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Sociology Year 1 & 2 > Families And Households > Flashcards

Families And Households Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a household?

A

A household is..

  • A person living alone or a group of people living together who may or may not be related to each other
  • A group of students are a household but not a family
  • All families are households but not all households are families
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2
Q

What is the functionalist definition of the family?

A
  • Adults of both sexes with a socially approved sexual relationship
  • One or more children or adopted
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3
Q

What is the organic analogy?

A

Just like an organ in the human body, functionalists believe that institutions such as the family enable society to function. Just like the human body, some are more important than others.

E.g.
Brain -> School
Heart -> Police
Legs -> The Family
Mouth -> Media
Lungs -> Church
Eyes -> Government

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4
Q

What four functions does Murdock believe the family performs to meet the needs of society?

A
  1. Stable satisfaction of the sex drive - preventing social disruption caused by sexual ‘free-for-alls’ e.g. STDs or teen pregnancy
  2. Reproduction of the next generation
  3. Socialisation of the young into society’s shared norms + values
  4. Meetings its members’ economic needs
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5
Q

Evaluate the functionalist view of the family

A
  • Outdated due to change in policy e.g. civil partnerships, same-sex marriage
  • Other family types can fill the functions e.g. extended family
  • Functions can be carried out by other institution. Counterargument: Murdock recognises that other institutions could perform these functions but argues the nuclear family is universal (studied 250 societies) because of its “sheer practicality”
  • Feminists: the family serves the needs of men and oppresses women
  • Marxists: the family meets the needs of capitalism, not family members and society
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6
Q

What is Parsons’ functionalist fit theory?

A

The family can perform many functions. The functions that it performs will depend on the needs of society.

  • Pre-industrial society = extended family
  • Industrial society = nuclear family

As society changed, the ‘type’ of family that was required to help society function changed. Industrial society has two essential needs, which require a nuclear family to work:

  1. A geographically mobile workforce
  2. A socially mobile workforce
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7
Q

What does Parsons argue about loss of function of the family?

A

Parsons argues that the family in modern society has lost many of its functions as it has become a unit of consumption only (rather than also being a unit of production).

This means that in modern society the nuclear family has just two essential or “irreduable” functions:

  • Primary socialisation of children
  • Stabilisation of adult personalities (warm bath theory)
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8
Q

What is Parsons’ warm bath theory?

A

When men have a hard day of work, women will act as a “warm bath” taking care of sexual, environmental, economic needs

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9
Q

Liberal feminists
E.g. suffragettes

A

View on society: Equal between genders
View on the family: There has been gradual progress, but there still needs to be improvements
March of progress view - because so many changes have been made in policy, we are more equal

Evaluation: Overestimate positive change in domestic life

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10
Q

Marxist feminists

A

View on society: Men are not the cause of gender inequality, capitalism is
View on the family: Women reproduce the work force, absorb anger and are a reserve source of labour as seen in WWII

Evalutation: Ignore the role men play in the oppression of women

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11
Q

Radical feminists + EVALUATE

A

View on society: Men and patriarchy are the cause of gender inequality
View on the family: Family is the no.1 source of women’s suffering. Favour political lesbianism

“Sleeping with the enemy” - Greer

Political lesbianism is the idea that women can choose to identify as lesbians as a political statement against male-dominated society. It suggests that by forming same-sex relationships and rejecting relationships with men, women can challenge patriarchal norms and advocate for women’s rights.

Evaluation - Fail to recognise any improvements in domestic life and fail to acknowledge that domestic abuse isn’t limited to heterosexual relationships

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12
Q

Difference/Black feminists

A

View on society: Not all women are the same
View on the family: It should be remembered that many women do not live in nuclear families and have different experiences

Evaluation: Fail to recognise that women share many of the same experiences such as low pay

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13
Q

What is the dual burden?

A

Feminists argue that women have acquired a ‘dual burden’ of paid work and unpaid housework. In this view, the family remains patriarchal: men benefit from women’s earnings and their domestic labour

Evidence to support:

  • Ferri and Smith (1996) found that women working had little impact on the division of labour as under 4% of fathers were the main child-carer
  • Lydia Morris (1990) found that even where the wife was working and the husband was unemployed, she still did most of the housework. Having lost their role as the main breadwinner, men resisted taking on a feminine domestic role
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14
Q

What is the triple shift?

A

Women not only carried a dual burden but carried out a triple shift:

  • emotional work
  • domestic labour
  • paid work
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15
Q

What do Marxists argue about society?

A

Capitalism is a society divided into two opposing and unequal classes:

  • The capitalist class (Bourgeoisie), a minority who owns means of production
  • The working class (Proletariat), whose alienating and worthless labour the capitalists exploit for profit
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16
Q

How do Marxists view the family?

A

They view it critically and how it serves the needs of the elites in society.

Friedrich Engles
The family developed so that men could control children and women, and allow them to pass property to their biological offspring (Inheritance of Private Property). As capitalist societies emerged so came the development of private property and a class of men who secured control of the means of production, bringing about the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family.
Monogamy became essential because of the inheritance of private property (men had to be certain of the paternity of their children).

Unit of Consumption - Zaretsky
The family is a prop to the capitalist system. The family consumes products produced by the bourgeouisie to make profits:

  • ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ - advertisers urge families to consume latest products
  • Media target children who have ‘pester power’

Ideological Functions - Nicos Poulantzas
The family is nothing more than “an ideological conditioning device”. Children learn to conform and become cooperative and exploited workers.

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17
Q

Evaluate the Marxist view on the family

A
  • There is little historical evidence of a ‘promiscuous horde’ that Engles says existed pre-monogamy and pre-dating inheritance
  • Feminists: Patriarchal control is another factor, not just capitalism
  • Zaretsky’s theory is outdated: it assumes the worker is male and that there is only one worker in the family. It also ignores the other benefits that all family members may get from family life: the emotional support, comfort and generally the positive benefits.
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18
Q

What is a reconstituted family?

A

Family composed of an adult couple living with at least one child born from a previous union of one of the partners.

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19
Q

What is the symmetrical family?

A

The symmetrical family is where a family divides all responsibilities equally between partners.

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20
Q

What is the divorce-extended family?

A

Family type where family members are connected through divorce, not marriage

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21
Q

How do functionalists view social policy?

A

Functionalists believe that social policy should be there to help families function. This is mainly through the welfare state which aimed to tackle 5 social evils:

  1. Ignorance
  2. Want
  3. Idleness
  4. Squaller
  5. Disease
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22
Q

How do the New Right view social policy?

A

Any benefit that encourages the breakdown on the nuclear family is bad. This is a problem for both the government and wider society. Their solution is to cut social policies with welfare to keep families together and incentivise teenagers not to get pregnant.

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23
Q

How do Feminists view social policy?

A

Liberal feminists approve of social policy with recent moves to equality.
However, radical feminists believe social policy is there to oppress women. For example, longer maternity leave which assumes women will be the main caregiver.

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24
Q

What has happened to marriage rates over time?

A

They have decreased.

1971 - 459,000 marriages
2015 - 239,000 marriages

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25
Q

What has happened to divorce rates over time?

A

They have increased.

1971 - 74,000 divorces
2015 - 158,000 divorces

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26
Q

What are the reasons for increase in divorce?

+ EVALUATE

A
  1. Changes in the law - Divorce has become equal, easier and cheaper (£550)
  2. Rising Expectations - Fletcher argues that we place too high expectations on marriages which is why so many of them fail. In the 1950s most people had little choice over who they married, location, work and money were important factors and romance was a ‘bonus’ not an expectation.
  3. Declining stigma and changing attitudes - Mitchell and Goody argue that since the 1960s there has been a declining stigma attached to divorce e.g. high profile divorces such as Charlie and Diana (media saturation)
  4. Secularisation - Society is becoming less religious
  5. Changes in the position of women - Women are less financially dependent on their husbands

Evaluation

  1. £550 can still be considered expensive
  2. Patronising as many people know marriages aren’t perfect
  3. There is still stigma around divorce
  4. Religion is actually increasing globally
  5. Women still aren’t equal
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27
Q

What are the reasons for decrease in marriage?

A
  1. Most people are “trying before they buy” (living together before marriage)
  2. The age of marriage is rising because people spend more time in education establishing a career
  3. Fear of divorce
  4. Changing attitudes to marriage. It is not seen as essential to a relationship anymore
  5. Declining stigma attached to alternatives
  6. Secularisation, Changing positions of women, Decline in stigma
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28
Q

What is cohabitation?

A

Cohabitation involves an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship living together.

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29
Q

Why has cohabitation increased?

A
  1. Decline in stigma - seen as more acceptable
  2. Increased opportunities for women - they have less need for the financial security of marriage
  3. Secularisation - people with no religion are more likely to cohabit than those who are religious
30
Q

What has happened to the percentage of children born outside marriage?

A

It has increased.

1986 - 25%
2016 - 47%

31
Q

What has happened to the average age of a woman having her first child?

A

It has increased.

1971 - 24
2012 - 28

32
Q

What has happened to the average number of children per women?

A

It has decreased.

1964 - 2.95
2010 - 1.94

33
Q

What do the New Right argue about family diversity?

A

Argue that the decline of the nuclear family and the growth of family diversity causes many social problems such as educational failure and higher crime rates.
They argue the division of labour between an ‘instrumental’ male breadwinner role and an ‘expressive’ female housewife role is natural due to biology.
They believe the main cause of lone-parent families is the instability of cohabitation. Marriage is a commitment whilst cohabitation is not. Government policy needs to support marriage and benefits encourage the opposite.

34
Q

What do Feminists argue about family diversity?

A

Nuclear family is based on the patriarchal oppression of women and is the main cause of gender inequality.
It prevents women working, keeping them financially dependent on men, denying them an equal say in decision-making.
Many feminists favour lone parenthood and same-sex relationships (political lesbianism) over the nuclear family to avoid oppression.

35
Q

What do Functionalists argue about family diversity?

A

They argue Parsons functionalist fit theory.

Industrial economy requires geographically mobile labour force. Small, steam lined nuclear family meets this requirement rather than the traditional, classic extended family.

As nuclear families become socially mobile they avoid conflict between ascribed and achieved status.

36
Q

What is the domestic division of labour?

A

The roles that men and women perform in relation to housework, childcare and paid work.

37
Q

What does Parsons argue about the domestic division of labour?

A

Instrumental role (husband)

  • ‘Breadwinner’
  • To achieve success at work
  • To provide financial support for the family

Expressive role (wife)

  • ‘Home-maker’
  • Primary socialisation of the children
  • Meeting the family’s emotional needs

Parsons argues that this division of labour is based on biological differences, with women ‘naturally’ suited to the nurturing role. He claims the division of labour is beneficial to both men and women.

Evaluation:
Feminists would disagree -> dual burden, triple shift

38
Q

What are segregated and joint conjugal roles?

A

Argued by Elizabeth Bott

Segregated conjugal roles -> where the couple have separate roles; a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer (as in Parson’s roles). Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.

Joint conjugal roles -> where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together

39
Q

What is Wilmott and Young’s march of progress view?

A

See family life as gradually improving for all its members (known as the march of progress view).
This can be seen in the symmetrical family.

40
Q

What is the feminist view on the division of labour?

A

Oakley

  • Rejects ‘march of progress’ view
  • Men and women remain unequal within the family and women do most of the housework
  • The fact that men are seen as ‘helping’ women more does not prove symmetry. It shows that the responsibility of housework is still the womans
  • Even though more women work, the housewife role is still the women’s primary role

Research findings:

  • 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework
  • 25% high level in childcare (but only in pleasurable aspects)
  • Men take on the more pleasurable household tasks
  • Office for National Statistics - women spend on average 2.5 hours a day on housework. Men spend 1 hour
41
Q

What is the commercialisation of housework?

A

The burden of domestic tasks on women is being lessened by other factors such as globalisation:

  • Online delivery of shopping is labour and time-saving
  • Technologies such as microwaves, freezers and processed food saves time
  • Dining out and take-away food frees women from cooking and washing up
42
Q

What is the impact of paid work on the division of labour?

A

Gershuny: Wives who do less housework
No work -> 83% of housework
Part-time -> 82% of housework
Full-time -> 73% of housework
Trend = more hours of work -> more help from husband

Crompton: Agrees with Gershuny but thinks the trend towards equality is linked to earning power (money). Suggests that until we have truly equal pay the divison of labour will remain unequal
Men working full-time = £27,300
Women working full-time = £20,592
Difference per year = £6708
per month = £559
over a lifetime = £250,000

Morris: Even when fathers are unemployed, they avoid housework. Connell calls this the ‘crisis of masculinity’.

43
Q

What did Dunne find about homosexual cohabiting families in relation to the division of labour?

A

Found they were more likely than heterosexual couples to:

  • Share childcare and housework equally
  • Ascribe equal importance to their careers
  • View childcare positively

Dunne thinks that inequality in division of labour arises because of deeply ingrained ‘gender scripts’ (norms and values about who does what in the home)

44
Q

When was rape within marriage made illegal?

A

1991

45
Q

How many women die at the hands of her partner every single week in the UK?

A

More than 2

46
Q

What did Dobash and Dobash find about violent incidents in marriage?

A

Violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority. Argue marriage legitimates violence against women.

47
Q

What do Radical Feminists argue is the explanation for domestic violence?

A
  • Evidence from Dobash and Dobash is evidence for the patriarchy
  • Key division in society is between men and women
  • The family is the main source of female oppression. Women are dominated through domestical violence of the threat of it
  • Domestic violence is a way of exerting dominance in a patriarchal society
  • Male dominance in state institutions explains police reluctance to deal with cases of domestic violence

Evaluation

  • Not all men are aggressive or violent. Radical feminists ignore this
  • Radical feminists fail to explain female violence e.g. child abuse and violence against partners
  • One in seven men have been assaulted and one in twenty repeatedly so
48
Q

What is the Inequality and Stress/Richard Wilkinson explanation for domestic violence

A
  • Domestic violence is the result of stress on family members cause by social inequality. Inequality means that some families have fewer resources
  • Those on low income or living in overcrowded accommodation are likely to experience higher levels of stress. This influences the risk of conflict and violence
  • Lack of money and time restricts people’s social circle and reduces social support for those under stress
  • Not all people are equally in danger of domestic violence. Those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at greatest risk

Evaluation

  • Unlike the Radical Feminist approach, Wilkinson does not explain why women rather than men are the main victims
  • Fails to explain why wealthy people commit domestic violence
49
Q

What are the other social groups at a higher risk of domestic violence?

A
  • Children and young people
  • Those in lower social classes
  • Those who live in rental accommodation
  • Drug users and those with high levels of alcohol consumption
50
Q

What is a social construct?

A

Something made by society

51
Q

What are the 3 categories we can look at to prove that childhood is a social construct?

A
  1. Differences in childhood between societies e.g. through culture, religion, arranged marriages, poverty
    Benedict found that children in non-western cultures have more responsibility at home and work and the behaviour of children was less clearly separated from the expected behaviour of adults.
    -> Childhood in the west is seen as innocent and vulnerable, needing a length period of nurturing and socialisation
    -> Childhood in the west is clearly defined as a separate section of life to adulthood
  2. Differences in childhood within a society e.g. through income, education, social class, parents, gender
    Middle class children may be more likely to go to private school and afford the latest technology
  3. Differences in childhood over time e.g. through war, technology, laws, liberation
    The main difference is in pre-industrial Britain where childhood and adulthood were not clearly distinguished from each othe. This is because children had similar responsibilities to adults, work began at an early age, there were no differences in rights, high infant mortality rates meant that parenting attitudes were different
    The change in childhood happened because of lower infant mortality rates due to development in medicine, laws against child labour, compulsory schooling and other laws. The main catalyst for this change was industrialisation
52
Q

Postman (1994)

A

Postman thinks that childhood is disappearing.
He thinks that the shift from print culture (written words) to television culture has been the cause of this change.

Print culture:

  • Children lacked literacy skills so they couldn’t explore adult matters and materials such as violence, sex, money, illness, death

Television culture:

  • Adult authority is weakened
  • Boundaries between adults and children are blurred
  • Information available to adults and children alike

AO2: mental health = crisis of television culture. Access to porn, gore and other medias inappropriate for children leading to loss of childhood

53
Q

What are arguments that childhood has improved?

A

The march of progress view
Children in today’s society..
- Are more valued,
- Are more protected,
- Are better education,
- Are healthier,
- Have far more rights.

The child-centred family
On average, you will cost your parents £227,000 by the time you reach your 21st birthday.
This is because of the pressure children can put on their parents to buy them what they want and the ever-growing need to keep up with trends shown on social media promote consumerism alongside the endless needs of children.
This makes childhood better because they are the focus rather than a means to carry on and produce meaning they will be looked after and treated better

54
Q

What are arguments that childhood has become worse?

A

Toxic childhood
Palmer believes that rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development. This is the result of intensive marketing to children, parents working long house and testing in education.

Age patriarchy
Gittins believes that there is an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency. This may assert itself in the form of violence against children (AO3: laws preventing child abuse)

55
Q

Why has the death rate decreased?

A
  • Nutrition
  • Social Changes
  • Public Health
  • Medical Improvements
56
Q

What are the impacts of an ageing population?

A
  1. Public services
    Older people consume a larger proportion of services such as health and social care more than other age groups. Around 55% of welfare spending is currently paid to pensioners
  2. One-person pensioner households
    The number over over-65s living alone in the UK has risen by 15%.
  3. The Dependency Ratio
    Further food pressure will result from a decline in the working population relative to the number of pensioners. The pensioner population will continue to rise despite the recent increase in pensioner age
57
Q

Why is migration increasing?

A
  • It is physically easier to move countries with accessible transport
  • Many countries rely on immigration and encourage it
  • International and civil war continue to be a part of our global community
58
Q

What are the two approaches to managing immigration?

A
  1. Assimilationism - The idea that immigrants should ‘become like’ national citizens and adapt their norms, values and ways of life. Problems with this approach: immigrants may feel inherently wrong and unliked, immigrants may want to retain all or part of their cultural identity
  2. Multiculturalism - The idea that immigrants should retain a separate cultural identity by allowing shallow cultural diversity (aspects of culture that can co-exist with native culture such as food/music) but not deep diversity (aspects of culture that the native culture views as offensive)
59
Q

What is demography?

A

A word for who makes up society. It focuses on a variety of ‘rates’:

  • Age
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Social class
60
Q

Why has Britain’s birth rate decreased?

A
  1. Changing Position of Women : increased involvement in further education, more likely to work and work full-time, changing attitudes to women’s role in the family, adoption and contraception less stigmatised and more accessible
  2. Fall in Infant Mortality Rate : due to improved healthcare, no danger of population declining so they have the choice of not having kids
  3. Children as an Economic Liability : used to be an economic asset whereas they are now a liability
61
Q

What does the dependency ratio measure?

A

The dependency ratio measure the % of dependent people (not of working age)/the number of people working age (economically active).

For example, a dependency ratio of 1.2 means that for every 10 workers there are 12 people not of working age

Equation image

62
Q

What is the extended family?

A

A family which extends beyond the nuclear family to include grandparentsand other relatives

63
Q

What is the nuclear family?

A

A family consisting of two married parents in a sexual relationship and two children. The “model” family. This family is expected to live together in one household

64
Q

what is the death rate?

A

number of deaths per 1,000 of the population per year

65
Q

What is the beanpole family?

A

Multi-generational family with less children and more old people because of the ageing population

66
Q

What is polyandry?

A

One wife, two or more husbands

67
Q

What is polygny?

A

One husband, two or more wives

68
Q

What is the cereal packet family?

A

Functionalist concept that argues the idealised version of the family in society advertised is the nuclear family

69
Q

What is Chamber’s Individualisation thesis?

A

Argues traditional relationships, roles and beliefs have lost their influence on individuals

70
Q

What is the ‘pure relationship’?

A

Where people choose to stay together for needs

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