Sociology (Family/Childhood)

Domestic Division of Labour

Show few divisions between male & female roles

What does Talcott Parsons say about Traditional Nuclear Families? (Instrumental/Expressive Roles)

Husband has an instrumental role, geared towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for his family financially.

Wife has an expressive role, geared towards primary socialisation of the children & meeting the families emotional needs

What does Talcott Parsons argue about Division of Labour?

It’s based on biological differences, with women “naturally” suited to the nurturing role & men are the providers. He claims that Division of Labour is beneficial to both genders, to their children & to wider society. New Right also hold this view.

Conjugal roles

The roles played by a male and female partner in a marriage or cohabiting relationship

Integrated conjugal roles

Shows few divisions between male and female roles

Partners have a strong bond between each other & their roles are equal & democratic

Men & Women, both likely to be employed & they state responsibility for housework, shopping, cooking, childcare

Partners share common friends, leisure activities & decision making

Segregated conjugal roles

Shows a clear division and separation between male and female roles

Partners in a married relationship have clearly separated roles

Men take responsibility to bring money, heavier more technical jobs around the home, such as repairing equipment and doing DIY. Women are mainly housewives, with responsibility for housework, shopping, cooking, childcare; they’re unlikely to have full-paid employment.

Partners are less likely to have separate friends & different leisure activities.

The Symmetrical Family (Young & Will)

One in which the roles of husbands & wives, although not identical, are now much similar.

They see family life as gradually improving for all members, becoming more equal and democratic. They argue there’s been a long-term trend away from segregated conjugal roles & towards joint conjugal roles & the symmetrical family.

Women now go to work, although ts is part time than full time. Men help w/ housework & childcare. Couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately w/ workmates or female relatives.

They found it was more common in younger couples, those who’re geographically & socially isolated.

Ts is a result of major social changes: Changes in women’s position, Geographical mobility - more couples living away from communities in which they grew up, Higher standards of living. Interlinked Factors, married women bring second wage into the home raises the families standard of living. This means the couple can afford more labour-saving devices. Ts makes housework easier & encourages men to do more.

Criticisms of Parsons (Symmetrical Family) - Young & Willmott

Studied working class extended families in East London in 1950s & found a distinct pattern of Segregated Conjugal Roles. They argue that families are gradually becoming more of a “Partnership of Equals” = Symmetrical Family.

However, they argue that families are gradually becoming more of a “Partnership of Equals”. This has led to them coining the term: “The Symmetrical Family”

In 1973, Y&W published their ideas that families are slowly becoming more equal & democratic. They used the phrase “The March of Progress” to explain this shift.

Family has strong bonds between married or cohabitating partners and the relationship is more symmetrical (equal on both sides) - less patriarchal & male dom’d & much more equally balanced partnerships

Both partners share household chores, childcare & decision making, & both partners are more likely to be in paid work.

The New Man

More caring, emotional, sharing & sensitive in attitudes to women, children & his own emotional needs, & committed to his fair share of housework & childcare.

In what ways have women’s rights changed & what has the impact been?

Women’s Equal Pay Act: Women can bring 2nd wage = Higher standard of living, more symmetry, diff attitudes to women working.

Improved status & rights of women: Improvements to women’s pos may encourage men to acknowledge them as equals rather than as simply housewives & mothers.

How has paid employment improved women’s position in the family?

Most women in paid work grow their independence & authority in the family.

Gershuny: Women moved into paid employment, men begun to do more housework. Also, the women has her own income, she’s less dependent on her male partner. Decision-making is more likely to be shared.

What ways has commercialisation of housework encouraged men to do more?

Range of consumer goods to help ease the burden of housework; washing machines, hoovers, cleaning services.

Silver & Schor: Commercialisation has taken away some of the drudgery & time consuming aspects of housework meaning it’s easier & less time consuming

Consequences of inequality: Effects of Housework & Childcare on women’s careers

Surveys suggest that women are limited in the jobs they can do and the hours they can work, as they’re expected to take main responsibility for housework & childcare

This means that women often have little opportunity for career progression, have lower pay, less security of employment

Since men experience the opposite, this gives them more authority & power in the family

Browne: Pressures and Expectations for Women to take Multiple Roles = Women Careers suffer

Women are seen as unreliable by potential employers.

It is mainly women who sacrifice their careers for their families

Disrupted patterns of work means missed bonus & pay opportunities.

About 40% of women work part-time (9% men)

Families are more likely to move home to suit the male’s job.

March of Progress View (Are couples becoming more equal?)

This view argues that women going out to work leads t more equal division of labour at home. Mne are becoming more involved in housework & childcare just as women are becoming involved in paid work out the home.

Gershuny: Women working full leads to more equal division of labour in homes. Using time studies, he found that these women did less domestic work than older women.

Sullivan: Analysis of nationally representative data (1975,1987,1997); Trend towards women doing a smaller share of dom work & men doing more. Her analysis showed an increase in num of couples w/ an equal division of labour & that men were participating more in trad “women’s” tasks.

British Social Attitudes: Fall in number of people who think it’s the man’s job to earn money & women’s job to look after home and family. 1984, 43% agreed with ts. 2017, only 8%.

Feminist View (Are couples becoming more equal?)

Women going into paid work has not led to greater equality in the division of domestic labour. There’s little sign of the “new man” who does an equal share of housework & childcare, while women carry a dual burden.

British Social Attitudes Survey: 2012, men on avg = 8h housework/week & 10h on family, women on avg = 13h housework/week & 23h on family. There fore women did twice more, 60% of women felt it was unjust bc they were doing more than their fair share.

Survery also found that couples continue to divide household tasks along trad gender lines. e.g. women more likely to do laundry, care for sick family members and do cleaning whil men more likely to do small repairs around the house.

Criticism

Survery doesn’t measure qualitiative differences in the tasks men and women perform

Allan: Argues that women’s tasks such as washing & cleaning, are less intrinsically satisfying.

Taking Responsibility for Children (Are couples becoming more equal?)

Problem: Surveys often focus on easily quantifiable aspects (who performs tasks/ how much time on them) which tells us nthn abt who takes responsibility for ensuring that the tasks are done.

Boulton: Although fathers may help by performing specific childcare tasks, it’s usually the mother who takes responsibility for the child’s security & well-being.

Ferri & Smith: Fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families.

Dex & Ward: Although fathers had quite high leads of involvement w/ their 3 year olds (e.g. 78% played with their children) , when it came to covering to a sick child, only 1% of fathers took that responsibility

Stephen Edgell & Decision Making

Stephen Edgell: When it came to major purchases (where to live, which car to buy or where to go on holiday) it was the major wage earner of the household, the man, who made these decisions. Women were only allowed to make decisions on less important items (Food purchases & Children’s clothes)

Crompton and Lyonette’s explanation for Gender Divison of Labour (D.O.L)

Cultural/Ideological Explanation: D.O.L is determined by patriarchal N&V that shape gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour because that’s what society expects them to do

Material/Economical Explanation: The fact women generally earn less than men means it’s economically rational for women tod o more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money

Evidence for Cultural Explanation

Equality will be achieved when norms of gender roles change via changes in men & women’s attitudes, values & expectations, role models & socialisation.

Gershauny: Found couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves. This suggests parental role models are important. He argues social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are now working full-time, creating a new norm that men should do more domestic work.

Yee Kan: Found younger men do more domestic work. According to Future Foundation, most men claimed to do more ousework than their father & most women claimed to do less than their mother. This suggest a generational shift is occuring.

Evidence for Material Explanation

Sullivan: Shows that working full time rather than part time makes the biggest diff in terms of how much dom work each partner does

Kan: Found that every £10k/yr more a women earns = 2h less housework/weekly

Arber & Ginn: Found that MC women were able to buy in commercially produced products & services (labour saving devices, ready meals, domestic help) rater than having to spend time carrying out labour-intensive domestic tasks themselves

Money Management (Pahl & Vogyr’s Two types of control over family income)

Allowance System: Men give their wives an allowance out fo which they have to budget to meet family need, withthe man retaining any surplus income for himself.

Pooling: Were both partners have access to income & joint responsibility for expenditure; e.g. a joint bank account (Most common)

Meaning of Money

Pahl: Pooling money doesn’t mean equality.

Gotta know who who controls the pooled money, whether each partner contributes equally.

Vogler: Cohabiting couples were less likely to pool their money - desire to maintain independence. Evidence suggests that cohabiting couples are more likely than married couples to share domestic tasks equally.

Personal Life Perspective of Money

Focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money

From ts view, meanings money may have in relationships cant be taken for granted. e.g. We may assume one partner controlling money is a sign of inequality in the relationship, for some couples it may not mean this.

E.g. There’s evidence that same-sex couples often give a different meaning to the control of money in a relationship

Smart: Gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave ts to their partners. They didn’t see it as equality or inequality in the relationship.

Weeks et al: Typical pattern was pooling money for household spending, together with seperate accounts for personal spending. This money management system thus reflects a value of “co-independence” - where theres sharing, but where each partner retains control over some money & maintains independence.

Why does Domestic Violence not only have psychological causes?

Too widespread: Can’t be the work of a few disturbed individuals.

Women’s Aid Federation: DomVio accounts for between 1/6 & ¼ of all recorded violent crime

Crime Survery for England & Wales: 2M people reported having been victims of DomAbuse during the previous year (2012)

Does not occur randomly: Follows social patterns & these have social causes. Mainly violence by men against women.

Kathryn Colemen: Women were more likely than men to have experienced “intimate violence” across all 4 types of abuse - Partner, Fam abuse, SA & Stalking. ——- 2 Women/Weekly are killed by a partner or former partner

Abuse

Most victims of abuse are women.

Crime Survery for England & Wales: Estimates 7.3% of women (1.6m) had experienced DomAbuse in the previous year (2019), compared with 3.6& of men (750k). (Doesn’t tell abt frequency, severity or effects of abuse they suffer)

Ansara & Hindin: Found women suffered more severe violence & control, with more serious psychological effects. Also, women were much more likely than men to be fearful of their partners

Dar: Points out that it can also be difficult to count seperate DomVio incidents, since abuse may be continuous (e.g. Living under constant threat) or may occur so often the victim cant reliably count the instances.

Dobash & Dobash: Research in Scotland, based on police & court records & interviews w/ women in women refuges. They cite examples of wives being slapped, beaten, raped or killed by their husbands.

Dobash & Dobash: Found that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife asking why he’s late to home. They argue marriage legitmates violence against women by conferring power & authority on husbands & dependency on wives.

Official Statistics of Domestic Violence & Abuse

Understates true extent;

Victims may be unwilling to report to the police

Yearnshire: Found on avg a women suffers 35 assaults before making a report. DomVio is the violent crime least likely to be reported.

Dar: Victims of DomVio are less likely than victims of other forms of violence to report the offence because they believe that its not a matter for the police or that its too trivial, or from fear of reprisals.

Police & Prosecutors may be reluctant to record, investigate or prosecute those cases that are reported to them.

Cheal: This is because police & other state agencies aren’t prepared to become involved in the family. They make three assumptions. 1) Family is a priv sphere so access to it by state agencies should be limited. 2) Family is a good thing so agencies tend to neglect the “darker side” of family life.

Radical Feminist Explanation (Domestic Violence)

Interpret findings like Dobash & Dobash as evidence of patriarchy. E.g. Millet & Firestone argue that all societes have been founded on patriarchy. They see the key division in society as that between men & women. Men are the enemy: they’re the oppressors & exploiters of women.

See the family & marriage as key institutions in patriarchal society & source of women’s oppressions. Within fam, men dominate women through DomVio or the threat of it.

For them, Widespread DomVio is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society & serves to preserve power all men have over woman. This view helps explain reluctance of the police and courts to deal effectively w/ cases of DomVio.

Evaluation/Crticisms

Elliot: Rejects the idea all men benefit from violence against women. Not all men are aggressive & most are oppressed to DomVio. Rad Fem ignore this.

Fail to explain FemVio, including child abuse by women & violence against male partners & within lesbian relationships.

Use concept of patriarchal society but wrongly assume all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence. They explain why its women and not men who’re victims but fail to explain which women are likely to be victims.

Groups that are at higher risk of Domestic Violence

Office for National Statistics: Suggest women from some social groups face a greater risk of DomVio.

• Young women

• Those in lowest social class & living in most deprived areas.

• Those on low income or in financial difficulties

• Those living in shared and rented accomadation

• Those with long term illness or disability

Materialist Explanation (Domestic Violence)

Focuses on economic & material factors such as inequalities in income & housing to explain why some groups are more at risk than others

Wilkinson & Pickett: See DomVio such as result of stress on fam members caused by social inequality

Inequality means some families have fewer resources than others. Those on low incomes or living in overcrowded accomodation are likely to experience higher levels of stress = Reduces chances of keeping stable, caring relationships & increases risk of conflict & violence. E.g.

• Worries abt money, jobs & housing may spill over into dom conflict as tempers become frayed

• Lack of money & time restricts people’s social circle & reduces social support for those under stress.

Findings of Wilkinson & Pickett show that not all people are equally in danger of suffering DomVio: Those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at greatest risk.

Evaluation

Shows social inequality leads to stress & triggers conflict & Violence in families. Those in lower social classes face greater hardship = More stress, ts helps explain class differences in stats on DomVio.

Criticism: They don’t explain why women rather than men are the main victims.

What does Childhood being socially constructed mean?

Something created & defined by society.

Sociologists argue that what people mean by childhood, & the position children occupy in societym is not fixed but differs between different times, places & cultures.

Modern Western Notion Childhood

Special time of life & Children are fundamentally different from adults.

Children are physically & psychologically immature & not yet competent to run their own lives. There’s a belief children’s lack of skills, knowledge and exp means they need a protected period of nurturing & socialisation before they’re ready for adult society & its responsibilities.

Pilcher: Most important feature of modern idea of CH is separateness. CH is seen as a clear and distinct life stage and children in our society occupy a separate status from adults

^ > > Emphasised via what children are allowed, required or forbidden to do. Their difference from adults via clothing, products & services, toys, food, books, entertainments.

CH is a “golden age” of happiness & innocence. But, this means that children are seen as vulnerable & in need of protection from the dangers of the adult world & so they must be kept “quarantined” * separated from it.

Children today in West are defined as vulnerable & unable to fend for themselves.

Cross Cultural Differences in Childhood

Benedict: Children in simpler, non-industrial societies are generally treated diff from modern western counterparts in 3 ways:

• Take responsibility at an early age: Punch: Study in rural areas; Once children are about 5, they’re expected to take work responsibilities in the home and community. Tasks are taken w/o hesitation.

• Less value placed on children showing obedience to adult authority. Firth: Among Tikopia of Western Pacific, doing as you’re told by a grown up is regarded as concession to be granted by the child, not a right to be expected by the adult.

• Children’s sexual behaviour may be viewed differently: Malinowski: In Trobriand Islanders of the SW Pacific, adults took an attitude of “tolerance & amused interest” towards child’s sexual exploitations.

Benedict argues that in non-industrial cultures, there’s less dividing between behaviour expected of children and that expected of adults. Such evidences illustrates that CH isn’t fixed and not universally in the same form in all human societies but a socially constructed & so differs from culture to culture.

Globalisation of Western Childhood

International humanitarian & Welfare agencies have exported & imposed on the rest of the world, western norms of what CH should be - a separate life stage, based in nuclear fam & school, where children are innocent, dependent and vulnerable, and have no economic role.

Campaigns against child labour, or concerns about “street children” in developing countries, reflect western views about how CH “ought” to be - but - such activity by children may be the norm for their culture & important prep for adult life,

Criticism: Campaings have little impact on the position of children in developing countries.

Historical Difference in Childhood

Ariés: In the Middle Ages (10th-13th Century) the idea of Ch ain’t exist. Children weren’t seen as having a different “nature” or needs from adults - atleast, not once they’d passed the stage of physical dependency during infancy

In MidAges, CH as a separate age-stage was short. After being weaned, the child entered wider society on the same terms as an adult beginning work from an early age, often in household of another fam. Had the same duties & skills as adults. Law made no distinction between children and adults & children often suffered same punishments as those given to adults.

Shorter: High death rates encouraged indifference & neglect, especially to infants. E.g. it was not uncommon for parents to give a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling, to refer to the baby as “it”, or to forget how many children they had.

Modern Cult of Childhood (Ariés)

Ariés: Elements of modern notion of CH began to emerge from 13th century onwards

Schools came to specialise mainly in edu of yng. Ts reflected influence of the church, which increasingly saw children as fragile “creatures of God” in need of discipline & protections from worldly evils.

Growing distinction between children & adults’ clothing. By 17th century, a UC boy wuld be dressed in “an outfit reserved for his own age group”, which set him from adults

By 18th century, handsbooks on childrearing were widely available - a sign of growing child-centredness of family life, at least among the MC.

Ariés: These developments culminate in the modern “cult of ch”. Argues that we’ve moved from a world that didn’t see CH as special, to a world obsessed with CH. He describes the 20th century as “Century of the Child”.

Shows that CH is Socially constructed: Demonstrates how ideas about children & their social status have varied over time.

Crticism of Modern Cult of Childhood

Sociologists criticse Ariés for arguing that CH didn’t exist in the past.

Pollock: Argues it’s more correct to say that in the Middle Ages, society simply had a different notion of childhood from today’s

Reasons for Changes in the Position of Children

• Laws restricting child labour & excluding children from paid work; From being economic assets who could earn a wage, children became an economic liability, financially dependent on their parents

• Child Protection & Welfare legislation; 1889 Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act. Exactly a century later, 1989 Children Act made the welfare of the child the fundamental principle underpinning the work of agencies such as social services

• Laws & Policies that apply to Children; Minimum ages for activities, e.g. sex to smoking, have reinforced the idea that children are different from adults & so different rules must be applied to their behaviour

• Children’s development became the subject of subject knowledge; Donzelot: Observes how theories of child development that began to appear from the 19th century stressed that children need supervision and protection.

Information Hierarchy (The Future of Childhood) / Childhood is disappearing

Postman: Childhood emerged as seperate status along w/ mass literacy, 19th cent on. This is cuz the printed word creates an info hierarchy: A sharp division between adutls, who can read, & children, who cannot.

Ts gave adults the power to keep knowledge about sex, money, violence, illness, death & other “adult” matters a secret from children. These were mysterious to them, and CH came to be associated with innocence and ignorance.

However, television blurs the distinction between CH and AH by destroying the Info Hierarchy. Unlike the printed word, TV doesn’t require special skills to access it, & it makes info available to adults and kids alike, The boundary between adult & child is broken down, adult authority diminishes, & ignorance & innocence of childhood is replaced by knowledge & cynicism.

The counterpart of the disappearance of CH is the disappearance of AH, where adults & children’s tastes & styles become indistinguishable.

Crticism of Disappearance of Childhood (Iona Opie)

Opie: CH isn’t disappearing. Based on a lifetime of research into children’s supervised games, rhymes and songs (shows legitimacy/validity) conducted w/ her husband. She argues there’s strong evidence of the continued existence of a seperate children’s culture over many years.

Postman over-emphasises a single cause - television - at the expense of other factors that have influenced the development of childhood

Childhood in Postermodernity (The Future of Childhood)

Jenks: CH isn’t disappearing it’s changing. Agrees with Ariés that CH was a creation of modern society. Modern Society was concerned with “futurity” and CH was seen as prep for an individual to become a productive adult in the future. To achieve ts the vulnerable, underdev’d child needed to be nurtured, protected and controlled, especially by the “child-centred” family & by the edu system, which imposed discipline & conformity on children.

Now, Jenks argues, CH is undergoing changes as society moves from modernity to postmodernity. In modern society, adults’ relationships were more stable, but in postmodern societym the oplace of change speeds up & relationships become more unstable for example, divorce becomes more common.

Ts generates feelings of insecurity. In ts context, relationships w/ their children become more important is a source of adults’ identity & stability. While your marriage may end in divorce, you’re still the parent of ur child.

In postmodern society, relationships with their children thus become adults’ last refuge from the constant uncertainty & upheaval of life. As a result, adults become even more fearful for their children’s security & even more preoccupied w/ protecting them from perceived dangers such as child abuse.

Further strengthens the prevailing view of children as vulnerable and in need of protection, resulting in even greater surveillance & regulation of children’s lives.

For this, He doesn’t agree w/ Postman that we’re seeing the disappearance of childhood. Childhood continues to be a seperate status, & the legal & other restrictions placed on what children can do continues to mark them off from adults.

Criticism of Jenks’ Childhood in Postmodernity

Evidence for & against are limited. There’s some evidence that parents see their relationship with their children as more significant than with their partners & that parents are very concerned about the risks they believe their children face. However, the evidence comes from small, unrepresentative studies.

Guilty of over-generalising. Despite the greater diversity of family and CH patterns found today (such as lone-parent families, stepfamilies etc), he makes statements that imply all children are in the same position.

March of Progress view (Has the position of children improved?) Page 183

Argues that the pos of kids in west societies have been steadily improving & its better than its ever been.

Aries & Shorter hold ts view. They argue today’s kids are more valued, protected & educated, enjoy better health and more rights than past gens. Kids today are protected from harm & exploitation by laws against child abuse (CAPTA) & child labour, while lots of professionals & specialists cater for their edu, psychological & med needs. Government spends huge sums on their education. Better healthcare & higher standards of living also mean that babies have a better chance of survival now than 100 yrs ago. 1900: Infant Mortality Rate was 154 per 1k live births; today it is 4 per 1k

Child-Centred Family (MOP View/Has position of children improved?)

Higher Living Standards & Smaller Fam sizes ( 5.7 births per woman in 1860s, 1.83 in 2014) also mean parents can afford to provide for children’s needs properly.

MOP Sociologists argue that the fam has become child-centred. Children aren’t to be “seen & not be heard” like in Victorian times. They’re now the focal point of the family, consulted on many decisions as never before. Parents invest alot in their children emotionally and financially, & have high aspirations for them to have a better life and greater opportunities than they themselves had.

Society as a whole is child-centred. Example: Media Output & leisure activities are targetted to kids.

Toxic Childhood (Against MOP View/Has Position of Children improved?)

Sue Palmer: Rapid tech & cultural changes in the past 25 yrs have damaged children’s physical, emotional & intellectual development. Changes: Junk food, computer games & intense marketing to kids, long hours worked by parents.

Concerns have been expressed about yng ppl’s health and behaviour. E.g. UK YTH hhave above avg rates in international league tables for obesity, self-harm, drug & alcohol abuse, violence, early sexual experience & teen pregnancies.

UNICEF Survey 2013: Ranked UK 16th out of 29 for children’s well being.

The Conflict View (Has the position of children improved?)

(Marxists & Feminists): Society is based on a conflict between diff social groups such as social classes or genders. In ts conflict, some groups have more power, status or wealth. They see the relationship between groups as one of domination & subordination, in which the dominant group act as oppressors.

Conflict Sociologists argue that the MOP view of Modern Childhood is based on a false & idealised image that ignores important inequalities.

• Inequalities among children in opportunities & risks they face: many remain unprotected & badly cared for

• Inequalities between children & adults are greater than ever: children today experience greater control, oppression & dependency, not greater care & protection

Inequalities among children (Conflict View/Has position of Children Improved)

Not all children share the same status or experience. Children of diff nationalities are likely to experience different childhoods & diff life chances. 90% of the world’s low birth-weight babies are born in developing countries.

There are also gender differences.

Hillman: Boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark accompanied

Bonke: Girls do more domestic labour - especially in lone parent families where they do 5x more housework than boys.

There are also ethnic differences.

Julia Brannen: Study of 15/16 y/o; Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict towards their daughters

Thus we can’t speak of children in general as if they’re equal - social class, gender & ethnic differences affect their life chances.

Inequalities between children & adults (Conflict View/ Has the Position of Children Improved)

MOP argue adults use this power for the benefit & protection of children like laws against child labour

However,

Firestone & Holt: Many things that MOP writers see as care & protection are in fact just new forms of oppression & control. Firestone argues that “protection” from paid work isn’t a benefit to children but a form of inequality. It’s a way of forcibly segregating children, making them more dependent, powerless & subject to adult control than previously.

These critics see the need to free children from adult control & so their view is described as child liberationism.

List of ways adult’s control children

• Neglect & Abuse; ChildLine receives 20k calls/Yr from children saying they’ve been sexually or physically abused = Indicate a dark side to the family

• Control over Children’s Space; Children being told to play in some areas & forbidden in others. 1971, 86% kids travelled unaccomponied from home to school. 2013, 12%.

• Control over Children’s Time; When they get up, eat, go to school.

• Control over Children’s bodies; What they wear, hairstyles. piercings.

Age Patriarchy (Conflict View/Has Position of Children improved)

Gittins uses this term to describe the inequalities between adults & childrens.

Gittins: There’s age patriarchy of adult domination & child dependency. Patriarchy = “Rule by the father”. The term “family” referred originally to the power of the male head over all other members of the household including children & servants aswell as women.

Today, it asserts itself in the form of violence against both children & women.

Humphreys & Thiara: ¼ of 200 women in their study left their abusing partner because they feared for their children’s lives. This supports Gittins’ view that patriarchy oppresses children aswell as women.

Evidence that children may experience CH as oppressive comes from strats that they use to resist the status of child & restrictions that go with it.

Hockey & James: Describe one strat as “Acting up” - acting like adults by doing things that children aren’t meant to (Swearing, smoking, alcohol). Exaggerating their age too.

“Acting down” - Behaving in ways expected of younger children (Reverting to baby talk or insisting on being carried). Hockey and James conclude that Modern CH is a status that most children want to escape

Critics of the Liberationist view argue that some adult control over children’s lives is justified since children can’t make rational decisions & so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves.

Critics also argue that, although children remain under adult supervision, they’re not as powerless as child liberationists claim.

1989 Children Act & UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Estiables principle that children have legal rights to be protected & consutled.

New Sociology of Childhood

This view doesn’t see children as “adults in the making” but as active agents who plays a major part in creating their own childhoods.

Child’s POV

Smart: This approach aims to include the views and experiences of children themselves while they’re living through CH.

Mason & Tipper: Show how children actively create their own definitions of who ain’t “family” - which may include people who are not “proper” aunts or grandfathers etc, but who they regard as “close”

Smart et al: Study of divorce found that, far from being passive victims, childrens were actively involved in trying to make the situation better for everyone.

Studies used research meths such as informal, unstructured interviews which empower children to express their own views & allow researchers to see the world from the child’s POV.

This enables sociologists to explore diverse, multiple CHs that exist even within a single society. E.g. Smart notes there are “disabled, chinese, girls’, adopted, poor childhoods & so on”

Because it allows children to express their POV, the new sociology of CH also draws attention to the fact that children often lack power in relation to adutls. As such, it’s an approach favoured by child liberationists who campaign in favour of chidlren’s rights and priorities.

Functionalist Perspective on Family

Functionalists believe society is based on value consensus - set of shared N&V - in which society socialises it's members. Ts enables them to cooperate to meet society’s need and achieve shared goals. They regard society as a system made up of sub-systems that depend on each other. They often compare society to biological organism like the human body (Heart/Lungs perform functions vital to well-being of the body as a whole, so the family meets some of society’s essential needs such as the need to socialise children.

They see family as an important sub-system.

Murdock: Family performs 4 necessary functions to meet the needs of society & it’s members:

• Stable satisfaction of the sex drive w/ the same partner, preventing the social disruption caused by a sexual FFA

• Reproduction of the next generation, w/o which society couldn’t continue

• Socialisation of the young into society’s shared N&V

• Meeting its members’ economic needs, such as food & shelter

Criticisms of Murdock/Functionalist Perspective on the Family

Murdock accepts other institutions could do these function but he argues that the practicality of the nuclear fam as a way of meeting these 4 needs explains why it’s universal - found in all human societies w/o exception.

However other sociologists argue they could be performed equally well by other institutions or by non-nuclear fams.

Marxist & Feminists reject his harmonious consensus view that the fam meets the needs of both wider society and all the diff members of the fam. They argue functionalism neglects conflict & exploitation

Feminists see family as serving needs of men & oppressing women

Marxists argue that it meets needs of capitalism, not those of fam members or society as a whole.

Parsons’ “functional fit” theory

Family also performs welfare, military, political or religious functions.

Parsons: The particular structure & functions of a given type of family will “fit” the needs of the society in which it’s found.

There’s 2 types of society - modern industrial society & traditional pre-industrial society. He argues the nuclear family fits the needs of industrial society & is the dom fam type in that society, while the extended family fits the needs of pre-industrial society.

In his view, when Britain began to industrialise, from late 1700s, the extended fam began to give way to the nuclear. This was due to the emerging industrial society had diff needs from pre-industrial society, & the fam had to adapt to meet these needs. Parsons sees industrial society as having 2 essential needs:
A Geographically Mobile Workforce

A Socially mobile Work Force

Geographically Mobile Workforce (Parsons; “functional fit” theory)

In trad pre-industrial society, ppl often spent their entire lives living in the same village, working on the same farm. In contrast, modern society industries constantly spring up & decline in diff parts of the country even diff parts of the world, & this requires people to move to where the jobs are.

Parsons argues it’s easier for the compact 2-gen nuclear fam to move than the three-gen extended fam. The nuclear fam is better fitted to the need that modern industry has for a geographically mobile workforce

Socially Mobile Workforce (Parsons; “functional fit” theory)

Modern industrial society = Based on constant evolving sci & tech so it needs a skilled technically competent workforce. Therefore, essential that talented people are able to win promotion & take on the most important jobs.

In Modern Society, Individual’s status is achieved by their own efforts & ability, not ascribed by social & fam bg, & ts makes social mobility possible. E.g. Son of Labourer can become a doctor/lawyer thru hard work.

For this reason, Parson argues, the nucler family is better equipped to meet needs of industrial society. In extended fams, adult sons live at home in their father’s house - where the father has a higher ascribed status as head of household. However at work, the son may have a higher achieved status (more important job) than his father which gave rise to tensions & conflict if they’re under the same roof.

Solution: Adult sons leave home when married & form personal nuclear families. The nuclear family will encourage social + geographical mobility.

Marxist Perspective on Family

Capitalist society as based on unequal conflict between 2 social classes:

Capitalist Class: Owns means of production

Working Class: Whose labour the capitalists exploit for profit.

Family helps maintain calss inequality & Capitalism

Ideological Functions (Marxist Perspective on Family)

Family performs ideological functions for capitalism.

Ideology = Set of ideas or beliefs that justify inequality & maintain the capitalist system by persuading people to accept ias as fair, natural or unchangeable

Family does this by socialising children in the idea that hierachy & inequality are inevitable. Parental power over children accustoms them to the idea that there’s always one someone in charge (usually men) & this prepares them for a working life in which they’ll accept orders from capitalist employers.

Zaretsky: Family also performs an ideological function by offering an apparent “haven” from the harsh & exploitative world of capitalism outside, in which workers can “be themselves” and have a private life.

However Zaretsky argues this is largely an illusion - the fam can’t meet its member’s needs for example, it’s based on the domestic servitude of women.

A Unit of Consumption (Marxist Perspective on Family)

Capitalism exploits labour of the workers, making a profit by selling products of their labour for more than it pays them to produce these commodities. So the family plays a major role in generating profits for capitalists, since it’s an important market for the sale of consumer goods.

• Advertisers urge families “to keep up with the jonesies” by consuming all latest products.

• Media targets children, who user “pester power” to persuade parents to spend more

• Children who lack the latests clothes or “must have” gadgets are mocked & stigmatised by peers

Criticism of Marxist Perspective on Family

Marxists tend to assume the nuclear family is dominant in capitilist society. This ignores the wide variety of family structures found in society today.

Functionalists argue that Marxists ignore the very real benefits that the family provides for its members (economic support, primary socialisation of children)

Feminists argue that the Marxist emphasis on class & capitalism underestimates the importance of gender inequalities within the family.

Feminist Perspective on the Family

They argue it oppresses women. They focus on unequal division of dom labour & dom violence against women. They don’t regard gender inequality as natural or inevitable but as something created by society.

Liberal Feminism (Feminist Perspective on the Family)

Want to campaign against sex discrimination & equal rights & opportunities for women (equal pay, end to discrimination in employment)
Argue women’s oppression is being overcome thru changing ppl’s attitudes & thru changes in law (e.g. Sex Disrcrim Act 1975) which outlaws discrimination in employment

Believe we’re moving to greater equality, but that’ll depend on further reforms, attitude changes & socialisation patterns of genders.

Family View: Similar view to MOP. Don’t believe full gender equality is achieved yet, they argue its been gradually progressing.

E.g. Some Studies suggest men are doing more dom labour, while parents socialise their sons and daughters more equally than in the past & they now have similar aspirations for them.

Criticism: They fail to challenge underlying causes of womens’s oppression & for believing changes in law or ppl’s attitudes will be enough to bring equality. Marxist & Rad fems believe instead that far reaching changes & deep rooted social structures are needed.

Marxist Feminism (Feminist Perspective on the Family)

Argue main cause of women oppression is capitalism.

Women oppression perform functions for capitalism:

Women produce labour force via unpaid domestic labour, by socialist the next gen of workers and maintaing & servicing the current one.

Women absorb anger that'd otherwise be directed at capitalism. Ansley: Wives are “takers of [S word]” who soak up the furstration their husbands feel bc of alienation & exploitation they suffer at work. For Marxists ts explains male dom vio against women.

Women are a reserve army of cheap labour that can be taken on when extra workers are needed. When no longer needed, employers and “let them go” to return to their primary role as unpaid dom labour.

See women oppression linked to exploitation of the working class.

Argue fam must be abolished co-currently as socialist revolution replaces capitalism with a classless society.

Radical Feminism (Feminist Perspective on the Family)

Argue all socies are founded on patriarchy. Main division in society is men & women

Men are the enemy: They’re the source of women’s oppression & exploitation

Family & Marriage are key institutions in patriachal society. Men benefit from women’s unpaid dom labour & sexual services, they dom women thru domestic & sexual violence or the threat.

The patriarchal system needs to be overturned. Family must be abolished. They argue the only way to achieve ts is via separatism - women must organise themselves to live independently of men.

Greer: Creation of all-fem or “matrilocal” households as an alt to the hetero fam.

Somerville: RadFem fails to see women’s position has improved alot - w. better access to divorce, better job opportunities & the ability to choose whether to marry or cohabit. She also argues hetero attraction makes it unlikely that separatism would work.

Difference Feminism

Argue we can’t generalise abt women’s experiences.

Argue les/hetero, B/W women, MC & WC have very diff experiences of the family from one another.

—> By regarding the fam as purely neg , White Fem neglect Balck women’s exp of radical oppression. Instead, Black feminists view the black fam positively as a source of support & resistance against racism.

However other feminists argue that difference feminism neglects the fact that all women share many of the same experiences. For example, they all face a risk of DomVio & SA, low pay and so forth.

Personal Life Perspective on the Family (PAGE 194 & PAGE 195)

Influenced by interactionist ideas & argues to understand fams, we must start from teh POV of individuals concerned & the meanings they give to their relationships.

Takes a wider view of relationships than just trad fam relationships based on blood or marriage ties. E.g. a women who may not feel close to her sister & may be unwilling to help her in a crisis, may simultaneously be willing to care for someone whom she ain’t related tom such as an elderly woman who cohabited with her late father. W/o knowing the meanings she puts on these relationships, we wouldn’t be able to understand how she might act. By focusing on meaning’s this perspective draws attention to a range of personal or intimate relationships that singles see as significant and that gives them a sense of identity, belongness or relatedness such as

Relationship types within the Personal Life Perspective

Relationships w/ friends: Who may be “like a sister or brother” to you

Fictive Kin: Close friends who’re treated as relatives, e.g. Your mum’s best friend who you call “auntie”

Relationships with dead relatives: Who live onin people’s memories & continue to shape their identities & affect their actions.

Donor-Conceived Children (Personal Life Perspective)

Nordqvist & Smart: Found issue of blood & genes raised a range of feelings. Some parents emphasised the importance of social relationships over genetic ones ini forming family bonds. E.g. Erin, Mother of mother of egg donor conceived child, defined being a mum in terms of time & effort she put into raising her daughter: “That’s what makes a mother & not the cell that starts it off.”

Birth Rate

Number of live births per thousand of the population per year

2 baby booms from the First & Second WW

Total Fertility Rate

Average number of children women will have during their fertile years.

During the baby boom 1960s it reached 2.93 children per women in 1964

Changes in fertility & birth rates reflect the fact that:

More women are remaining children than in the past

Women are postponing having children: avg for giving birth is now 31 years, & fertility rates for women in their 40s are on the increase. But older women may be less fertile & they have fewer fertile years remaining, & so hey produce fewer children.

Reasons for the decline in the birth rate: Changes in Women’s Position

20th century changes:

• Increased educational opportunities - girls now do better at school than boys

• More women in paid employment, plus laws outlawing unequal pay & sex discrimination

• Easier access to divorce

• Access to abortion & reliable contraception, giving women more control over their fertility.

Harper: Edu of women is the most important reason for the long-term fall in birth & fertility rates. It’s lead to a change in mindset among woman, resulting in fewer children. Not only are edu women more likely to use fam planning, they now see other possibilities in life apart from the trad role of housewife & mother. Many choosing to delay childbearing tot pursue a career. E.g. In 2019, almost 1/5 women aged 45 was childless.

She also notes once a pattern of low fertility lasts for more than one gen, cultural norms abt fam size change. Smaller fams become the norm & large ones come to be seen as deviant or less acceptable.

Reasons for the decline in the birth rate: Decline in Infant Mortality Rate

IMR measures num of infants who die before their 1st birthday per 1k babies born alive per yr.

Harper: Fall in IMR = Fall in birth rate because if many infats die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost, thereby increasing the birth rate. By contrast if infants survive parents wil have fewer.

1st half of 20th cent UK IMR began to fall due to these reasons:

• Improved housing & better sanitation: such as flush toilets, clean drinking water & reduced infection disease. Infants are more suspectible to infection cuz of their less developed immune system.

• Better nutrition, including that of mothers.

• Better knowledge of hygiene, child health & welfare, often spread via women’s magazines.

• A fall in the num of married women working may have improved their health & that of their babies.

After 1950s medical factors played greater role. Mass immunisation against CH diseases such as coughs & measles & use of antibiotics to fight infection. All contributed to fall in IMR. Due to this, by 1950 the UK’s IMR had fallen to 30 & by 2019 it stood at 4.6.

Reasons for the decline in the birth rate: Children are now an economic liability

Until late 19th cent, children were economic assents to their parents since they could be sent out to work from an early age to earn an income. Since late 19th cent, they’ve become more of an economic liability

Laws banning child labour, starting compulsory schooling & raising school leaving age mean children remain economically dependent on their parents for longer.

Changing norms abt what children have a right to expect from their parents in mat terms mean that the cost if bringing up children has risen.

Cuz of these financial pressures, parents feel less able to have a large fam.

Dependency Ratio (Effects of Changes in Fertility)

Relationship between the size of the working part of the population and the size of non working part of the population. Earnings, savings & taxes of working pop must support the dependent pop. Children make up a large part of the dependent pop, so a fall in the num of children reduces the “burden of dependency” on the working pop”

Vanishing Children: Falling fertility rates means fewer children. As a result CH may be lonelier as fewer children will have siblings, & more childless adults may mean fewer voices speaking uop in support of children’s interests. Fewer children = More valued.

The Family (Effects of Changes in Fertility)

Smaller families mean that women are more likely to be free to go out to work, thus creating the dual earner couple. Better off couples may be able to have larger fams and still afford childcare that allows them both to work full time.

Improved Nutrition (Decline in Death Rate)

Medical Improvements (Decline in Death Rate)

Tranter: 3/4> decline in death rate from 1850-1970 was due to a fall in num of deaths from infectious diseases such as measles, smallpox & tubercolosis. Deaths from infectious disease were commonest in the yng.

Before 1950s, med improvements played ~0 in reduction of deaths from infectious disease.

After 1950s, improved med knowledge, tech & organisation assisted to reduce death rates. Advances: intro of antibiotices, immunisation & improved maternity services, as well as setting up Natinal Health Service in 1948. Improved med, by-pass surgery & other developments have reduced deaths from heart disease by 1/3.

Public Health Measures (Decline in Death Rate)

20th Century, more productive central & local government with power to pass laws led to a range of improvements in pub health & quality of environment.

Improvements in housing (better ventilated, less overcrowded accomodation), purer drinking water, pasteurisation of milk & improved sewage disposal methods.

Clean Air acts reduced air pollution such as the smog that led to 4000 deaths in 5 days in 1952.

Smoking & Diet (Decline in Death Rate)

Harper: Greatest fall in death rates in recent decades is from reduction of people smoking. However in 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. E.g. 2012, ¼ UK adults were obese.

Although obesity has increased dramatically, deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies.

Harper suggests we may be moving to an “American” health culture where lifestyles are unhealthy but where a long lifespan is achieved by use of costly medication.

Ageing Population

Age of UK POP is rising. 1971: 34.1 yrs 2020: 40.4 yrs There’s fewer young & more old.

Age pyramids showcase how older age groups are growing as a proportion of the population

Hirsch: Trag age “pyramid” is disappearing & being replaced by more or less equal-sized blocks representing diff age groups.

Hows it casued:

• Increasing Life Expectancy

• Declining Infant Mortality

• Declining Fertility

One-Person Pensioner Households (Effects of an Ageing Population)

Num of pensions living alone ^ & these households now account for 15% of all households. Most are female, bc women live longer than men & bc they’re usually younger than their households.

Among over 75s. there are 2x as many women as men. This has eben described as “feminisation of late life”

The Dependency Ratio (Effects of Ageing Population)

Non working old are an economically dependent group who need 2b provided for by those of working age, e.g through taxation to pay for pensions & health care.

Num of retired increased = Dependency ratio & burden on working ppl increase. 2022, 3.5 pl of working age for every one pensioner. Ts ratio predicted to fall to 2.7

Wrong to assume “old” = Economically dependent. E.g. 2020, the age at which men & women could draw their state pension rose from 65 to 66, & it’ll rise further to 67 in 2026 & 68 in 2037.

Ageism

Consequence of Ageing Population = Growth of Ageism

Negative sterotypes & unequal treatment of people oon the basis of their age. Ageism towards older people could be discrimination in employment & unequal treatment in health care.

Modern Society & Old Age

Ageism is the result of “Structured Dependency” Old are largely excluded from paid work, leaving them economically dependent on families or the state. In modern society our identity & status is largely determined by role in production. Those excluded by compulsory retirement have a dependent status & stigmatised identity.

Marxist Perspective: Philipson: Argues Old ppl are 0 use to capitalism because they’re no longer productive. As a result the state is unwilling to support them adequately so the fam, mainly fem relatives, often has to take responsibility for their care

Postmodern Society & Old Age

Postmodern Sociologists argue that in today’s postmodern society, the fixed, orderly stages of the lfie course have broken down.E.g. trends such as chidlren dressing in adult styles, later marriage and early retirement all began to blur the boundaries between the life stages. Ts gives individuals a greater choice of lifestyle, whatever their age.

Unlike in modern society, consumption becomes key to our identities. We can now define ourselves by what we consume.

Hunt: This means we can choose a lifestyle & identity regardless of age: aage no longer determines who we are or how we live.

As a result, the old become a market for a vast range of “body maintenance” or “rejuvenation” goods & services through which they can create their identities. Includes: Cosmetic surgery, Exercise equipment & anti-aging products. These trends break down aageist stereotypes found in modern society.

Inequality among old

Class: MC have better occupational pensions and greater savings from higher salaries. Poorer old people have a shorter life expectancy & suffer more infirmity

Gender: Women’s lower earnings & career breaks as careers mean lower pensions. They also subject to sexist as well as ageist stereotyping, for example being described as “old hags".

Impact of Migration on UK Population Structure

Net population to Uk estimated to be 270k in 2019 down from a peak of 331k in 2015. Net migration of EU citizens fell sharply after Brexit referendum in 2016, 133k to 49k

Natural increase in births exceeding deaths. However births to UK born mothers remain low. Births to Non-UK born mothers are higher and account for about 28% of all births. If not for net migration, The UK’s population would be shrinking.

Globalisation

The idea that barriers between societies are disappearing and people are becoming increasingly interconnected across national boundaries.

Growth of communication systems & Global Media, Creation of Global Markets, Increased international migration.

Changes in the Law (Reasons in Increase of Divorce)

• Legal changes have made divorce easier, quicker and cheaper to obtain

• In 1971, the Divorce Reform Act (1969) was implemented in England and Wales, allowing for the use of "irretrievable breakdown of marriage" as a basis for divorce in situations involving adultery, desertion, separation, or unreasonable behaviour

• Before a divorce could be requested, the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1973 required a marriage to last for three years; however, legislation in 1984 shortened this period to one year

• When legal aid became available, getting a divorce was less expensive up until 2013, when changes to legal aid funding limited availability

Secularisation (Reasons in Increase of Divorce)

Definition: Decline in influence of religion in society.

Religious insitutions & ideas are losing influence & society is becoming more secular. Church attendance rates declining. Trad opposition of churches to divorce carries less weight in society & people are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions about eprsonal matters such as whether to or not file a divorce.

Women’s Increased Financial Independence (Reasons in Increase of Divorce)

Women’s economic pos have made them less dependent on their husband and therefore more free to end unsatisfactory marriage.

Women today are more likely to be in paid work. Women working rose from 53%in 1971 to 72% in 2020.

Girl’s greater success in education now helps them achieve better paid jobs than previous gens.

Availability of welfare benefits means that women no longer have to remain financially dependent on their husbands.

Feminist Explanations (Reasons in Increase of Divorce)

Feminists argue married women today bear a dual burden: They’re req’d to take on paid work in additions to doing domestic labour. In their view, ts has created a new source of conflict between husbands and wives > Leads to higher divorce rate than in past.

Although improvements in women’s position in employment, edu, politics etc, feminists argue in the private sphere of family and personal relationships, change has been limited & slow. They argue marriage remains patriarchal, w/ men benefitting from their wives “triple shift” of paid, domestic & emotional work.

Hochschild: For many women, home compares unfavourably w/ work. At work, women feel valued. At home, men’s continuing resistance to doing housework is a source of frustration & makes marriage less stable. Also, both partners going to work leaves less time & energy for emotion work needed to adress the problems that arise.

Sigle-Rushton: Mothers who have a dual burden r more likely to divorce than non working mothers in marriages with a trad division of labour. But where the husband of a working wife is actively involved in housework, the divorce rate is the same as for couples with a trad divisiion of labour

Cooke & Gash: Found no evidence of working women more likely to divorce. Argue this is because working has now become the accepted norm for married women.

What do different groups see high divorce rate as?

New right: Undesirable > Undermines marriage & Trad Nuclear fam (Vital to social stability).

Feminists: Desirable > Shows women breaking free from oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family

Postmodernists & Individualisations: Shows individuals now have freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs. They see it as a major cause of greater family diversity.

Important Changes to Marriage

Fewer are marrying: Marriage rates at their lowest. 2018 - 155k first marriages for both partners. Less than half the number for 1972.

More re-marriages. 2018 - 1/3 of all marriages were re-marriages for one or both partners.

People are marrying later: Avg age of first marriage rose by 7 yrs between 1978 & 2018, when it stood at 32 yrs for men & 30 for woman.

Couples less likely to marry in church. 1970 - 60% of weddings were conducted w/ religious ceremonies, but by 2018 ts had fallen to 20%.

Secularisation (Changes in Pattern of Marriage)

All religions favour marriages, but as their influence declines people feel freer to choose not to marry. E.g. only 3% of yng ppl w/ no religion were married, as against up to 17 of those w/ a religion.

Declining stigma attached to alts to marriage (Changes in Pattern of Marriage)

Cohabitation, remaining single & having children outside marriage are all widely regarded as acceptable, so that pregnancy no longer leads auto to marriage. 1989 - 70% believed that couples who want children should get married but by 2012 only 42% thought so.

Changes in Position of Women (Changes in Pattern of Marriage)

Better education & career prospects, many women are now less economically dependent on men. This gives them greater freedom not to many. The fem view that marriage is as oppressive patriarchal institution ma also dissuade some women from marrying

Cohabitation

An unmarried couple in a seuxal relationship living together. While the number of marriages has been falling, number of couples cohabitating continues to increase.