Family Theorists Flashcards
Challenged functionalist assumptions by showing how working class families lived in extended family
Willmott and Young
Described the amount of abuse in nuclear families
Mirrlees-Black
Nuclear family not equal as male expected to own and have the power in the household
Player
Triple shift
Dunconbe and Marsden
Families socialise children into traditional gender patterns which perpetuate gender inequality
Oakley
People more socially and geographically mobile supportive role taken over by friends instead of family
Pahl (Postmodernist)
Traditional nuclear breadwinner male and female housewife is ideal family structure
Parsons
Suggest existence of divorce causes view that parent child relationship more satisfying than adult partnerships
Smart and Neale
Gay relationships not new only change is it’s now publicly acknowledged and doesn’t need hidden
Heaphy
Living apart together
Levin
Increased diversity in family structures and way people choose to live together
Gillies and jamieson
Increased diversity over stated always been varied family forms but people were more discrete in past to avoid ridicule
Crow
Main employer now is service industry not manufacturing which was male dominated more women work now and fewer male breadwinner families exist
Macionis and Plummer
Government policy led more women into workplace meaning children and relationships later in life so decrease in fertility don’t need to stay in unhappy relationships and child minding done by grandparents (1970 equal pay act)
Lewis
Marriage no longer economically necessary for women so less marriages
Flour and Buchanan
Marriage now a matter of choice people have higher expectations of marriage and due to lighter divorce laws they can easily leave relationships
Drew
Changing technology hasn’t damaged family as it is reaction of social need such as mobile phones so people can stay in touch while being more geographically mobile
Silva
Saturated family: due to technology families are more fractured as there are sources of entertainment in every room they don’t sit together
Gergen
Links welfare payment to unmarried women, illegitimate births, crime and refusal of young men to get jobs
Charles Murray
Belief of church that people should stay married is now irrelevant as formal religion declined
Wilson
People expect more from marriage and women expect more from life than marriage and domestic labour
Fletcher
People accept co habitation now as a legitimate living arrangement and not just a trial marriage
Coast
People choose co habitation due to fear of divorce
Morgan (New right)
Older people who live alone will not live with other people again
Smith and Chandler
Living alone is seen as mark of success among younger people
Klinenburg
Childhood is a social construction and has only existed as a special part of life for 150 years in west
Aries
Children have expressive and instrumental role in family
Mayall
Studied girl friend groups found they can be supportive and caring but also bitch,fall out and exclude others from social network
Hey
Studied how boys constructed masculinity and how this prevented boys from discussing or managing feelings
Frosh
Argues British culture has become child centred people have less children but focus more time and energy in their children
Pilcher
Childhood is disappearing as:
- children have rights
- can access adult world due to TV
- imitate adult behavior in dress and criminal activity
Postman
Toxic childhood: working parents leave less adult time for children who are vulnerable to damage from junk food and television leads to obesity, self harm, early sex, binge drinking
Sue Palmer
Parenting now seen as complex skill that needs learned
Furedi
Men help women more with domestic labour now but domestic labour is still the job of women
Wilmott and Young
Housework is oppressive and dissatisfying especially with women movement into workplace
Oakley and Gavron
Men now have to support women in domestic labour out of necessity as both now work
Devine
Men made the infrequent important decisions for the family in middle class families even when both work
Edgell
Women made frequent smaller decisions men dealt with bigger more expensive issues such as buying a car
Pahl
When both partners work still male dominance in decisions but shifting towards equality
Hardhill
Lagged adaption: men having to change to women joining workforce but doing it slower than women
Gershuny
Women behavior in household constrained by fear of men
Hanmer and Saunders
Pure relationships: people stay together out of happiness not out of necessity different from romantic love which was a myth used to tie women to marriage
Giddens
Majority of women happy in traditional family roles and can control men through erotic capital
Hakim
In disadvantaged families e.g lone parent, disabled children Grandparents provide emotion, practical and financial support even at their own cost
Hillman and Hastings
Carers are mostly women and men in their 40s and 50s who are in work with 3 million workers being carers
Bryan
Nuclear family developed to suit needs of modern industrial society known as fit thesis
Functionalists e.g Parsons criticised by historians
Family has two functions for society
Stabilisation of adult personality
Socialisation of children
Parsons
Four functions of family
- control sexual behavior of adults
- economic support for children
- reproduction
- education of family members
Murdock
Neo conventional family: family diversity overstated nuclear family still most dominant but in new form were both parents work
Chester
Families taught children to accept inequality as father is dominant and in control
Althusser
Family is only place working men can feel they have power aswell as men with families less likely to take strike action against employers
Zaretsky
Types of family diversity: family structures, ethnic and cultural variations, social class differences, life course, generation born into (Cohort)
Rapoports
Family undergone major changes as society is now unpredictable
Cheal
Change in family caused by greater equality between men and women but the cost of this is less stable personal relationships
Giddens
Risk society: tradition has less influence people have more choices and are more aware of the risks and rewards. Families are now negotiated and leave if they aren’t satisfied with relationships
Beck
Routines make a family not relationships
David Morgan
Women drivers of family change women now have opportunities to create new and varied family structures
Stacey
Family’s remain fairly traditional but acceptance of difference is growing
Weeks
Traditional family threatened by welfare state as young men didn’t have to take responsibility for fatherhood and children grow up with no male role model which leads to lazy, benefit dependent and criminal
Charles Murray
