Oakley on the Family

Question 1

Ann Oakley

Answer 1

• Focused on what she called the conventional family - a family unit comprising a married couple and their children
• Examined the way in which this was perceived to be the norm in society - how it became a form of social control for individuals in society

Question 2

How the conventional family acts as a form of control

Answer 2

• Social expectations of getting married and having children
• Male was the primary wage-earner and the female the primary care-giver
• Social pressures to conform repressed women’s career ambitions and alternative forms of relationships and personal lifestyles

Question 3

Changes to the conventional family

Answer 3

• Rise of Cohabitation and other alternatives to the conventional family began in the 1980s
• Women’s involvement in paid employment saw delay of marriage and childbirth, resulted in women having a dual burden of paid employment and domestic labour
• This meant that the conventional family was seen by some to have become an archaic stereotype

Question 4

Feminist Methodology

Answer 4

• Oakley pioneered use of feminist interviewing in her research - adopting a more empathetic approach to interviewing
• Unstructured interviews where she developed a rapport with subjects and helped them to address problems and issues through offering guidance
• Reaction to the cold and clinical research methods employed by more traditional malestream sociology

Question 5

Importance of Oakley’s research

Answer 5

• Highlighted changing patterns in family life and noted the movement away from traditional ideas of gender roles in the family
• Gave a voice to women and examined the ways in which social control impacts on their experiences
• Examined the reasons for changing social attitudes and challenged long-held assumptions about family life

Question 6

Evaluations of Oakleys research

Answer 6

• Methodology makes Oakley’s research highly subjective and based upon interpretations of her sample
• Chester argued that the functions of the conventional family had changed, but the structure remained intact - may be more dual earner families, but the neo-conventional family was still the most typical form