Family Flashcards
What is a household
A group of people who live together, they may or may not be related through blood or marriage
What is a family
A form of household where all the people who live together are related through either kinship ties or marriage
What is a nuclear family
Also known as a ‘cereal packet family’
Any family that consists of a mother, father and their biological child(ren)
Refers to two generations of family members living together
What is an extended family
Contains relatives beyond the nuclear family e.g. grandparents
What is a reconstituted family
Often referred to as a ‘step-family’
Still consists of parents and children although one of the parents may be a social parent, meaning they are not the child’s biological parents
What are other family types lesser mentioned
Non married parents (cohabitating)
Carers/ foster parents
Gay and lesbian couples who’ve adopted
Grandparents looking after the children
Role model
The child copies what it sees other family members doing
Negative sanctions
The child is punished for breaking the family’s rules and so is less likely to repeat the behaviour in the future
Deliberate instruction
The family tells the child what, how and why to do something
Positive sanctions
The child is given a reward for behaving correctly and so is likely to repeat the behaviour in the future
Play
The child is given toys or games that develop skills or social norms
Why is family a ‘gatekeeper’
It introduces children to the other agents of socialisation: the media, peer group, education, religion
What are the 7 functions of the family
Physical care Regulation of sexual activity Socialisation and social control Economic support Emotional support Reproduction A place in society
What is physical care as a function of the family
To ensure that new babies actually survive to become adult members of that society
What is regulation of sexual activity as a function of the family
Usually expected that sexual relations take place inside some kind of marriage relationship or pairing
Families exist to control sexual behaviour so that new offspring are as healthy as possible
What is socialisation and social control as a function of a family
To ensure that children are satisfactorily socialises into the norms and values of society
In our society, people are still considered children who have to be protected until they are 18 years of age
The most important trainers are the family - who are teaching & influencing us all the time
What is economic support as a function of the family
Families work to provide us with food, shelter, clothing etc.
What is emotional support as a function of the family
To satisfy our emotional needs for love and security
We need to feel loved and wanted by others, particularly when we’re young
For most people, their family is their strongest emotional bond
What is reproduction as a function of the family
Women are having fewer children and having them later in life. Women now have an average of 1.8 children and the average age of a woman to have her first child is 27 (30 if married). More women are remaining childless due to:
Changing role of women
High cost of having children
What is a place in society as a function of the family
The family gives its members a place in society, a home, relatives, neighbours, locality, an ethnic group, social status, religion
Some of these come later through;
Geographical mobility - moving away
Social mobility - achieving a higher social class e.g. through career success/ achieving a lower social class e.g. through imprisonment
What family best fulfils the functions, reproduction and regulation of sex
Nuclear family as both the man and woman are present
What family best fulfils the function, primary socialisation
Extended family as there is more people to socialise with
What family best fulfils the function, emotional support
Reconstituted family as step-parents put in more effort
What family best fulfils the function, economical support
Extended family as there are more people to help provide
5 Strengths of the Functionalists approach
This approach shows how a part of society can work at two levels - both fulfilling the needs of each individual and the whole society
Provides a harmonious view of society
Shows how each part of society is interrelated, each contributing to the well being of the whole
Stresses the importance of the family as the basic of society
The family is seen as important in passing on the norms and values which are universal in society
5 weaknesses of the Functionalists approach
The approach is too happy - suggests that family life is always good and happy
Tends to ignore the exploitation and conflict stressed by Marxists
Stresses the idea that the nuclear family is universal, this approach ignores other types of family - assuming they are inadequate
Does not consider the ways in which functions may be performed by other institutions (rather than just the family)
Feminists are critical as Functionalists assumes that gender roles are fixed, ignoring the change that has taken place
What do Feminists believe that differences and inequalities are the result of
Culture and learning. They are not natural and innate, they are variable and learned
Patriarchy
Term used to describe a social system based on gender inequality (male dominance) whereby men dominate and women are subordinate
3 Types of Feminists
Liberal Feminists
Marxist Feminists
Radical Feminists
Problems and solutions for Liberal Feminists
Problems:
Existing inequalities and discrimination are harmful to both genders - they limit all in the choices they make
Gender prejudice is based on individual ignorance
Solutions:
Gradual progress towards equality within the existing system e.g. changing laws
Changes in attitudes and socialisation patterns for both sexes
Campaigning against sex discrimination and for equal rights and opportunities for women
More choices for women in relation to family life
Problems and solutions for Marxist Feminists
Problems:
Capitalism is the root cause of patriarchy and oppression of women
Women are a ‘reserve army’ of cheap labour
Women reproduce the labour force through unpaid domestic labour, by socialising the next generation of workers and maintain and servicing the current one at no cost to the capitalist
Oppression of women in family linked to exploitation of working class
Wives soak up frustration their husbands feel due to being exploited
Solutions:
Abolish the family
Replace capitalism with communism so oppression of women will end
Both sexes need to cooperate to bring around a revolution and create a classless society
Problems and solutions for Radical Feminists
Problems:
All societies are founded on patriarchy
Men are the enemy - Source of women’s exploitation and oppression
Heterosexual relationships are oppressive - involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’
Solutions: Creation of all-female or matrilocal households as an alternative Overturn the patriarchal system Abolish the family Separatism
Separatism
Women organising themselves to live independently of men
What do Marxists see all society’s institutions as
Ways to help maintain class inequality and capitalism
What did Marxist sociologist Engels argue
That monogamy became essential because of the inheritance of private property. (Men had to be sure they were the legitimate fathers before their heirs inherited anything)
He also argued that the monogamous nuclear family represented an ‘historical defeat of the female sex’ - (this is because it is the men who earn the money and decide who inherit it)
Marxists argue capitalism justifies inequality and maintain the capitalist system. What are the 2 ways this is achieved
Through primary socialisation - children are socialised into the idea that hierarchy is inevitable. If it is played out at home they will see it ‘normal’ in wider society
Offering a ‘safety valve’ for people’s frustration - male workers are powerless in the capitalist industry but this is disguised in the structure of the family as the male is on top (physically, economically and legally)
Ideological conditioning device
A Marxist’s belief
Something which conditions people to think and behave a specific way
Functionalist’s views
The family ensure the stabilisation of the adult personality
Nuclear family provides a socially and geographically mobile workforce in industrial society
The family fulfils all vital functions and needs for society
Family ensures the primary socialisation of children
Family ensures the stable satisfaction of the sex drive
Marxist’s views
Women are a reserve army of cheap labour
Family serves to pass on dominant ideology to the next generations
Relationships in family reflect inequalities in wider society
Reproduces class inequality through inheritance
Family is exploited as a unit of consumption
Capitalism leads to patriarchy in the family
Feminists views
Family is a key stone of patriarchy
Family reproduced patriarchal ideology
The role of men and women are not becoming more symmetrical, women still do more
Family exploits and women and limits opportunities in society
The dual burden
Women’s employment are added to ‘mother-housewife role’ because men are unwilling to do their fair share of domestic work
Triple shift
Duncombe and Marsden (1995) argued that this is paid work, housework and childcare and ‘emotion work’
‘Lagged adaptation’
Gershuny (1992) said that there is a time lag between women taking up paid work and men getting more involved at home
Why are conjugal roles more similar
Privatised families - no extended family available to help
Changing attitudes - marriage is seen more as a partnership
Changing laws - women have more legal rights
Comfortable homes - men have become more home-centred
Fewer children - women’s lives are not dominated by childbearing and childcare
Feminisation of the workforce - more women in paid employment
The part time trap
The part time worker still has to do the domestic tasks and cannot progress in her career
Why did women return to the workforce
Longer life expectancy Dissatisfaction with housewife role Changing laws Growth of sector jobs Reliable contraception to limit family size Growth of consumerism
Industrialisation
Process where society becomes developed by industry in order to produce secondary goods and services
Info about pre-industrialisation
Before the period of industrialisation jobs revolved around agriculture and were mainly home centred work
Pre-industrialisation family were mainly extended and the members of the family lived & worked together. They often grew crops for themselves then extras they took the market to sell
‘Modernisation of society’
Once industrialisation took place it brought about the change of people leaving the home to work in the cities
Family in industrialisation society
The nuclear family became dominant. This occurred because the home became separated because of people leaving home to work in cities
Who is Talcott Parsons
Functionalist sociologist who believed that the change in the family structure before and after industrialisation was because the nuclear family was much more useful to industrial society
Why the shift towards the nuclear family during industrialisation
Focus into socialising children into the norms of values of society
Industrial society took over functions of the family, education and healthcare
Had less kin so made it more mobile and they can move about the country to where there is work
