Family: Theory and Policy Flashcards
Murdock on Family
Family is a very important part of the organic analogy.
Meets some of society’s essential needs - family is a basic building block of society.
(Functionalism)
4 Essential Functions of Family (Murdock)
- Sexual: Stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner - prevents social disruption caused by sexual “free-for-all”.
- Reproduction: Reproduction of the next generation.
- Education: Socialisation of the young into the value consensus.
- Economic: Meeting members’ economic needs e.g. food and shelter.
Nuclear family is practical in meeting these 4 needs well - explains why it is universal (found in all human societies) (is this true?…)
Criticism of Murdock
Functions could be performed equally well by non-nuclear family structures or other institutions.
Feminism: Family serves the needs of men and oppresses women (think Greer, Benston, Ansley, Firestone etc)
Marxism: Family meets the needs of Capitalism, not family members or society as a whole.
Functional Fit Theory (Parsons)
The particular structure and functions of a family type will “fit” the needs of the society it is found in.
Two kinds of family structure:
Nuclear family - parents and
dependent children - fits needs of
industrial society.
Extended family - three generations under one roof - fits needs of pre-industrial society.
When Britain industrialised from late 18th century onwards, extended family gave way to the nuclear family.
Parsons claims nuclear family has become the dominant family type today.
(Functionalism)
Criticism of Functional Fit Theory:
The pre-industrial family was nuclear.
Extended family has not disappeared. It performs important functions such as financial help, childcare and emotional support, even if they are not still under one roof.
Laslett: Found late childbearing and short life expectancy meant grandparents were unlikely to be alive for very long after their first grandchild was born.
Policy Link - Fletcher
Functionalists see policies as helping families to perform their functions more effectively and make life better for their members.
March of progress view.
Fletcher: Introduction of health, education and housing policies since industrial revolution - gradually led to welfare state that supports family in performing functions, e.g. NHS - with the help of doctors, hospitals etc, the family today is better able to care for its members when they’re unwell.
(Functionalism)
Two examples of government policies that support the family/its functions
Marriage allowance reduces tax on married couples.
Child benefit helps parents to pay for caring for their children.
Parsons - Geographically Mobile and Socially Mobile Workforce
When Britain began to industrialise, the extended family gave way to the nuclear.
The needs of industrial society were different to those of pre-industrial society. The family had to meet two essential needs:
They had to be a Geographically mobile workforce and socially mobile workforce.
(Functionalism)
Geographically Mobile Workforce
In pre-industrial society: whole life in the same village, working on the same farm.
In modern society: industries spring up and decline in different parts of the country (even different parts of the world).
Requires people to move where jobs are.
It’s easier for a compact nuclear family to move than a three-generation extended family.
The nuclear family fits the needs that modern industry has.
(Parsons)
(Functionalism)
Socially Mobile Workforce
Modern, industrial society based on constantly evolving science and tech - requires skilled workforce.
Essential that talented people win promotion and take the most important jobs - even if they come from humble backgrounds.
In modern society - you have achieved status, not ascribed status. This makes social mobility possible.
Nuclear family fits needs of industrial society better than extended family in this way:
Extended family - sons live at home where father has higher ascribed status as head of the house. However, a son may achieve a higher status than his father through his job. Parsons argued this inevitably leads to tension and conflict.
Solution? Adult sons to leave home when married and form their own nuclear family - encourages social mobility (as well as geographical mobility).
This mobile nuclear family is “structurally isolated” from the extended family - may keep in touch but no longer binding obligations towards them.
Different to the past where relatives had a duty to help one another e.g. at harvest time.
(Parsons)
(Functionalism)
Parsons - Loss of Functions and Structural Differentiation
Pre-industrial family = multi-functional unit, more self-sufficient than a nuclear family. Was a unit of production - members worked together on a farm or on a family business. Was a unit of consumption - feeding, clothing its members.
When society industrialised - family lost many of its functions. Work moved into factories - family now just a unit of consumption.
Family lost some of its functions due to the creation of specialised institutions e.g. schools, health service - structural differentiation.
Examples of structural differentiation in relation to the family.
Education: Family would teach children information and skills. Now, schools are teaching students from a young age in a specialised education system with professional, qualified staff.
Healthcare: Family used to care for sick members by itself. Now, healthcare is provided to all in the UK for free, takes care of sick people and tries to cure them in a hospital.
Welfare: Family used to look after each other closely, emotionally and economically. Now, state welfare looks after those in the country who are not so well off by providing them with money and potentially emotional support.
(Functionalism)
Parsons - Irreducible Functions
Because of loss of functions - modern nuclear family now specialises in just two essential or “irreducible” functions:
1. Primary socialisation of children: Equips them with societal values so they can co-operate and integrate.
2. Stabilisation of adult personalities: The family is a place where adults can relax/release tension. Enables them to return to the workplace refreshed. Beneficial for economy. “Warm bath theory” - man comes home from a hard day working, relaxes into his family like a warm bath.
(Functionalism)
Criticisms of Parsons’ Irreducible Functions
Marxists - children are socialised into the values of Capitalism e.g. teaching children to respect authority teaches them to be passive in later live, they will not rise up against the bourgeoisie.
Feminists - women face the worst of men taking out frustrations. Ansley says wives are the “takers of shit”. Connotations of domestic violence.
Further Critique of Functionalist View of Policy
Assumes all members of family benefit equally from social policies:
Feminists argue policies often benefit men at the expense of women.
Marxists argue policies benefit the bourgeoisie because they maintain the labour force e.g. the NHS keeps workers able to work, and they prevent revolution, e.g. the welfare state “buying off” the opposition.
New Right Views on Family
Strongly favour traditional nuclear family - married, heterosexual couple, male provider and female home-maker. This family type is especially successful in the socialisation of children.
Changed since the 1960s have led to greater family diversity - this threatens the family and leads to problems such as crime and welfare dependency e.g. divorce, cohabitation, same-sex partnerships and lone parenthood.
They argue that state policies have encouraged these issues. For example, increased rights for unmarried cohabitants (e.g pensions) give the signal that marriage is not important.
New Right view on 2020 Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act (which allows divorce without fault).
The New Right believes it leads to absent fathers, a lack of role models for sons, and single mothers dependent on the state.
New Right view on Sure Start Children’s Centres (launched in 1999), giving funding and support to single mothers.
The New Right believes this leads to the State becoming the carer for the child in question, less need for the father to provide, and encourages the mother to work rather than caring for the child.
New Right view on the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which allowed same sex marriage to be on the same level as heterosexual marriage.
The New Right believes this leads to a breakdown of the nuclear family in society, and more promiscuity.
Morgan
Successive government policies have destabilised the family - describes it as “war” between state and family.
Morgan on Marriage
Argues tax and benefit rules have been changed to remove any advantages for married couples.
State allows high divorce rates - this is damaging for children, because absent fathers = no role models for boys, no protectors for girls.
There’s been a drop in marriage - this has a negative impact on adult health, places more demand on housing, and is a strain on public services.
(New Right)
Morgan on Same-Sex Marriage
This redefines marriage as fulfilling a desire, not an institution designed to care/provide stability for children and promotes the view that marriage is not linked to becoming a parent.
Claims same sex marriages are often open relationships - Morgan argues this will encourage open relationships with heterosexual pairings, leading to infidelity and promiscuity.
(New Right)
State as the breadwinner, rather than the father
The state provides benefits to workless single parents - this is a financial incentive to separate or stay single because less is paid in benefits to two cohabiting/married parents.
(Morgan)
(New Right)
State as child carer
Increased support for childcare means mothers no longer need a male breadwinners support (i.e. he works, wife stays at home with children). This encourages women to work rather than care for their own children.
(Morgan)
(New Right)
Murray
Critical of welfare policy - “generous” benefits and council housing for unmarried teen mothers, encourages deviant family types that harm society.
Perverse incentives reward irresponsible behaviour e.g. if the state supports children, fathers will abandon their responsibility to their family. Lack of a father figure role model leads to male crime.
There is an underclass.
Current policies encourage dependency culture.
Threatens two functions of family -socialisation of the young, and the maintenance of work ethic in men.
(New Right)
New Right Solutions
Cuts to welfare spending.
Tighter restrictions on who qualifies for benefits, meaning fathers have more incentive to work and provide.
Denying council housing to unmarried teen mothers removes any incentive to be pregnant when young.
Introduce taxes that favour married, not cohabiting couples.
Evaluation of New Right View on Family
Functionalists - state welfare policies can benefit the family, help the state support the family better.
New Right - the less the state “interferes” in the family, the better family life will be due to greater self-reliance.
Benston (Marxist Feminist) would say that the New Right would have women working unpaid domestic labour in the home, and would force them to recreate the workforce at a greater rate.
Feminism would argue that having women in the home is oppression, and New Right policies would force women away from being independent.
Abbott and Wallace (critics of New Right)
Cutting benefits drives poor families into more poverty, makes them even less self-reliant.
Ignores policies that do support conventional nuclear families.
Assumes patriarchal nuclear family to be “natural” rather than socially constructed.
Policies of the Conservative Governments 1979-1997 in line with New Right Views
Section 28: Ban on promoting homosexuality as an acceptable family relationship in schools.
Child Support Agency (today known as Child Maintenance Service): Enforcing maintenance payments by absent parents (often fathers). This discourages fathers from leaving because they will be forced to pay for the child anyway.
Policies of the Conservative Governments 1979-1997 NOT in line with New Right Views
Measures to make divorce easier.
Child Support Agency (because it legitimises the idea of absent parents).
Giving “illegitimate children born outside of wedlock the same rights as those born to married parents.
New Labour Governments 1997-2010 and the New Right
Some similarity between New Right and New Labour:
Family as the bedrock of society.
Heterosexual married couple as the best environment for bringing up children.
Need for partners to take responsibility - introduced “Parenting Orders” policy for parents of young offenders.
Differences:
Favoured “dual earner” family - recognised women go out to work too now.
Henricson
Labour government of 1997-2010 mostly embraced social liberalism.
Examples of policies in line with this are:
2002 Adoption Act which allowed same-sex couples to adopt children.
2004 Civil Partnership Act - legal union of same-sex relationships.
However, also introduced interventionist policies to support low-income families.
Examples of policies in line with this are:
Sure Start Centres in deprived areas to provide help and advice.
Working Families Tax Credits introduced in 1999 (and later Child Tax Credits) which were benefits paid to low-income working parents.
Henricson argues that the result of these interventionist policies was a 25% reduction in child poverty. However, they also introduced controlling policies such as the 2003 change to Parenting Orders which allowed for welfare benefits to be withdrawn if parents did not attend parenting training.
Conservatives (2010-2024) and The New Right
Hayton:
Hayton argues the Conservatives have long been divided into 2 groups:
Modernisers: Recognise families are more diverse now and are willing to reflect this in policy e.g. sae-sex marriage introduced by conservative government.
Traditionalists: Favour the New Right approach - reject family diversity as morally wrong.
This division has made it hard to maintain consistent family policy for the Conservatives.
Traditionalist influence was also weakened by the Liberal Democrat coalition (2010-15)
Critics argue that Conservative financial austerity policies reflect the New Right desire to cut welfare spending.
However, the Conservatives failed to introduce policies to promote the New Right nuclear family ideal e.g. when they introduced shared parental leave (2015) and increased free childcare for working parents (2017)
Marxist view of the family
The functions of the family serve Capitalism
Engels - Inheritance of Private Property
In primitive communism, there is no family but instead a “promiscuous horde”.
As the mode of production changes, so does the family.
Increased wealth = private property emerges, giving rise to the monogamous patriarchal nuclear family.
Monogamy is essential to this - private property has to be inherited by a legitimate heir. The legitimacy of the heir is supported by there being no confusion over who is the father or mother, due to monogamy.
Women’s sexuality under male control - they are there to produce children.
Solution? Overthrow of Capitalism and abolition of private property - liberate women and create a classless society.
(Marxism)
Ideological Functions of the Family
The family carries out ideological functions for Capitalism, such as socialising children that inequality and hierarchy is inevitable/unavoidable - often that male power is the norm as well (father is often the head of the household).
Teaches children to accept orders from the bourgeoisie once employed.
(Marxism)
Zaretsky
The family offers a “haven” from the harsh world of Capitalism - workers can be themselves at home. Similar to the warm bath theory.
However, this is an illusion.
The family cannot meet its members’ needs e.g. it is based on the domestic servitude of women, so is not meeting their needs.
(Marxism)
Marcuse - Family as a Unit of Consumption
Family is no longer a unit of production (working on a farm, making things etc).
Capitalism encourages “family life” in their image - parents feel compelled to buy the commodities and household goods marketed to families.
Family is an important market in the economy because it consumes the latest products (kids want the latest trends), the media targets children to persuade their parents to buy things, and children are mocked or bullied if they don’t have the latest products.
(Marxism)
Hochschild
All aspects of life are commodified, including family/emotional life e.g. party planners, care workers - forms of emotional labour becoming consumer services for Capitalism to profit from.
This results in alienation - we are estranged from activities that used to be personal and from others.
We even become estranged from ourselves (become less human) e.g. surrogate mothers are estranged from the pregnancy and the baby because it makes it easier to give the baby away if the mother does not think of it as hers - this is a market where a child is the commodity.
(Marxism)
Evaluation of Marxist Views of Family
Functionalists - ignore benefits of family for its members
Feminists - argue Marxists underestimate the importance of gender inequality within the family. The family serves the interests of men.
Marxist Policy Link
Policies benefit only the ruling class and interests of Capitalism:
Ideological legitimation - masking Capitalist exploitation (e.g. the welfare state gives Capitalism a more “human face”).
Maintain labour force e.g. NHS - keeps workers able to work.
Prevents revolution by “buying off” opposition (welfare state).
Liberal Feminists on Family
Oppression is gradually being overcome through changing attitudes and policy e.g. some men now do domestic work.
Full equality in the family however, depends on more reform and changing the way both sexes are socialised.
Somerville - principled pragmatism
Marxist Feminists on Family
The main cause of women’s oppression in the family is Capitalism
Their oppression serves several functions for Capitalism:
Benston - The family reproduces the labour force - unpaid labour is done and the next generation of the Proletariat is socialised.
Ansley - absorption of anger (domestic violence)
Reserve army of cheap labour.
Family should be abolished, as well as Capitalism.
Radical Feminists on Family
Family and marriage are key institutions in the patriarchy.
Family is the root of women’s oppression.
Men benefit from women’s domestic labour and sexual services. They dominate women through violence, or the threat of it.
Family should be abolished - separatism is the solution (some argue for political lesbianism).
Greer - matrilocal households
Difference Feminists on Family
Others assume women live in nuclear families and have similar experiences. Difference Feminists say this is not true.
Black feminists view the black family as a source of support and resistance against racism.
A black single-mother family supported by multiple female adults is an example of a matrifocal family (with women as the head of the family, not a family with only women), which can be considered empowering rather than oppressive.
Nicholson
The traditional nuclear family is a myth and an ideology has been constructed to support it.
Alternative families have been devalued because they don’t conform to this ideology e.g. unmarried couples, childless couples, gay and lesbian families.
There are great variations in family type (based on class, religion, ethnicity etc) - other feminist perspectives ignore these types.
(Difference Feminism)
Critiques of Feminist Views on Family
Marxists and Radical Feminists - see Liberal Feminism as failing to get to the root cause.
Somerville - Radical Feminists fail to recognise progress e.g. divorce being easier, control over fertility etc. Also separatism is unlikely due to the simple fact of heterosexual attraction.
Difference Feminists ignore the fact that all women do share similar experiences e.g. they all face the risk of domestic violence, lower pay etc.
Land - Self-fulfilling prophecy
Policies assume the ideal “normal” family is a patriarchal nuclear family. The state assumes normal families are based on marriage.
This impacts policy, such as when tax incentives are offered to married couples.
This then reinforces the idea of the nuclear family at the expense of other types of family: for example, marriage is encouraged instead of cohabitation.
Policy makes it more difficult for people to live in other family types than the one policymakers assume they live in.
(Feminism)
Policies supporting the Patriarchy
Feminists see the state as helping to maintain women’s oppression in the family. Even Somerville recognises the need for more “family friendly” policies like more flexible working.
Tax and benefit policies assume husbands are the main wage earners: this leads to economic dependence on the husband for the wife. It can make it impossible for wives to claim social security benefits in their own right - it is seen that husbands will provide.
The government only pays part of the cost for childcare: women are often restricted from working as they need to care for children. This makes them financially dependent on the male partner.
Policies assuming the family will care for the elderly or sick end up making women do the caring. This prevents them from working full-time and makes them dependent on male income again.
(Feminism)
Leonard
Even when policies appear to support women, they still enforce patriarchal control e.g. maternity leave.
Maternity leave - more generous than paternity leave, encourages the assumption that care of infants is the responsibility of mothers.
Maternity benefits are also low - this makes the woman dependent on her husband.
Child benefit is often paid to the mother - this assumes the child is her responsibility.
(Feminism)
Examples of policy not supporting patriarchy
1970 equal pay act.
Somerville - policy leading to positive change e.g. sex discrimination act (1975) made it so one cannot discriminate in employment.
Rape within marriage made illegal in 1991.
2010 Equality Act made pregnancy a protected characteristic.
2020 Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act.
(Feminism, especially Liberal)
Drew - Gender Regimes
Social policies in different countries can encourage or discourage gender equality in the family - this highlights how influential policy can be.
(Feminism)
Familistic Gender Regimes
Policies based on traditional male breadwinner and female housewife.
Example - Greece: little state welfare, traditional division of labour.
(Drew)
(Feminism)
Individualistic gender regimes
Policies based on the belief husbands and wives should be treated the same.
Wives are not assumed to be financially dependent on husbands - each partner has separate entitlement to state benefits.
Example - Sweden: equal opportunities policies, state childcare - women don’t have to depend on husband, more opportunities to work.
The EU is moving towards this, but it requires money for welfare and the 2008 financial crisis put them back.
When was the One Child Policy brought in in China?
1979, written into the constitution in 1982.
Why was the One Child Policy brought in in China?
China had huge overpopulation problems, which strained their resources and welfare systems.
What adjustments were made to the One Child Policy in China over time and why?
By the mid-1980s, rural parents were allowed to have a second child if the first was a girl. Exceptions were also allowed for ethnic minorities with under 10 million population. By 1984, only 35.4% of the population was subject to the rules after numerous other exceptions were made. In 2015 it was changed to two children, and in May 2021 to three. In July 2021, the policy was scrapped, and soon there were benefits in place to incentivise having more children.
What benefits did couples get who followed the One Child Policy in China?
Free childcare, higher tax allowance, and their only child gets better priority in education and housing later on than secondary children from any other families.
What happened to couples who broke the One Child Policy in China?
They could face fines, and the women could be forcibly sterilised or be forced to abort children or put children up for adoption.
How does the One Child Policy in China link to Donzelot?
It links to Donzelot because he said that family policies are in place to control and police the family.
Family Policy in Communist Romania
The opposite problem to China was taking place - the birth rate was not high enough.
It had been falling as living standards steadily declined.
Measures included:
Restricted contraception and abortion.
Setting up infertility centres.
Making divorce more difficult.
Lowering the legal age of marriage to 15.
Making unmarried adults and childless couples pay an extra 5% income tax.
Family Policy in Nazi Germany
Encouraged racial purity to breed a master race - restricted abortion and contraception.
Kept women out of work.
Children, Kitchen and Church were the roles of women.
State compulsory sterilisation of 375,000 disabled people - seen as unfit to breed.
Many undesirables of this sort later killed in concentration camps.
What 3 things were women expected to be involved in in Nazi Germany?
Children, kitchen, church.
How did the Nazis encourage women to have children?
People looking to get married could get marriage loans which were written off if the couple had enough children. Medals and financial rewards were given to women who had more children.
How was the position of women in Nazi Germany different to the past?
Women were banned from working, and women who did not have a job were not counted as unemployed. In education they were taught that their traditional role was natural. Feminine clothing was encouraged instead of trousers, and women were expected not to wear makeup.
