theories of family

Question 1

Murdock (functionalist) argues that the family performs FOUR essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members:

Answer 1

Stable satisfaction of the sex drive- same partner, reducing the social disruption of promiscuity.
Reproduction: without this, society could not continue!
Socialisation: familiarising children with societies norms and values.
Economic: Providing food and shelter

Question 2

PARSONS ‘Functional Fit’

Answer 2

There are 2 basic types of society:
Pre-industrial – (extended family- 3 generations under 1 roof)
Modern industrial – (nuclear family-parents and children)

Question 3

Industrial society’s needs…

Answer 3

A GEOGRAPHICALLY MOBILE WORKFORCE
A SOCIALLY MOBILE WORKFORCE

Question 4

A GEOGRAPHICALLY MOBILE WORKFORCE

Answer 4

In pre-industrial society, people often lived and worked in the same village. However, in modern industrial society, people often have to move to where jobs are.
Parsons argues it is easier for the smaller, nuclear family to move than the extended family of more than 3 generations!

Question 5

A SOCIALLY MOBILE WORKFORCE:

Answer 5

Modern industrial society: Constantly up-skilling and evolving. As such, it is important that people are able to win promotions and take on new roles.
Because status is achieved rather than ascribed, the nuclear family is better equipped for allowing sons and daughters to move out of the home and adopt new roles. They will then go on to start their own nuclear families and become ‘socially mobile’.

Question 6

structural differentiation

Answer 6

Parsons argues that as the family moves into modern-industrial society and becomes nuclear, it loses some of its key functions
Structural differentiation has meant the National Health Service, education and welfare services has removed many of the functions of the family

However: Fletcher points out, with the growth of welfare services the function of the family in contemporary society has changed by adding more responsibility onto the family

Question 7

FRIEDRICH ENGELS (1891)

Answer 7

Engels states that this change brought about the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family. monogamy was essential to ensure that men could be certain of the paternity of their children- this was so that their children could inherit private property!
It turned women into mere ‘instruments’ for the production of children’.

Question 8

ELI ZARETSKY (1976)

Answer 8

Zaretsky states that the family performs an ideological function as a ‘haven’ away from the harshness of a capitalist society.
He argues that this is all an illusion as the family cannot meet its members’ needs.

Question 9

A UNIT OF CONSUMPTION

Answer 9

The family is an important market for the sale of consumer goods. Therefore, Marxists say they generate profit.
Through consuming advertisement ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.

Question 10

4 types of feminists

Answer 10

liberal
Marxist
radical
difference feminists

Question 11

liberal feminists

Answer 11

They campaign against sex discrimination and for equal rights/ opportunities for women. EG: Equal pay. EG: Sex Discrimination Act (1975).

Question 12

criticisms of liberal feminists

Answer 12

Other feminists argue that Liberal feminists fail to identify the root cause of women’s oppression.
They are ‘deluded’ by the idea that changes in the law have made any real differences to achieving equality.

Question 13

Marxists feminists

Answer 13

The main cause of women’s oppression in the family is not men, but capitalism!
women reproduce the labour force:
Through unpaid domestic work

Question 14

Fran Ansley (1972)

Answer 14

describes women as ‘takers of shit’ who soak up their husbands frustration/ alienation at work.
For Marxists, this explains domestic violence against women.

Question 15

RESERVE ARMY OF LABOUR

Answer 15

Marxist feminists argue that women are a reserve army of workers who can be taken on and dropped when needed. They see the oppression of women in the family as linked to the exploitation of the working class. The family must be abolished along with the idea of a revolution that will create a ‘classless’ society.

Question 16

radical feminism

Answer 16

The key division is between men and women
Men are the enemy: they are the source of women’s exploitation and oppression.
The family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal society

Question 17

what do radical feminists believe needs to be changed

Answer 17

The patriarchal system needs to be overturned!
The family must be abolished
Separatism- women must live independently of men.
Heterosexual relationships are oppressive because they involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’.

Question 18

Germaine Greer (2000)

Answer 18

argues for ‘matrilocal’ households- aka all-female households as an alternative.

CRITICISM: Somerville (2000) argues that separatism is unlikely to work. Heterosexual attraction is too strong.

Question 19

Difference feminism

Answer 19

states that we cannot generalise about women’s experiences in the family. They don’t all live in nuclear families!
White/ black/lesbian/heterosexual/ working class/middle class all experience the family differently.

Question 20

MARXISM & THE FAMILY

Answer 20

Marxists identify a series of specific functions that the family fulfils…
1) INHERITANCE OF PROPERTY
2) IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS
3)A UNIT OF CONSUMPTION

Question 21

1) INHERITANCE OF PROPERTY

Answer 21

The mode of production (who owns machinery, raw materials, land etc) determines the shape of social institutions.
Marx called the earliest, classless society ‘primitive communism’. In this society, there was no private property.
However, as production developed, so did society! Suddenly there was greater wealth and private property.

Question 22

IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

Answer 22

-Marxists argue that the family helps to socialise children into believing that hierarchy and inequality are inevitable.
-Parental power gets children used to the idea that someone will always have power over them in society! This is key for when they go to work.