MT2 - Theories on the role of the family Flashcards
Murdock
Family has four functions: (SEER)
Sexual: A healthy sex life of married couples prevents them from having affairs and children are brought up by their natural parents.
Economic: providing food and shelter, segregated conjugal roles.
Educational: primary socialisation of children.
Reproductive: bearing children, maintains the society.
Parsons
The family structure changed from extended family in the traditional pre-industrial to nuclear in modern industrial going through structural differentiation
Family now has two functions
1) Primary socialisation: passing society’s norms and values onto new generations.
2) Stabilising adult personalities (the ‘warm bath’ theory): the family is a warm, friendly place where the working man’s stresses are soaked away and he is ‘de-stressed’ by his wife, which reduces conflict in society
Criticisms of functionalist theories
Ansley - Parsons’ warm bath theory describes women in the family as takers of shit - men coming home from work may have their stress relieved by the family, but only by dumping it on their wives.
Murdock is too optimistic and positive in his views; he ignores the negative aspects/darker side of family life such as domestic abuse.
Liberal feminists
new legisalation e.g sex Discrimination Act/Equal Pay Act has lead to equality in the family
Somerville argues women’s role within the family has improved significantly, they now have better access to divorce, control over their own fertility, less social pressure to marry and better job opportunities as mothers.
Radical feminists
The family exploits women
Society is patriarchal therefore, men are the enemy (the source of women’s oppression and exploitation).
It is within the family that men dominate women through sexual abuse or the threat of it because they benefit from women’s free domestic labour and sexual services.
Marxist Feminists
capitalism is the main source of of women’s oppression
1) women perform unpaid domestic work such as reproducing the future workforce
2) Ansley act as ‘takers of shit’ as they absorb men’s anger (at their exploitation at work) by performing sexual/emotional services which maintain emotionally healthy men because they take out the frustrations of work on women through abuse instead on capitalism.
Women are also a ‘reserve army of labour’ - WWI
Feminist criticisms
Radical Feminists ignore the position of women in society has improved considerably, e.g. access to divorce, better job opportunities, control over their fertility, etc. Ignore domestic/emotional abuse suffered by men who often don’t report it
Liberal Feminists are too optimistic in thinking that legal changes are enough to lead to a change in social attitudes, e.g. the Equal Pay Act was introduced in 1970, but women still earn 15% less than men.
Difference Feminists argue that we can’t generalise about women’s experiences as different women experience patriarchy in different ways and to a different extent.
Personal Life perspective
argues that all the other theories are outdated because they all assume the nuclear family is the dominant type when there is family diversity today
New Right NF threat
Nuclear family is under threat because of increasing divorce rates, too generous welfare benefits and the influence of feminism
Murray
because of increasing family diversity there are now two groups in society:
1) Underclass: unemployed, single mothers who are dependent on benefits who can not socialise their children properly so the children fail in education and turn to crime.
2) New Victorians: respectable middle class who work, pay taxes, marry and socialise their children properly.
New right criticisms
many nuclear families fail to socialise their children properly.
Cutting benefits for lone parents would also make innocent children suffer
Feminists have accused the New Right of being sexist - they ignore the fact that with rising cost of living, a man’s income is not enough to support a family
Althusser
The family is an ideological state apparatus
Children are socialised into the idea that inequality and hierarchy is inevitable as the family passes on the ruling class ideology to future generations who then accept the system as fair.
This prepares them for a working life where they will accept the orders of the capitalist employers which maintains false class consciousness.
Engels
The monogamous nuclear family only emerged with Capitalism as before Capitalism, traditional tribal societies were classless so they practised a form of ‘primitive communism’ and existed in ‘promiscuous horde’ in which there were no restrictions on sexual relationships.
The role of the family is to control women’s relationships with men to guarantee paternity and provide legitimate heirs for them to pass on their private property to.
Marxist criticisms
Feminists argue that the Marxist focus on class ignores the inequalities between men and women, which is the real source of female oppression
Deterministic theory as it assumes everyone passively accepts the ruling class ideology
