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.