FAMILY - The 'March of Progress' (WILMOTT & YOUNG) Flashcards
Are Wilmott and Young (1973) Functionalists or Marxists?
They are FUNCTIONALISTS = They offer an alternative functionalist approach; it is one of several ‘march of progress’ theories that come from functionalists, and they look at how society develops and modernises over time.
What did Wilmott and Young establish?
They established 4 stages of family development in relation to the process of industrialisation!
What are the 4 stages of family development that Wilmott and Young identified?
Stage 1: The Pre-Industrial Family
Stage 2: The Early Industrial Family
Stage 3: The Symmetrical Family
Stage 4: The Asymmetrical Family
What did they establish in Stage One (The Pre-Industrial Society) in regards to the family?
The family works as a unit of economic production. There is no separation between work and home. Families live with or close to other family members and work together.
What did they establish in Stage Two (The Early Industrial Society) in regards to the family?
Families move into towns and cities and home and work are separated as men go out to work (rural-urban migration during the Industrial Revolution). Women perform a domestic (and ‘expressive’) role. While pre-industrial extended families have broken up as a result of this, kinship networks remain very important and women especially rely on support from other female relations.
Wilmott and Young suggested that while female relatives bonded, men were excluded from the home and spent time in the pub instead = Men were distanced from their family, so the burden of looking after the home and the family fell on the women (dual burden)!
What did they establish in Stage Three (The Symmetrical Family) in regards to the family?
The modern nuclear family has less gender segregation than the early industrial family with men and women both in employment and both contributing to domestic chores. Also the family has ceased to be a unit of production and has become a unit of consumption in society (uses up the goods in society). Families tend to be smaller, because children remain dependants rather than becoming financial assets (children are EXPENSIVE). The family has become more isolated and ‘privatised’ from kinship networks and so families spend more time together and generally there are joint conjugal roles as opposed to segregated conjugal roles.
What are Segregated Conjugal Roles?
Segregated conjugal roles are those in which the husband and wife have a clear differentiation of tasks and a considerable number of separate interests and activities. Marriages where couples also have separate social ties and obligations tend to be less durable.
What did they establish in Stage Four (The Asymmetrical Family) in regards to the family?
Wilmott & Young = They suggested that the family would become asymmetrical (this means having parts of something that fails to co-exist or correspond to one another in regards to being a certain shape, size or function). This can be seen with men during this time period; they increasingly spend their leisure time outside the home and without their partners (for example spending long periods of time on the golf course). Wilmott & Young conceded that this fourth stage did not really occur.
What stage did Wilmott and Young did not actually occur in society?
Stage Four - The Asymmetrical Family
What important factor, in regards to family change, did Wilmott and Young discover?
Stratified diffusion!
What is Stratified Diffusion?
Wilmott and Young suggested that the sort of cultural changes in family life described in Stage Four began initially among those with higher social status (such as the middle-class) and these practices diffused down the social strata and became the norm.
How does Stratified Diffusion link to the prediction of Stage Four in society?
Because Wilmott and Young saw evidence of rich families becoming increasingly asymmetrical, with couples spending more time apart and particularly rich businessmen spending their leisure time apart from the family.
What is a negative of Stratified Diffusion?
There does not seem to be much evidence to suggest that stratified diffusion as occurred in this case.
What are some evaluations of the ‘March of Progress’?
Some sociologists dislike the value judgement inherent in the idea of a march of progress: that the family has got better as it has developed. In rural areas, some families still occupy “stage 1” and some would suggest this is just a different family form rather than a better or worse one.
The modern nuclear family is presented in an idealistic way, which runs counter to many people’s experiences of family life and the different types of families that exist in society today!
What is a Feminist evaluation of the ‘March of Progress’?
There is lots of feminist research to suggest that the “symmetrical family” is a myth, as we will discuss in the section on gender roles–> Links to Oakley and Ansley!
