F&H: 4.1 Consensus theories surrounding family

Question 1

What are G P Murdock’s views on the function of the family? (1949)

Answer 1

The family performs 4 basic functions…

• Sexual - Regulates sexual behaviour, encouraging commitment & faithfulness and thus discouraging sexual promiscuity
• Economic - allows separation of gender roles. Eg. Men can dominate the workplace without worrying about the domestic role. Children also rely on their parents economically.
• Educational - Importance of primary socialisation
• Reproductive- All societies require new members to ensure their physical survival. Having children also stabilises the marital relationship & family life

Question 2

What are Talcott Parsons’ views on the function of the family?

Answer 2

• The family is the main centre of primary socialisation. Personalities are “made not born”, therefore in Parsons’ view families are personality factories through the socialisation process
• “Warm Bath” theory - the family works as a way of ‘stabilising adult personalities’.
• The nuclear unit provides the wife and husband with very clear and distinct social roles
• The male was the ‘instrumental leader’ - economic welfare and living standards of the family.
• Women were best suited to the ‘expressive leader’ - meaning the woman was more suited to the socialisation of children and the emotional care and support of family members.

Question 3

What are the criticisms of functionalist views, particularly Murdock and Parsons?

Answer 3

• Both Murdock’s & Parsons’ view of the family is very ethnocentric- reflective of a particular time and place
• Murdock’s emphasis on two parent, heteorsexual marriage is politically conservative andnot necessarily reflective of our more liberal and diverse modern society
• Murdock’s Theory is very dated
• There is a dark side to family life that functionalism does not acknowledge

Question 4

What do Marxist Sociologists believe?

Answer 4

• Unequal access to resources and wealth → poverty
• Prolétariat exploited by the Bourgeoisie
• The Economic infrastructure benefits those with power and harms the working class. This is reflected in the Superstructures of society.
• Superstructure = Other institutions

Question 5

How do marxist Sociologists view the family?

Answer 5

Friedrich Engels (19th century)​

• Engels claimed the monogamous nuclear family became popular after the industrial rev because the ruling class wanted it to protect their property and wealth.
• He observed that marriage was a useful tool for providing legitimate descendents of wealth (children).
• In 1884, he said the family had an economic function of keeping wealth within the bourgeoisie by passing it on to the next generation as inheritance.

Eli Zaretsky (20th century Marxist)

• Socialisation of children into capitalist ideologies
• Nuclear family stabilises the worker away from being oppressed at the capitalist workplace (married men less likely to strike)
• Zaretsky argues that the nuclear family is an essential component of capitalism because it is the major unit of consumption.

Question 6

What are some of the criticisms of marxist thinking when it come to the family?

Answer 6

• Focuses on the benefits to the economy and the working man’s boss. It ignores other benefits to the individual and society.
• Zaretsky fails to consider that some parents may resist ruling class ideology by teaching their kids values and norms of working class culture. (empowering them).
• Marxism may neglect the positive emotional and social satisfaction people get from the family.

Question 7

What is the general feminist view of the family?

Answer 7

• Feminists see the family as a negative environment for women and introduced the study areas of family life such as housework and domestic violence into Sociology.
• It has challenged the idea that family life is based upon cooperation, shared interests and love and has tried to show that men obtain greater benefits from families than others.
• However, not all Feminists agree with the way to overcome the patriarchal society they claim we live in. We have different types of feminist

Question 8

What are the views of liberal feminists?

Answer 8

• Campaigning against sex discrimination and for equal rights and opportunities for women
• March of progress view: things are gradually improving.

Anne Oakley (1974- present day)

• Criticised “malestream sociology” pre-1970s.
• Oakley 2014: “men are privileged and will not give this up”
• gender inequality in the family is simply a product of discrimination by individuals and those who run institutions

Leonard (2000)

• argues that patriarchal ideology underpins dominant ideas about both paid work and domestic labour

Question 9

What are the views of marxist feminists?

Answer 9

• They view patriarchy as deliberately constructed by the ruling class and designed to reproduce and justify gender exploitation because this benefits the organisation of capitalist society
• Margaret Benston (1972) suggests that the nuclear family, and especially women’s nurturing role within it, is important to capitalism because it produces and rears the future workforce at little cost to the capitalist state.

Question 10

What are the views of radical feminists?

Answer 10

• All societies founded on patriarchy.
• Men are the enemy
• The family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal society.
• Separatism/political lesbianism
• Delphy:“The first oppression is the oppression of women by men- women are an exploited class”

Question 11

What are the criticisms of the three main types of feminism:

Answer 11

Liberal:

• Liberal Feminists have focused their attention upon “equality of opportunity” between males and females. They have largely ignored the study of social structural factors that other Feminists see as a basic cause of inequality in Capitalist societies

Radical

• Often accused of “man hating” Catherine Hakim (1996)
• Radical Feminism tends to overlook the fact that the general position of women in society has changed over time and this can only be explained in terms of wider economic and political changes in society.

Marxist

• Marxist Feminists tend to be criticised for placing too much emphasis upon class relations in the economic sphere
• Given that the revolutionary overthrow of Capitalism does not seem very likely to occur, this “solution” to female exploitation tends not to be seen as a particularly useful one to pursue.

Question 12

What are the core beliefs of the New Right when it comes to the family?

Answer 12

• NR thinkers take the view that the traditional nuclear family and the moral character of the young are under attack or threatened by government social policies.
• NR emphasise that the nuclear family plays an important role in shaping the moral order of society. This is achieved by making sure that the next generation is socialised into values such as discipline, respect, civility and responsibility
• The New Right are critical of many of New Labour’s policies. They believe it constructed a ‘nanny state’ and was geared towards deviant family types as opposed to the nuclear family.

Question 13

What are the criticisms of the New Right viewpoints?

Answer 13

• NR sociologists rarely consider that single parenthood may be preferable to the domestic violence inflicted by some husbands on their wives & children.
• Many criticise NR views as being classist or ethnocentric as they are overly focused on poor families.
• Ford and Miller (1998) argue that the ‘perverse incentive’ argument is also flawed when the quality of life of lone parents is examined. Many experience poverty, debt and material hardship despite receiving state benefits.
• Criticised for ‘blaming the victim’ for their problems.

Question 14

What do I need to know about postmodern perspectives & the family?

Answer 14

• Much wider range of living options available these days - because of social and cultural changes.
• Judith Stacey (1990):They’ll never be one dominant type of family in Western culture again. She say that family structures are varied and flexible.
• Life Courses: The life course is a postmodernist set of analysis.

Question 15

What was industrialisation a crucial process for functionalists?

Answer 15

Parsons

• Industrialisation changed the function of the family.
• Nuclear families became dominant in industrial society.
• It is more geographically mobile.
• Changed from extended family (in pre-industrial times) as the nuclear fam is more suited to an industrial society.

Wilmott & Young

Did two important studies (1960- & 1973)

They stated that British families had developed in three stages (it was initially four but they dropped the last bit as there was no real evidence for it)

• Stage 1: Pre -Industrial - Family works together as an economic production unit. Work & home are combined.
• Stage 2: Early Industrial - Extended families is broken up as individuals leave home for work.
• Stage 3: Privatised Nuclear (Symmetrical) - Family based on consumption not production. Nuclear family is focused on its personal relationships and lifestyle. Called the ‘symmetrical family’, husband and wife have joint roles.
• Stage 4: Asymmetrical - Husband and wife roles become asymmetrical as men spend more leisure time away from the home - in the pub for example.