the contrary, they felt their behaviour was typical of their social circle. At the other extreme was a family in which husband and wife shared as many activities and spent as much time together as possible. They stressed that husband and wife should be equals: all major decisions should be made together, and even in minor household matters they should help one another as much as possible. This norm was carried out in practice. In their division of labour, many tasks were shared or interchangeable. The husband often did the cooking and sometimes the washing and ironing. The wife did the gardening and often the household repairs as well. Much of their leisure time was spent together, and they shared similar interests in politics,
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music, literature, and in entertaining friends. Like the first couple, this husband and wife felt their behaviour was typical of their social circle, except that they felt they carried the interchangeability of household tasks a little further than most people. One may sum up the differences between these two extremes by saying that the first family showed more segregation between husband and wife in their role-relationship than the second family. In between these two extremes there were many degrees of variation. This chapter attempts to interpret these differences in degree of segregation of conjugal roles.
