Families Flashcards
couples
Different types of conjugal roles
conjugual role: refers to the separation of roles within the household based
integrated conjugual roles: There are few divisions between the roles of men and women within the family
couples
Two explanations for unequal division of labour
edgell
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cultural explanations- divisions is determined by partriarchal norms and values in our society. society expects women to perform domestic labour
- e.g. gender wage gap. = despite equaql qualifications/job performance, womnen often work low paid part timee jobs, society prioritises men as breadwinners. - material explanations - women earn less money than men which means its more economically benefitial for them to do childcare and housework while men perform the breadwiner role.
couples
same-sex couples and gender scripts
- radical feminists argues that heterosexual couples are patriachal and unequal - even when women are in paid-work.
- they contrast with same-sex couples e.g. dunne discovered that lesbian couples with children found a more equal division of labour.
- men are taught their superior - 1in 4 experience violence - taight to be submissive
- dunne uses the idea of gender scripts: heterosexual couples were socialised into gender scripts that set out different masculine/feminine roles and gender identities
- lesbians did not link households taks to gender scripsts, so they were more open to negotiation and thus more equal
resources and decision making
- Inequality similarly exists in terms of decision making and resources.
- Barrett: Men gain more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support.= Men usually make the decisions about spending on important items.
- In many households women have no entitlement to a share of household resources. The money that she does have she will see as it should be spent on the children. Therefore most women are in poverty, even in houses with adequate incomes!
- Pahl & Vogler (Feminist Sociologists) : Two main types of control over family income
- Allowance System – Men give non-working wives an allowance to budget and meet the family’s needs.
- Pooling – Both partners have access to income and have joint responsibility for spending – e.g. joint bank account.
the dark side of the family
domestic violence
- defined as Physical, emotional, sexual abuse
1. RADICAL FEMINIST EXPLANATION: Dobash and Dobash– domestic violence is evidence of patriarchy. Men dominate women through domestic violence. - however - Not all men are aggressive, How about female violence against men and children?Lesbian domestic violence? = For example, the ONS shows that w/c women, women struggling with illness and young women were more likely to experience domestic violence than others
1. materialist explanation- Focuses on economic and material factors such as inequality. - Some groups e.g. children, the poor are also more likely to be at risk
- wilkinson argues that lack of resources, money and time results from stress of family members caused by inequality and poverty.
- marxists feminits also see inequality producing domestic violence. ansley
- evaluation: Ignore the impact of domestic violence on the victim and justifies the behavior of the violent individuals
couples
Symmetrical family
w+y
- willmott and young argues that family life is gradually becoming more symmetrical - they believe that it is becoming more equal.
- Men and women share roles within the family more equally including leisure time = men have become more home-centred
- men help with housework+chilcare =’the new man’
- This is due to changes in women position and higher standards of living
&
Geographical mobility - more couples live away from the communities in which they grew up in
however this is critisced by feminist, they believe that w+y exagerrate men’s role, and that women can never become equal as they still perform the dual burden of paid work+domestic = oakley.
functionalist view of the fam
- Functionalists see the family as one of the essential institutions for a stable societies.
- They tend to to see the nuclear family as the ideal family for industrial societies.
- They believe that society is based on a value consensus – a set of shared norms and values – into which society socialises its members.
- This enables its members to cooperate harmoniously to meet society’s needs and achieve shared goals.
Murdock 4 functions of the family
- Stable satisfaction of the sex drive (sexual)– within monogamous relationships= prevents inferentiality
- The biological reproduction of the next generation – without which society cannot continue.
- Socialisation of the young (education) – teaching basic norms and values
- Meeting its members economic needs – producing food and shelter for example. (in modern society it has become a unit of consumption only)
by performing these functions, the nuclear family heelps to maintain social stability.
criticism of Murdock
- Feminist argues that traditional family structures typically disadvantage women. = benefit men more.
- Functionalism may prevent social change, as it encourages individuals to stick to specified roles. It also sees non-participation in society as undesirable, as this can lead to anomie
- Functionalists theories do not always reflect family life (married people live in harmony, good in bed, effective socialisers).
- other institutions could perform the functions above.
Parsons 2 irreducible functions of the fam
Result of the loss of functions: 2 irreducible functions
similar to murdock, males and females are biologically suited.
- Primary socialisation of the young - equipping the next generation with basic skills and society’s values. = to not become deviant - gender role socialisation. If primary socialisation is done correctly then boys learn to adopt the ‘instrumental role’ – they go on to go out to work and earns money. Girls learn to adopt the ‘expressive role’ – doing all the ‘caring work’, housework and bringing up the children.
- Stabilisation of adult personalities - often referred to as the ‘warm bath theory (the idea the males coming home to the family will be equivalent of getting a warm bath, capable of soothing and washing away the worries of work) this enabling adults to relax so they can return to the workplace and perform their roles effectively. = provided emotional security
functionalists
parsons division of labour
- identifies two marital roles: the instrumenal role of the male breadwinner and the expressive role of the female carer
- ## this division of labour is functional = he sees this division as biologically based = so that everyone benefits from this specialism.
Parson - organic analogy - functionalist
- argued that the family was a part of the organic analogy.
- society is made up of different but interdependent parts such as insitutions like the education system, religion etc
- The human body is an analogy of society. If an organ fails, the body suffers, just like if the family becomes dysfunctional, society would collapse. - anomie
Marxist view of the Family
- Take a conflict approach and view the family as a state agency which serves to spread the dominant ideology = promoting false consciousness to maintain capitalism.
- They work alongside media and education as agents of social control within the organic analogy. They see the family as helping class inequality, benefiting capitalism.
The nuclear family performs:
- ideological functions for Capitalism & teaches passive acceptance of hierarchy (Zarestky)
- acts as a unit of consumption
- inheritance of property (Engels)
The family as an Ideological Apparatus - Zarestky
- children are socialised into false consciousness and passive acceptance/obedience of the inequalities of capitalism. = think that inequality is justifiable and the capilaist system is unchangeable
- this is achieved when there is a hierarchy in most families.
- Teaches children to accept there will always be someone in “authority” who they must obey, (parental power) which then prepares them of the hierarchy of boss-worker in paid employment in later life.
he also agues
That the family acted as a “safe haven” from the oppression and exploitation of capitalism whereby they could managed there resentment of it which helped to maintain capitalism by preventing revolution or resistance.
Engels: Inheritance of property
- The family exists so men can pass their private property onto their biological offspring, notably a son.
- Its essential for monogamy (no inferentiality) - women was seen as essentially “prostitutes” who give sex under male control (reproductive purposes) for children in exchange for economic stability.
- ensuring that wealth remained in the hands of the bourgeoisie
- therefore when rich people die it is their children who keep hold of their wealth.
- The solution is to overthrow capitalism
Marxists function :
The family is a Unit of Consumptions
- Nuclear families are brainwashed into thinking capitalism is fair = which teaches lower generations to conform with the capitalist system.
- Families must keep up with the material goods/services acquired by their neighbours and peers e.g. family holidays, cars – this is known “Keeping up with the Joneses”
- The media targets children to persuade their parents through pester power to buy more expensive items.
overall critic of the functions of the fam: Marxism
- it’s too deterministic – it assumes people passively accept socialisation and family life, and that the future is pre-determined. There are plenty of families who reject this lifestyle and many families bring their children up to be independent thinkers = increases their social mobility. - can resist indoctrination
- The Marxist perspective ignores family diversity in capitalist society, the nuclear family is no longer the main type of family.
- In fact, family breakdown may be better for Capitalism – as divorce is expensive and more money has to be spent on maintaining family relationships and later on forming new families.
The new man
The ‘new man’ means couples have an equal share of housework and childcare.
e.g. strolling baby in buggy
keyword
dual burden
oakley
- women now do paid and domestic work
- research findings: 15% of husbands had a high level of participaation in households.
Rejects the March Of Progress view
keyword
triple shift = supporting evidence
Dunscombe and Madsen
- Women not only carry the dual burden of low paid and unpaid domestic work, but also have to do the emotional work.
- Women are encouraged to be more expressive and ‘emotional’ than men
- means that it is women who make more effort to make marriages and families work emotionally, by looking after children, reassuring fragile egos, comforting.
- howvevr sometimes wasnt always in return - dobash and dobash provide suppoeting evidence. they found violence was triggered when husbands felt that their authority was being challenged. they conclude that marriage legitimate violence by giving power to men
- seperatley - triple shift this is evident in contemporary society - during lockdown - many woman had the burdern of working from home, looking aftert the children and as well emotionlly be there for there kids - leading to overburdern
a further contribution of parson
Parson:
functional fit theory
Pre-industrial vs industrial
+
Evalutation
Loss of Functions
- Parsons has a historical perspective on the evolution of the nuclear family
- suggested the nuclear family formed as an adaptation to industrialisation
- His functional fit theory is that as society changes, the type of family that ‘fits’ that society, and the functions it performs changes too
- society has moved from pre-industrial to industrial
- Pre-industrial society based on agriculture, basic standards of living. = usually 3 generational extended family - everyone had a respobinily for the socialistion of the children = large family unit ‘fitted’ pre-industrial society
- There was also less need for the extended family as more and more functions, such as health and education, gradually came to be carried out by the state.
- as a result of industralisation, the families have become smaller - The nuclear family fits the more complex industrial society better, but it performs a reduced number of functions.
- critics: nuclear family argued not to have evolved due to industrialisation. outdated view. contemporary family types as suggested by W+Y argues the hardship of the early industrial period gave rise to ‘mum-centred’ w/c extended family
parson division of labour
Men and women have biologically suited roles that are functional for society:
Expressive role - Women = Homemaker (involves cooking, cleaning and looking after children)
Instrumental role - Men = Breadwinner (involves paid work, earning the income for the family)
Bott division of labour
Segregated conjugal roles - Division of labour between men and women, couple spends leisure time separately
Joint conjugal roles - couples share domestic tasks and leisure time.
overall evaluations of the functionalist
- ignores that single parent families can be adequately socialise
- dysfunction of the family (not always in harmony/effective socialisers e.g. dark side of fam, toxic childhood)
- Parson research is based on white American family. Doesn’t represent wider society (e.g. south Asian extended family)
- feminist argues that the family benefits men more than women
Marxist Feminism
Capitalism is the main form of women’s oppression in the family and this performs several functions for capitalism:
- Reproducing the labour force - women socialise the next generation of workers. - links to inheritance of poverty
-
Absorbing men’s anger - Ansley - soak their husbands frustration from being exploited at work.= This alienation and crisis of masculinity is absorbed by women in the family- they are “takers of shit.”
This can result in domestic violence as men exert their control and authority at home -
A reserve army of cheap labour - when not needed, women workers can return to their primary unpaid domestic role. - They see the oppression of women in the family as linked to the exploitation of the working class.
They believe the family must be abolished alongside a socialist revolution
X: it ignores the positive experiences that some women have from being a wife and mother in a nuclear family. - also outdated- very few families will fit the traditional nuclear family structure today- it ignores diversity and dual- career families.
Liberal Feminist
evaluation
liberal = happy
- Take a march of progress view in suggesting gender inequality is gradually being overcome through reform and policy change = equal pay act/ sex discrimination act - not feel alientated/inferior but break barriers - achive glass ceiling , which changes people’s attitudes towards socialisation and challenges stereotypes.
- For example, the rise in the new man is becoming more widespread = doing domestic work
- rise of Symertical fam/ dual earning - botts - joint congugaual roles
evaluation:
- dual burden (Oakley)/ triple shift
- ingrained belief that women are caregivers
DELPHY +LEONARD
Radical Feminist
links to delphy and leonard
- The family and marriage are the key institutions in a patriarchal society, = men benefit from the women’s unpaid domestic labour and sexual services, as well as dominate them through violence or the threat of it.
- Radical feminists also believe the patriarchal system needs to be overturned, and the only way to achieve this is through separatism, meaning women need to organise themselves to live independently to men.
- she furthers he point and suggest that women should resuly in ‘political lesbianism’ - the idea that heterosexual couples are inevitable, oppressive because they involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’
- X: Functionalist - disrupts thae status quo - disable adequate socialisation
Difference feminist
Not all women share the same experience of oppression; women of different ethnicities, class, age etc may have different experiences of the family.
e.g. black feminism especially view the family positively as opposed ofv it being patriachal asa source of supports/resistance of racism.
class: Middle class women may have more cultural capital and may be more economically independent than working class women. - They may be in a better position to combat patriarchal controls
evaluation:
Other feminist believe that all women share many of the same experience.
e.g. low paid, risk of domestic violence.
new right view of the family
murray
A biologically-based division of labour - the division of labour between a male breadwinner and a female homemaker, dependent child is natural and biologically determined.
According to new rights the decline of nuclear families is due to Fatherless families. They are to blame for a violent disorder in society that children display. lack of dispilinarian (usually performed by fathers) results in the youth to be socialised inadequately resutling in things such as high crime rates, educational failure
Families (mothers) should be self-reliant - cant look after/finincally suppoort kids - reliance on state welfare leads to a dependency culture and undermines traditional gender roles. - social policy solution for poverty actually makes the problem worse e.g. weaken families own self reliance.
It produces a family breakdown and an increase of lone-parent families, which results in social problems due to poor socialisation. =
coulf b4e evaluation of functionalism and Marxism
personal life perspective
SMART
- believes that we are not disembedded individuals, but we make decisions about relationships within a ‘web of connectedness’.
- Looks at relationships that individuals see as significant and gives a sense of identity, belonging and relatedness (pets, friends etc.).
evaluation:
- Interactionists believe that structural approaches assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant type of family. - This ignores the increased diversity of families today.
Family types
Beanpole: vertically extended e.g. grandparents
Extended: A group of Kin, extended beyond the nuclear family.
Household: a group of people living together
Living apart together: in a relationship but don’t live together
Reconsistuted: a step-family (from a previous relationship)
The Rapport: 5 types of family diversity
They argue that we have moved away from the traditional nuclear family.
Families have adapted to a pluralistic society (diverse in culture)
Organisational diversity
Cultural diversity
Social class
Life-stage
Generational
Cultural diversity
Different cultural, religious and ethnic groups have different family structures.
Example:
* There is a higher proportion of female-headed families among Afro-Caribbean households.
Social class diversity
Differences in family structure are partly the result of income differences between households of different classes.
Life stages
•Family structure depends on the point at which you find yourself in your life-cycle.
E.G.
- Newlyweds
- Couples with children
- Retired couples whose children have left home
- Widows/widowers who live alone
Generational diversity
Defined as older and younger generations having different attitudes and experiences that reflect the historical periods in which they have lived.
Example:
Morality about divorce, cohabitation, children born outside of marriage & homosexuality might be very controversial to one generation and a non-issue to another.
