Sociological perspectives on families

work in progreess

Murdock’s 4 essential functions

• He studied 200 different families across different societies

• Murdock argues that there are 4 essential function of the nuclear family

  • Stabilising sex drive, protects society from ‘free for alls’

  • Reproduction of offspring

  • Socialising

  • Meeting economic needs

Functional fit theory

• Parsons’ theory suggests that the functions of a family adapt to the society it i in

• Over the last two centuries, the family has shrunk from extended to nuclear, as the whole family was no longer needed to feed, educate and raise the children

  • This included grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents and children under one roof/ very close to each other

• Post-industrial society was non compatible with the nuclear society, because it was difficult to mobilise the extended family, and their functions were carried out by the state

• Despite their reduced functions, family are still incredibly important for these functions

Gender role socialisation

• Instrumental role: bread-winning disciplinarian

• Expressive: maternal homemaker

• According to Parsons, these roles help socialise children into their respective gender roles

Parsons’ warm bath theory

• The male breadwinner can be de-stressed by his family after a long day and be relaxed like a warm bath

• This de-stressing reduces conflict in wider society

6 positive functions of the nuclear family

• Stabilisation of the sex drive because of monogamy

• Emotional and psychological security, especially for men as bread-winners

• Caring for the elderly

• Assisting children with education

• Reproduction

• Primary socialisation

Marxist view on the ideological functions of family

• Marxists see family as responsible for transmitting caitalist ideas and normalising it

• The family socialises children into the idea that the household is built on a hierarchy, preparing them for the capitalist workplace

• Zaretsky (1979) disagreed with the idea that the family was supposed to provide psychological support to its members because all the members are exploited in a capitalist system

  • Men work in oppressive jobs, women do unpaid domestic labour, and they both reproduce the next generation of workers

Engels necessity of monogamy

• Pre-capitalism, tribal societies were classless and practised a form of primitive communism (no private property)

• These groups existed in a promiscuous horde until the emergence of capitalism in the 18th century, a system that relied on personal wealth for private ownership of businesses

• The bourgeois relied on the monogamous nuclear family to be able to pass down their estates through inheritance; this arrangement ultimately reproduces inequality

  • Women are then instruments of reproduction for male control

Keeping up with the Joneses

• Families are a market for consumer goods

• Children use pester power on their parents

• Children without the latest products are mocked/stigmatised by peers

Liberal feminists

• They believe that our changing society is gradually moving in a more equal direction for families but they aren’t there yet

  • Studies show an increase in male participation in domestic labour like Willmott and Young

• Policy changes like the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) not only reflected changing attitudes but also empowered women

• Oakley criticised Willmott and Young’s questionnaire study because it claimed that 72% of male respondents did housework when it was one chore a week

Radical feminists

• Family and marriage are two key patriarchal institutions where men benefit from unpaid domestic labour, sex, and domination enforced through domestic violence

  • Dobash² found that domestic violence is triggered when a husband’s authority feels threatened

• They believe that patriarchal society needs to be overturned and families must be abolished with separatism (men and women live independently)

  • Greer (20000 argued for matrilocal households as an alternative, where all adults are women

• Some radical feminists campaign for political lesbianism as hetero relationships are inherently oppressive

Marxist feminists

• Capitalism is rather the main cause of women’s oppression in the family not men

• Women literally reproduce the next generation of the workforce which are exploited in capitalist society

• Women have to absorb the frustration of the breadwinner

  • Ansley (1972) women are the takers of shit for their husbands

• Women are a reserve army of workers when extra workers are needed

  • In 1919 600k women were registered unemployed

Difference feminists

• Difference feminists don’t assume all women live in hetero nuclear households because it’s too generalised

  • People from varying ethnic backgrounds and sexualities have different experiences of family

  • feminists see family as a response to racism

• Other feminists criticise them for ignoring the shared negative experiences that women have like domestic violence, low pay, etc

Personal life perspective

• They acknowledge that family doesn’t have to be like the old traditional nuclear structure

  • Tipper (2011) showed that children vieewed oets to be a part of the family