Functionalist view - EVAL

Question 1

How do conflict theorists criticise functionalist views of the family?

Answer 1

• it paints a too idyllicand rosy picture of family life
• Many people have a negative experience of family life
• families can cause stress rather than relieve it like the warm bath theory suggests
• Feminists = family only benefits the men - having a wife that will take care of them and do everything they ask for whilst limiting them from following any aspirations they may have for their own lives.
• Marxists = the family only benefits the bourgeoisie by preventing a revolution through the cushioning effect (Zaretsky)

Question 2

Fran Ansley (Marxist-feminist)

Answer 2

• Offers an alternative perspective on Parson’s warm bath theory - ‘takers of shit’
• women are ‘takers of shit’ meaning that upon returning from work men relieve all their stress by dumping it on their wives

Question 3

Outdated

Answer 3

these theories suggest families are all traditional nuclear families with men going to work as the breadwinner (instrumental role) and women in domestic roles (expressive roles)

due to a rise in feminism and changes to legislation (EG equal pay act 1970 and equality act 2010) there are more females in the work place and taking on the instrumental role.

Due to the pandemic there are more fathers working from home who are taking on more childcare and domestic responsibilities

Willmott and Young = joint conjugal roles and symmetrical family