Perspectives of the family and Social Policy Flashcards
What was functionalist, G P Murdock’s theory of the family (1949)
Nuclear family performed 4 crucial functions necessary for the running of society and personal development of individuals :
-Reproduction
-Sexual stabilisation
-Economic stability
-Socialisation
How does the function of reproduction benefit society and the family’s members? (Murdock)
Society
-Produce next generation to keep society running / workers
Family
-Children = symbol of parent’s love
How does the function of sexual stabilisation benefit society and the family’s members? (Murdock)
Society
-prevent social disruption caused by sexual ‘free for all’
Family
-Creates powerful and emotional bond between a couple and encourages life long commitment
How does the function economic stability benefit society and family members ? (Murdock)
Society
-Productive workers = family contributing to the running of the economy
Family
-Children dependent on parents for economic needs so can protect and care for them
How does the function socialisation benefit society and the family’s members? (Murdock)
Society
-Teaches norms and values and prevents crime ( deviance )
Family
-So the individual can function and thrive in society
What are the two functions of the family (Parsons) ?
-Primary socialisation
-Stabilisation of adult personalities (SOAP)
Warm bath theory
Instrumental and expressive role
Criticisms of the functionalist view of the family
-Family diversity
-Women now go to work
-Rose tinted perspective ‘Dark side of the family ‘
-Patriarchal: women exploited
Evidence for support of the functionalist view of family
-Many still aspire for the nuclear family
-Media promotes nuclear family
What is the pre industrial family (parsons)
-Extended family
-Ascribed status
-Unit of production
More people to contribute in producing what they needed
What is the post industrial family (parsons)
-Isolated nuclear family
-Achieved status
-Unit of consumption
(Easier to move to city where the jobs were)
What is the focus of the new right perspective?
A collection of right wing ideas that advocates neo-liberal economics, anti-welfareism, a belief in traditional morality and minimal government interference.
What was Charles Murray’s perspective?
-New Right theorist
What did Charles Murray say about anti-welfareism ?
-State interferes too much in people’s personal lives.Too many people have become over-dependent on the state, particularly the welfare state.This has resulted in a ‘nanny state’ (governs health, fitness, eating and drinking habits)
-State benefits need to be cut so members of the underclass are forced to look for work
What does Murray say the welfare state has resulted in ?
-The emergence of the underclass
-A distinct subculture of people who are economically deprived as they have lost the inclination to look for work due to the availability of state benefits
-Reliance on the welfare state has created a dependency culture, creating perverse incentives ( rewarding irresponsible behaviour, e.g giving pregnant teenagers council houses)
What do New Right sociologists recommend with regards to the family?
-Parents should be married (Heterosexual)
-Mothers stay at home and look after children full time
-Families should not receive benefits or state intervention
Reasons why the nuclear family is under attack (New Right)
Because the state social policy has:
-Encouraged women to abandon family responsibilities by promoting equal opportunity and pay in the workplace
-Divorce easier = marriage undermined
-Resulted in too many families becoming dependent on benefits (often fatherless).These families become part of a deviant underclass, committing crimes as they haven’t properly been socialised
Criticisms of the new right theory?
-No solution to poverty
-Fails to keep up with modern trends e.g feminisation of the workforce, increased life expectancy, changes in fertility rates
What perspective was Friedrich Engels and what was his view of the nuclear family?
-Marxist perspective
-Inheritance of property-
-Monogamous nuclear family emerged only after industrialisation to protect private property
-Useful to ruling class as it conferred legitimacy on children and so they could ensure their fortunes were inherited by their heirs.
What perspective was Zaretsky (1976) and what was his view of the nuclear family?
-Marxist perspective
-Directly challenged Parsons who believed nuclear family was positive for society as it promoted social order and stability
-Nuclear family mainly benefits capitalism and the ruling class at the expense of other members of society. It does this in 3 ways:
-Ideological functions
-Cult of private life
-Unit of consumption
How does Zaretsky criticise the function of socialisation in the family?
Ideological functions:
-The working class experience of socialisation usually involves learning obedience ( e.g ‘ do as your told’), conformity and showing respect for those in authority etc. This results in adults who are conformists and passive citizens who accept inequality and exploitation as the ‘natural’ state of things, known as false class conciousness
what is false class conciousness?
- The idea that someone’s social class position is ‘normal’ and unchangeable. This stops society from challenging inequality.
-Taught to us by the nuclear family
How does Zaretsky criticise the function of stabilisation of adult personalities in the family?
Cult of Private life;
The real function is to help workers manage their resentment of the capitalist system.
-Workers tolerate their powerlessness and frustration of being at exploited at work because at home they are at the top of the hierarchy and need to focus on providing for the family.
-The family dampens these feelings as the worker is unlikely to engage in actions that threatens their income.
How does Zaretsky criticise the economic and reproductive function of the family?
Unit of consumption;
the family is a unit of consumption
-‘Keeping up with the Jones’- by consuming all the latest products. Advertisements encourage this and causes competition between families
-‘Pester power’- the media targets children who use this pester power to persuade parents to buy things for their children
Strengths of the Marxist perspective of the family?
-the nuclear family isn’t always good for society. Family diversity = good
-Drawn attention to the fact that powerful interests may be shaping family life in the UK
Criticisms of the Marxist perspective of the family?
-Working class parents may be aware of the inequality but do not resist as they are comfortable and are willing to dismiss inequality as a lesser evil
-Ignores the amount of family diversity
-Feminists; Blame social class too much and underestimates the inequality within the family. Family serves the interests of men not capitalism.
-Functionalists; Marxists ignore the benefits to the nuclear family and that the family provides for its members.
Is feminism a conflict or consensus theory?
Conflict
What are the 4 strands of feminism?
-Liberal
-Radical
-Marxist
-Difference
Who do liberal feminists blame for the gender inequality?
-The institutions not men (individuals who run the institutions)
What type of feminist is Sommerville and what did she mean by ‘ a march of progress’?
-Liberal
-Refers to how liberal feminists acknowledge the positive changes that have already been made in society to make it more equal between genders
-For example, the Sex Discrimination Act
What are the two key functions that feminists argue the nuclear family performs?
-Socialisation
-Unequal labour
What is the meaning of gender role socialisation?
-The process of children learning the differences between male and female.
-Feminists argue that parents use it to teach children that males are dominant and females are subordinate
According to Ann Oakley (liberal) how are children socialised into their gender identities?
-Manipulation : Rewarding gender appropriate behaviour
-canalisation: Giving gender specific toys
What is meant by the triple shift?
-A term used by feminists
-Refers to the three roles that women are expected to perform for the family: Emotional support, domestic labour and paid work
(Marsden and Dunscombe)
What is meant by the dual burden?
-A term used by feminists
-Refers to the two traditional roles that women are expected to play in the family: Paid work, domestic labour
What is the perspective of marxist feminists?
- All labour ( paid and domestic) is exploited by the ruling class
-In the capitalist society this is the upper classes, in the family this is the men.
Benston)
3 reasons the nuclear family is beneficial to the men and capitalist class but negative for women?
-Women produce and socialise the future workforce ( this is unpaid domestic labour)
-Women’s unpaid domestic labour. This includes: housework as well as sexual services, which makes sure the male workforce is fit and healthy for work and are productive
-Women soak up men’s frustrations with their jobs and capitalism in form of domestic violence
What feminist is Ansley and what does she mean by ‘women are ‘takers of shit’?
-Marxist feminist
-Men are frustrated with their low rank at work and take this frustration out on their wives in the form of domestic violence. This asserts their power to make up for their lack of it in the workplace.
-Women therefore act as a safety valve for capitalism as they take the frustration out on their wives instead of their bosses
(similar to cult of private life -Marxism)
What do radical feminists believe?
-Men always have and always will have power over women unless we look into different ways of living E.G female only communes
-The monogamous nuclear family must be abolished
What do Delphy and Leonard say about the family?
-Husbands exploit their wives despite genuinely loving them
-Women’s role within a marriage is to flatter her husband and to provide emotional support for him. In contrast men rarely perform this function
(Criticised for ‘menhating’
What is difference feminism?
What is the functionalist view on social policy?
-See it as a positive thing as it helps families to perform their functions more effectively and make life better for their members (Organic analogy- the gov introduces policies to ensure society runs smoothly
However, they do not agree with social policies regarding divorce (except Neo functionalists) because you need both the man and the woman to perform all the functions.
What is the Neo functionalist view on divorce?
Fletcher (1966)-
- Divorce can be functional if it leads to reconstitution.
-If the family has broken down it can not perform its functions effectively
What is the New Right view on social policy?
-The state should play a minimal role in peoples life as social policy and benefits leads to a reliance on welfare and promotes deviant family types through perverse incentives
What is the feminist view on social policy?
-Liberal feminists like Sommervile, Sharpe and Oakley believe the social policies relating to equal opportunities in the workforce/ education system have improved the position of women in the home
-However, some argue that the feminisation of the economy has added to their responsibility (dual burden_
What is the Marxist view on social policy?
-Leads to false class consciousness . Benefits and the welfare state are insignificant and are not actually helping as much as they think
-The state serves the interests of capitalism and they see policy as serving the following purposes: It aims to disguise or hide capitalism expoitation, it maintains the workforce, it buys off WC opposition and prevents a revolt by supporting the WC
What does Donzelot say on social policy?
Conflict view
-He argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families, he calls this the ‘policing of families’.
-Poor families are more likely to be seen as ‘problem’ families and as the cause of crime and anti social behaviour.
E.G they may seek to control and regulate family life by imposing compulsory parenting orders through courts
What is The Beveridge Report and who published it and when?
Published by William Beveridge in 1942
Helped to establish the Welfare state after the war
People had the right to be free of the ‘five giants’ (idleness, ignorance, squalor, disease, want)
Direct policy
-A policy that directly affects the family
E.G
Abortion laws
Divorce Laws
Adoption Laws
Indirect policy
-A policy that does not directly affect the family, but still has some affect
E.G
Education policies
Workplace policies
What does Somerville say about the family (liberal fem)
The picture of the family painted by some feminists of women being exploited by men in families is outdated. There has been a ‘March of progress’ in the last 50 years due to social policies, which have increased women’s freedoms and choices, allowing the greater equality within the family. For example, the Equal pay act 1970 has enabled women to contribute to the household income, improving their position in the family as they are not economically independent on their husbands.
What is Parsons functional fit theory
-The privatised nuclear family has evolved historically from the extended family due to industrialisation in order to ‘fit’ the needs and perform the functions of post industrial society. In pre industrial society families were a unit of production and so were often large so that members could carry out different roles .
-However, the privatised nuclear family emerged as it was better suited to carrying out post industrial society’s needs: A geographically mobile workforce and a socially mobile workforce.
The nuclear family provides a more geographically mobile workforce as it is smaller than the extended family and so it is easier for them to move to areas where the jobs are. The nuclear family also encourages social mobility as in modern society, status is achieved through merit rather than ascribed at birth based on family background like it was during pre industrial society and so this allows a more skilled and technically competent workforce. As a result, the nuclear family has become structurally isolated from their extended Kin. Parsons (and others) calls this the privatised nuclear family
Anne Oakley- Gender role socialisation
-Gender role socialisation serves to maintain patriarchy and the inequalities between men and women by teaching girls their subordinate position from an early age through two key processes. Manipulation, which is where parents reward children with gender appropriate behaviour, such as calling them ‘pretty princess’ for a girl and ‘strong’ for a boy. Another process used is canalisation, where children are given gender specific toys. For example, giving a girl a kitchen set or a baby doll and a boy dinosaurs and cars
