I also think that however much one may wish to resist those roles, there's enough socialisation behind them that it can be difficult to do so.

I have not actually found this any worse since becoming "wife" rather than "female partner living with a man as if married". Society, or at least the bits of it I move in or have to interact with legally, doesn't really seem to distinguish between the two.

Not that this means that there *aren't* any social expectations, of course...