Sociologists: Families and Households

Functionalists

  • George Murdock (1949) – Identified four basic family functions.

  • Talcott Parsons (1951) – Introduced instrumental and expressive roles; stabilisation of adult personalities.

  • Willmott & Young (1973/2017) – Segregated vs symmetrical family.

💸 Marxists

  • Friedrich Engels (1884) – Family developed to preserve private property.

  • Eli Zaretsky (1976) – Family as a relief valve for capitalist exploitation.

♀ Feminists

  • Ann Oakley (1974) – Housework studies; gender inequality.

  • Delphy & Leonard (1972) – Family as patriarchal; unpaid domestic labor.

  • Sylvia Walby – Feminist theorist on gender inequality.

  • Mary Brinton – Study on gender roles in Japan.

  • Hochschild – Emotional labour; “triple shift.”

  • Duncombe – Emotional labour in relationships.

  • Dobash & Dobash – Domestic violence as patriarchal control.

  • Judith Stacey (1998) – Postmodern feminist; “divorce-extended family.”

🧠 Postmodernists / Late Modernists

  • Anthony Giddens (1992) – "Pure relationship", individualisation.

  • Ulrich Beck & Beck-Gernsheim (1992) – Negotiated family, individualisation.

  • Judith Stacey (again) – Families of choice; postmodernist perspective.

📊 New Right

  • Charles Murray (1998) – Welfare criticism; “perverse incentives.”

🎭 Childhood / Social Construction Theorists

  • Philippe Ariès (1960) – Childhood as a social construct.

  • Pilcher – Childhood as “separate and sacred.”

  • Neil Postman – Disappearance of childhood.

  • Sue Palmer – Toxic childhood.

  • Brannen & Alison Jarvis (1994) – Parenting studies; strictness in ethnic families.

  • Firth (1999) – Age patriarchy.

  • Jenks & Smart – New sociology of childhood; children as active agents.

🌍 Sociologists of Diversity & Demographics

  • Rapoport & Rapoport (1982) – Five types of family diversity.

  • Robert Chester – Neo-conventional family.

  • Peter Townsend – Family diversity and poverty.

  • Peter Willmott (again) – Extended family structures.

  • Rhona Rapoport – Diversity in family structures.

🏠 Decision-making / Domestic Labour

  • Gershuny – Changes in housework over time.

  • Edgell (1980s) – Decision-making patterns in families.

🧬 Social Reproduction / Class Theorists

  • Pierre Bourdieu (referenced indirectly) – Cultural capital, social reproduction.

This adds up to over 30 key sociologists, which is honestly a stacked lineup.