Family Sociologists

Question 1

Anne Oakley and her study of the nuclear family

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Answer 1

• Double burden - housework & employment

* depend on men’s income

Question 2

Criticisms of Oakley

Answer 2

:( - dual worker and lone parent families are increasing

Question 3

Rapoport and family diversity

Answer 3

• 5 types of family diversity:
  * cultural - roles of family differ in different countries
  * cohort - the year of birth influences relationships
  * life course - family structure throughout life
  * organisational - roles and jobs
  * social class - influences roles in the family

Question 4

Parsons and the functions of the family

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Answer 4

There are two functions of the family:
•Primary socialisation
•Stabilisation of adult personalities
Parsons believed in the expressive role and the instrumental role.

Question 5

Criticisms of Parsons

Answer 5

:( - not all families are functioning and good at providing these functions.

Question 6

Zaretsky and capitalist families

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Answer 6

• The family is for producing children for the workplace, producing them for work
• social class reproduces itself over time

Question 7

delphy & leonard and a patriarchal family

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Answer 7

• The family is a hierarchy with the man at the top
• men exploit women through unpaid labour and their dependence on the man’s income.
• they are radical feminists who believe all forms of male dominance should be eradicated from society.

Question 8

Young & Wilmott and the symmetrical family

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Answer 8

•symmetrical family is natural in modern society.
The family is becoming more equal:
•even if roles aren’t the same, they are valued just as equally
Reasons for more symmetry:
•rise of feminism influenced women’s attitudes and led them to reject the housewife role
•more effective contraception enables women to combie motherhood with paid work
•equal pay act (1970)

Question 9

Criticisms of Young & Wilmott

Answer 9

:( - feminists reject symmetry - Oakley found that women in paid employment still have most housework responsibility.