Sociological explanations on the family

Question 1

what is the functionalist argument of the family?

Answer 1

that the family is a central social institution that allows society to work together in a consensus and meet the needs of its members through the organic analogy

Question 2

What does George Murdock (1949) argue ?

Answer 2

1. family reproduces and creates social solidarity in the next generation
2. meeting family members functional pre-requisites
3. providing a stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner

Question 3

How does Parsons (1955) analyse Murdock?

Answer 3

argues extended families are structured to reflect the:
1. geographically immobile

2. socially immobile
3. productive nature of the family in pre-industrial societies.

Question 4

What is the first way Marxists argue about the family?

Answer 4

the monogamous nuclear family developed to allow private property to be inherited in the emerging capitalist system.

Question 5

What does Engels (1884) argue?

Answer 5

the ‘bourgeois family’ emerged with capitalism.

The ownership of private property by men required a family structure that guaranteed intergenerational transfers of property to legitimate heirs.

So, couples had to be constrained in the monogamous, nuclear family.

Question 6

How does Carroll (1975) analyse Engels?

Answer 6

Engels’ historical analysis of the family are broadly supported by modern anthropology and archaeology.

Engels’ central prediction that patrilineal inheritance is associated with the subjugation of women is supported by data from over 400 societies.

Question 7

What is the second marxists argument in the family?

Answer 7

the family serves ideological functions, in transmitting ruling-class ideas and values, as well as providing a ‘haven’ from capitalism.

Question 8

Who argues the family passes on the ideology of the dominant class in society?

Answer 8

Zaretsky (1976)

Question 9

What is Zaretsky’s main argument?

Answer 9

1. family produces false consciousness is by socialising children to respect social hierarchies with the authority of the paternal father figure. So, reproduces the capitalist system so that no one will go against bosses in the workplace.
2. the second way is by cushioning the damage caused by capitalism. On the one hand, care and love in the family can relieve stress created by capitalism. On the other hand, capitalism gives people a reason not to overthrow capitalism by creating dependency.

Question 10

What do radical feminists argue about the family?

Answer 10

the family, marriage, and domestic abuse against women are core to patriarchy which is the core system of social stratification in society. They call for ‘political lesbianism’ to avoid heterosexual relationships and build feminist, all-women households.

Question 11

What is the two evidence for the radical feminists argument?

Answer 11

1. Refugee research (2023) found 25% of women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime and 84% of victims are women
2. Ann Oakley ( found only 15% of husbands have a high level of participation in housework and only 25% in childcare.

Question 12

How does Germaine Greer (2000) analyse radical feminists?

Answer 12

advocates for all-women households

sees the heterosexual family as fundamentally patriarchal. They therefore advocate for the creation of all-women households and only lesbian relationships.

Question 13

What is the marxist feminist point of the family?

Answer 13

the family, marriage, and abuse maintain a capitalist system that is premised upon the exploitation and oppression of women

This idea is summed up by the phrase ‘capitalist patriarchy’

Question 14

What does Ansley argue?

Answer 14

women are “takers of shit”. This phrase means women are the survivors of abuse misdirected by working-class men from its source in the ruling-class to women.

they should misdirect their anger and resentment at the ruling-class who control them and benefit from the capitalist system. Instead men mis(direct) anger at women.

Question 15

How does Kollontai analyse marxist feminists?

Answer 15

called for the creation of a “great universal family of workers”.
This would replace women’s responsibility for housework and childcare alongside their growing paid work. This work would be done by the communist society.

e.g public restaurants, maternetity homes and

Question 16

What is the Personal life argument?

Answer 16

micro-scale personal life viewpoint stresses that kinship are ‘practises’ created through actions as the self develops in relationships with others, resulting in ‘fictive kin’.

Question 17

Who argues the family and kinship are relationship processes and actions, or ‘practises’, rather than fixed social structure or institution.

Answer 17

Carroll Smart (2011)

Question 18

What is Smart (2011) main argument?

Answer 18

found relationships with friends, LGBTQ+ ‘chosen families’ all form part of how people practise kinship relationships in society.

shows family is not a fixed institution determined by biology.

Instead, it is a ‘practice’ created through the process of people relating to one another.

Question 19

How did Nordqvist and Smart (2014) analyse

Answer 19

find adopted and surrogate families construct conventional kinship relations.

On the one hand, adopted and surrogate families emphasise the normal family structures they replicate, like heterosexual relationships, nuclear family structures, or the qualities of being a ‘good parent’.

On the other hand, these families deemphasise their distance from conventional family structures the parts of kinship relations by playing down similiarties in physical appearance

Question 20

What is the Black feminist argument on the family ?

Answer 20

lack working-class women face a unique experience of oppression and therefore have constructed the family as a site of resistance.

Question 21

What is the 2 evidence for the black feminists argument?

Answer 21

Hillary Potter (2006) argues black working-class women experience the ‘triple oppression’ of intersecting structures of race, class, and gender.

This is supported by ONS statistics from 2023 supporting this, finding Black women in the UK were 9% more likely to experience domestic abuse.

Question 22

What is Hillary Potter’s (2006) main argument?

Answer 22

‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ to highlight how race, class, and gender interweave.

Question 23

How does Carby (1982) analyse

Answer 23

argues the black family can be a site of resistance to oppression.

For example, in systems of enslavement family units provided care, joy, and protection for black people from the violence of the white plantation owners.

In a similar vein, at present, the black family can provide emotional and financial support in the face of increasing police violence, media hostility, and public violence towards black people.