topic three - theories of the fmaily

Key functionalist views

• Everything has a function in society and its positive

• Reproducing helps the economy (feds into capitalism )

  Eg: buying dummies, clothes etc

• Organic analogy

• Parsons

  Roles are biologically determined, stabilisation of adult personalities

• Top down; institutions impact individuals

Criticisms of parsons

• Parsons focuses on American middle class families and ignores ethnic diversity as well as diversity linked to social class and religion

• Parsons ignores alternatives to the nuclear family (such as communes) that could fulfill the 2 functions

Social mobility and geographical mobility

Social mobility: the movement of individuals, families households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society

Geographical mobility: the movement of people and goods over time

Murdocks view of the family

• Anthropology: the science of human beings

• Universal: relating to or done by all people or things in the world or in a particular group

• Secondary sources: research carried out by someone else for eg: books articles

Murdocks 4 functions

• Sexual: with the dame partner preventing the social disruption caused ny sexual ‘free for all’

• Reproductive: without which society could not continue

• Educational: into society’s shared Norma’s and values

• Economical: such as food and shelter

Family types in the uk

• Empty nest

• Symmetrical

• Lone parent

• Reconstituted

• Nuclear

• Beanpole

• Same sex

What does parsons believe?

Believed the nuclear family is dominant in society, as it performs two main functions:

• Warm bath theory

• Stabilisation of adult personalities

• Primary socialisation of children

Criticisms of Murdocks view of the family

• Other institutions could perform these functions such as educational or religion

• Marxists and feminists reject his rose tinted view

• Marxists argue family serves needs of capitalism

• Feminists see the family as men oppressing women

What are the two classes Marxists believe in?

• The bourgeoisie who own the means of production (factories, land etc)

• The proletariat who own only their labour which they sell to the bourgeoisie in return of a wage. The bourgeoisie exploit them by paying low wages in order to maximise their profits

Criticisms of the Marxist perspective

• Marxists tend to assume that the nuclear family is dominant in capitalist society. This ignores the wide variety of family structure found in society’s today

• Functionalists argue that Marxists ignore the real benefits that the family provides from its members

A unit of consumption

Capitalism exploits the labour of the workers making a profit by selling products of their labour from more than it pays them to produce these commodities

The family therefore plays a major role in generating profits for capitalists since it is an important market for the sale of consumer goods:

• The media target children, who use ‘pester power’ to persuade parents to spend more

• Children’s who lack the last clothes or ‘must haves’ gadgets are mocked by their peers

Inheritance of property

In engles view monogamy (married to one person) became essential because of the inheritance of private property men had to be certain of the paternity of their children in order to ensure that there legitimate heirs inherited from them

Ideological functions

Marxists argue that the family today also performs ideological functions for capitalism by ‘ideology’ Marxists mean a set of ideas or beliefs that justify inequality

One way in which the family does this is by socialising children into the idea that hierarchy and inequality are inevitable

Overview of feminism an feminists

• Women exploited by men for domestic labour

• Women’s ‘tasks’ eg cleaning are less intrinsically satisfying

• Oakley: men take on more of the continent roles

• Marden: dual burden + triple shift + emotional labour

• Boulton: childcare few husbands take on this role

Liberal feminist(march of progress) and criticisms

Today women have more power in the family decisions and domestic chores are share more equally

Today’s children are socialied into more equal gender roles

Divorce reform act: 1969

• Allowed to divorce if: unreasonable bar adultery separation women were now entitled to shared property from marriage to

  The equal pay act 1972

• Legally entitles women to same pay as men from same jobs

  Criticisms

• Lib feminists ignore a widespread gender discrimination patriarchal structures/ cultural society

Radical feminists and criticisms

• They believe society is patriarchal

• All men oppress women

• And all men benefit from the patriarchy

  Highly critical of the nuclear family:

• Primary place for children to learn patriarchal values

• Women perform unpaid domestic labour

  Abolish nuclear family by:

• Separatism

• political lesbianism

  Criticisms:

• March of progress - gender equality is improving

• Separatism and political lesbianism are unrealistic

What is seperatism?

A radical feminist idea that women should live independently of men as the only way to free themselves from the patriarchal oppression of the hetrosexual family