educational | Primary socialisation |
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economic | The family provides economic security by pooling resources |
reproductive | Produces the next generation of society |
sexual | Ensures that adult' sexual relationship is controlled and stable |
Primary socialisation | Parsons argued that families taught children the social norms and values, however he argued that families specifically taught the values associated with their community while other institutions such as schools taught the universal norms. Parsons calls this primary socialisation and secondary socialisation |
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Stabilisation of adult personalities | Parsons also argued that families helped to prevent adults from behaving in disruptive ways. They provide emotional support for their members. Parsons calls this his warm bath theory where after a man came home from work he could relax into his family like a warm bath |
Engels 1884 | Zaretsky 1976 |
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Engels argued that family had a clear economic function for capitalism, by ensuring that wealth remained in the hands of the bourgeoiseFamily relations, based on clear legal contracts facility inheritance and therefore when rich people die it is their children who keep a hold of the wealthFor Engels the family is all about bloodlines and proof of parenting | A variation of parsons warm bath theory, zaretsky argued that family life gave proletarian men something they could control and a space where they could be the boss. This provided a clear function for capitalism because it meant that workers would tolerate the powerlessness and frustration of being exploited at work because they had a private domain where they could take out their stress' and frustrations . Ties in with Ansley's Marxist feminist perspective that women are takers of shit |
Liberal feminism | They focus on striving for legal equality. Th family has long been a clear source of inequality. Marital rape was not formally recognised as a crime until 1991. divorce laws have been reformed on many occasions to make them more equal but it used to be much easier for a man to get a divorce than a womenLiberal feminists argue that most of these battles for legal equality have been won, however there is clearly still inequality between sections. They put this down to the need to also change cultural values in societyAs such while families currently play a part in the oppression of women they do not have to: it is possible to have family life and gender inequality |
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Radical feminism | Radical feminists do not believe that changing the law will ever be enough on its own to end the oppression of women. They argue that men will always oppress women and the family is a vehicle for that oppression. As such women should find alternative ways of living where they are not subject to male oppression. This has led to some radical feminists to favour gender separatismRadical feminists argue that girls are socialised to believe that oppression and inequality is normal and therefore they accept it. They even dream and work for it |
Marxist feminists | Marxist feminists area that family's help to preserve both capatalism and the patriarchy. They point out that the capatalist system gets the benefit of unpaid female work as their workforce and the next generation are fed, looked after and kept happy |