families and households

Question 1

george murdocks 4 main functions of the family

Answer 1

SEXUAL - stable sexual relationship for adults
REPRODUCTIVE - continue to create members for society
ECONOMIC - financial support for its members AND a unit of production or today ‘a unit of consumption’ for society.
EDUCATIONAL - primary socialization teaches norms and values of society.

Question 2

Talcott Parsons view of the family

Answer 2

Primary Socialisation
Teaches children the norms and values of society (linked to social control)

Parsons saw the family as a factory that produces the next batch of citizens.

Stabilisation
Stabilises adult personalities and emotional relationships and roles. Parents also provide security to help individuals cope in wider society.
instrumental and expressive roles

Question 3

Fit thesis

Answer 3

Parsons argued that the nuclear family has developed to meet the needs of modern industrial society.
This is known as FIT THESIS
The nuclear family (unlike the extended family) is both:
GEOGRAPHICALLY mobile
SOCIALLY mobile

Question 4

warm bath theory

Answer 4

Parsons believed the family helps to relieve stress and tension from work, helps stabilise adult personalities and make the family members content. (safe, secure, warm etc)

Question 5

robert chesters view of the family

Answer 5

thinks that the extent of family diversity has been exaggerated.
Instead the nuclear family stills exists in society it just has dual earners: he calls this the Neo-Conventional family

Question 6

Fredrich Engels inheritance of private property

Answer 6

The family has evolved to control women AND to pass on property.
Monogamy means that the men could be certain that their children would inherit property.

Question 7

Louis Althusser - ideological state apparatus

Answer 7

The family teaches children to accept inequality. It socialises children into the norms and values of a capitalist society through their acceptance that their father is dominant and in control. They learn about ‘power’ AND the lack of social mobility.

Question 8

Eli Zaretsky haven = illusion

Answer 8

Argues that the family being a haven is an illusion.
It is the one place working men can feel they have power; it helps them to accept their lack of control elsewhere in society.
he family is dependent on the breadwinner. So the father is less likely to leave his job (if unhappy), challenge his employer or go on strike.

Question 9

unit of consumption

Answer 9

The family used to be a ‘unit of production’ where they would make things but n ow they are a ‘unit of consumption’.
Families purchase goods and services (e.g phones, toys, food, cleaning supllies) which supports capitalism

Question 10

benston - nuclear family

Answer 10

provides the basic commodity required by capitalism. ie labour power by reproducing the next batch of workers at little cost to he capitalist class.

maintain present work forces physical and emotional fitness through wifes domestic labour

Question 11

Fran Asley - wives are ‘takers of shit’

Answer 11

wives soak up frustration their husbands feel at work for marxists this explains male violence’s towards women

Question 12

‘reserve army’ of cheap labour

Answer 12

women are taken on when extra workers are needed and let go when no longer needed to return to their primary role as unpaid domestic labour

Question 13

liberal feminism

Answer 13

argue womens oppression is gradually being overcome through changing people’s attitudes and through changes in the law such as the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), which outlaws discrimination in employment

Question 14

radical feminism

Answer 14

argue men are the source of womens oppression and exploitation. Matrilocal families. Many radical feminists argue for ‘political lesbianism’ – the
idea that heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive because they involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’. Similarly, Germaine Greer (2000) argues for the creation of all female or ‘matrilocal’ households as an alternative to the heterosexual family.

Question 15

marxist femimism

Answer 15

argue capitalism is the main cause of womens oppression
women produce labour force
takers of shit
reserve army of cheap labour

Question 16

separatism - radical

Answer 16

the family, the root of women’s oppression, must be abolished. They argue that the only way to achieve this is through separatism – women must organise themselves to live independently of men.

Question 17

black feminists

Answer 17

black feminists argue that by regarding the family solely as a source of oppression, white feminists neglect black women’s experience of racial oppression. Instead, black feminists view the black family positively as a source of support and resistance against racism