sociology families and households

• MURDOCK

 4 FUNCTIONS – RESS  Nuclear is universal

• Parsons

 2 functions – PS (Primary socialisation/ Stabilisation of adult personalities )  Warm bath theory – instrumental role / expressive role – relax at home  Geographical and social mobility – people moving for jobs – can achieve higher status and better jobs  Loss of functions – no longer does educate and provide healthcare – performs functions better now

• Bell and vogel

 Emotional scapegoats – children take on parents' frustration – keeps anger within the family keeping everything private

• Critiques of functionalism

 Feminist – reinforces patriarchy  Marxists – capitalist society – work place is stressful – warm bath is not good – reinforces exploitation  Personal life perspective – suggest that functionalism ignore new family types i.e. lone parent families  Lang – plp – can lead to schizophrenia to escape the conflict of the family  Leach – plp – overload in circuit – everything being overloading for the children

Marxism

Serves capitalism: sucs  S – socialisation  U- unpaid domestic work – women  C- consumption – buying things  Safety valve -allows workers to come home and relax after work

• Engels

 ‘primitive communism’ big communities’ – no nuclear family  After industrialisation monogamous nuclear family – ‘primogeniture’ – older son inherits the wealth – social reproduction of wealth – keep rich rich keep poor poor.

• Zaretsky

 Family is a haven against alienation gain ‘identity’ but not enough – false class consciousness  Family is a prop from capitalism (sucs)

• Althusser

 Family is about ideological state apparatus – maintains capitalism through ruling class ideologies being shared. – parents control kids illustrates boss controlling workers.

• Critiques of marxism

 Ignores gender inequality  Functionalism sees this as a positive thing to maintain social order

• 4 types of feminists (LRBM)

 Liberal  Radical  Marxist  Black/difference

• Liberal feminism

 Women’s oppression is overcome through changes in law and policy and changing attitudes.  March of progress view – sex discrimination act 1975 – equal pay act

• Wollstonecraft – L

 Should be equal with partner – should be entitled to education  Women exist in a ‘bird cage’ – can’t escape patriarchal society

• Marxist feminist

 Women’s oppression serves capitalism – a reserve army of cheap labour

• Oakley

 Dual burden – economically dependent of men  Due to this men have control – women lose control over freedom and may be victim to abuse  Women lose their identity when married – economic status is crucial to their oppression

• Beechey

 Women economically dependent  Workforce forces them to be economically dependent due to the pay gap – lower wages not enough to live off.

• Breugal

 Women are a reserve army of labour  Easy to hire and fire  Women’s unemployment is easily disguised by their duty of housework.

• Benston

 2 workers for the price of 1  Don’t need to pay for services at home as women do them i.e. cooking/cleaning this means the profit for capitalism is not reduced.

• Ansley

 ‘takers of shit’ – take on husbands frustration from work – product of alienation and exploitation.  Explains domestic violence.

• Radical feminism

 All societies are patriarchal.  Men are the ‘enemy’  Family and marriage always control women. – benefit from unpaid labour  Controlled through domestic violence  Solution – men and women should live separate lives – political lesbianism.

• Millet

 Men benefit personally from the exploitation of women.

• Rich

 Compulsory sexuality  Lesbianism is regarded as deviant or abnormal  Keeps men in power and being depended on

• Firestone

 Childbearing is a burden  New reproductive technology allows women to no longer depend on men

• Delphy and Leonard

 ’57 varieties of unpaid service’ – cooking cleaning etc  Women contribute more work to family  Women sometimes try and resist their partner but economical and social factors stop them from escaping the patriarchal system

• Difference feminism

 We cannot generalise women’s experiences because each are difference e.g LGBTQ+ , black women etc

• Amos and Parmar

 Black women have different experiences  Not only deal with sexism but racism too  A black women’s family may be a source of comfort and support

Personal life perspective

Micro perspective – individual experiences – looks at interaction – looks at meanings, individuals, thoughts and feelings

• Stacey

 Divorce- extended family – stays in contact with ex’s family  ‘Fictive kin’ – close friends treated as relatives

• Clarke

 Focus on how people feel about relationships  Looks at how it feels to be married  Marriage is different for different people  Focus on interactions, roles and meanings

• Nordqvist and smart

 Donor-conceived children  Some parents emphasised the importance of social relationships over genetic ones in forming bonds.  Comments made about physical attributes can cause issues with feelings  Questions about donor and whether or not they have a role in parenting the child.  Issues could arise as donors are treated as ‘real’ parents.

• Leach

 Nuclear family has become overloaded – family members expect too much of each other  The family is too isolated leading to conflict – privatisation leads to conflict.

• Laing

 Emotional distress – caused by constant demand for attention  If parents are fighting and child becomes distress could use schizophrenia to cope with the stress – entering a dream world .

• Fertility rate

 Total fertility rate is the average number of children women will have during their fertile years  Has risen but is lower than in the past  More women are remaining childless and having children later in life.  Influence on feminism – no need for children/ families

• Births

 Number of live births per 1000 of the population per year  Long term decline since the 1900s however there were exceptions for example the baby boom after the war

Reasons for the decline in birth rates

 Changes in women’s position  Legal equality with men  Increased educational opportunities  More women in paid employment  Changes in attitudes to family life and women’s role  Access to abortion and reliable contraception gives women more control over their bodies and fertility.  Harper – education of women is the most important reason as to why there is a decline in birth rates – led to changes in mindset as they have been able to get an education and chose what path in life they would like to go down – family planning.

 Decline in infant mortality rate

 Historically people had more children because they knew their children had less of a chance of life – high infant mortality rate.  Harper – due to decline in infant mortality rate there is also a decline in birth rates as people are having less children.

 Infant mortality rate declines due to?

o Improved housing and better sanitation o Better nutrition o Better knowledge of hygiene, child health n=and welfare o Fall in number of married women working improving their health and their child’s o Improved services for mothers and children.

 Children are now an economic liability

 Until late 19th century children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out to work.  Laws banning child labour and introducing schooling  Changing norms as people began to realise that children also have rights  As a result to new financial pressures many people aren’t so keen to have children or a larger family.

 Child centeredness

 Children have become a priority in the family and society  Encouraged a shift in family size from quantity to quality  Parents now have fewer children so can give more attention and resources on their few kids.

• Death rates

 Has declined  Tranter – this is due to the fall in infectious diseases, and increase in better health care.  Introduction of the NHS – raised living standards  McKeown – improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates.  Lifestyle changes – smoking less , health education, poverty declining , less overcrowded accommodation.  Cleaner water and a rise in standard living  The decline in manual occupations e.g. mining  Smaller families – less infection  Higher incomes

 Life expectancy

 The average age of population is rising – fewer young people more older people  However it is important to remember that there are factors which does affect this for example: age , gender and class. E.g. – people in Scotland live less that those in the south , women live longer than men.

• The aging population

 This is due to the increase in life expectancy and the decline in infant mortality rate and declining fertility.

 Affects of the ageing population

o Pressure on public services o More one person pensioner households o The dependency ratio o The social construction of ageing as a problem – ageism o Policy implications – pensions needing funding o Ageism – negative view of older people – discrimination in employment – unequal treatment in healthcare o Ways of thinking about older people is socially constructed o Structure dependency – excluded from work – no value to capitalism - marxism o Pilcher – inequalities among the old remain Women have a lower pension Sexist ageist stereotyping Emphasis on working class o Hirsch – social polices need to change in order to tackle new problems Financing a new period of old age Housing policies change Cultural change in attitudes Elderly make up majority of the vote (grey vote) – good for political parties if they help them

• Population

 General trends increase  Due to natural increase not immigration  Until 1980s more were emigrating  During the 1950s Irish made up majority of settlers but acts put severe restrictions on non-white immigrants.

• Emigration

 Until 1980s more people were emigrating  Push factors – leave country  Pull factor – move country  Economic reasons – push factor – not good employment , pull factor – better opportunities  Labour shortages  Assisted passage schemes – paying for costs of migration

• Internal migration

 Movement within the same country  Industrial revolution – people moves north  20th century people moved south due to increase in motorcar and electric industries  More recent people have moved to London and south east

• Immigration between 1994 – 2004

o Expansion of the EU to include 10 new states o For study or work o Emigrants from uk were older – retirement – Spain

• Dependency ratio

 Migrants are mainly working age – help easing dependency ratio  Immigrant women tend to have higher fertility rate – means more children , more dependency  The longer the immigrant group settle the closer the fertility rates settle to national average.

• Effects of immigration

 Size of population increases  Age of population decreases  Dependency ratio – working lowers dependency – more children leads to dependency.

• Globalisation

 Increases interconnectedness of society (media, travel etc)  Acceleration of migration – led to increase  Differentiation – increases in diversity in types of migrants – permanent, temporary, spouses, refugees, students etc.  Vertovec – super diversity – due to the different types of people from all around the world has led to a super diversity

• Feminisation of migration

 Ehrenreich and Hochschild – globalisation of the gendered division of labour -women are migrating more  Increased number of poor women

• Migrant identities

 Migrants may develop hybrid identities  Erikson – continual movement means some migrants do not belong completely to one culture of country. Leads to development of transnational “neither/nor” identities and loyalties

• Policies of migration

 Assimilation – first state policy and main aim to encourage migrants to speak the language and adopt the values and culture.  Castles: this policy isn’t great as it sees minority cultures as backwards and reject host cultures creating marginalisation (possibly terrorism)  Multiculturalism – accepts that migrants may wish to retain their separate culture identity  Eriksen – the government accepts only superficial aspects of diversity

• Shallow diversity – for example foods

• Deep diversity – accepting other aspects like veiling of women.

social policies

includes: any government interventions and laws

• drew

 discussed gender regimes  feministic gender regimes – policies based on traditional roles  individualistic gender regimes – policies promoting idea that husbands and wives should be treated the same.

• Feminism and social policy

• Assumes social policies favour patriarchal families • Policies assume males are breadwinners • Courts assume women should have custody of children • Firestone assumes policies are patriarchal • Policies reinforce patriarchy - Leonard • Example social policies:  Tax and benefits policy – needs to be access though male not wife  Childcare – school timetables don’t allow for both parents to work  Care for sick and elderly – women have to take time off work to care

• Marxism and social policy

• Maintains capitalism • Appear good but not – Althusser • E.g – low level of state pension – keep rich, rich and poor, poor • E.g - Free health care and pensions – not as good as it seems – given due to class struggles

• Functionalism and social policies

• Policies are positive as the family can focus on own roles not education and health care any more • Fletcher – introduction of NHS led to welfare state which aids the family in how it runs and perform its functions better. • Donxelot – critiques functionalism – policies are a form of state power and control over families.

• New right – thinkers who influence the conservatives – neo-liberal

• Want the family to have little influence in the family • New right don’t like policies like: • Increase in lone parent families • Increase in divorce rates • Increase in homosexual couples • Concerned as children are missing out on role models • - divorce act – undermines the idea of marriage as a lifelong commitment • Introduction of civil partnership and gay marriages as it undermines the nuclear family and changes the way of raising children. • 1993 child support agency • Enforces maintenance payments for children by absent parents • Reinforces the idea that new right want men in the family institution • Marriage tax breaks – taxes favour married people

• Charles Murray

 Believes in the underclass as people rely on benefits and don’t bother to work – acts as a reward system.  If fathers see that the government will support their children they are more likely abandon their responsibilities  Encourages teenage pregnancies  Growth of lone parents – boys grow up without a role model  Dependency culture relying on the government to help you instead of helping yourself.

• New labour

• Agree that the nuclear family is the best – but appreciate and support other diversities • Introduced new deal – helping single parents return to employment • Introduced civil partnerships – same sex family rights • Increased maternity leave – reinforces idea women’s role in childcare • Introduced paternity leave • Giving unmarried couples the right to adopt • Outlawing discrimination on grounds of sexuality