theories of the family Flashcards
What does Murdock believe family is for?
- performing four essential functions
What are Murdock’s four functions?
- stable satisfaction of the sex drive
- reproduction of the next generation
- socialisation of the young
- meeting its members’ economic needs
What does the stable satisfaction of the sex drive prevent?
- the social disruption caused by a sexual ‘free-for-all’ (STDs, teen pregnancy)
What are criticisms of Murdock?
- other institutions could perform the functions
- feminists – the family serves the need of men and oppresses women
- marxists – the family meets the needs of capitalism, not the needs to the family and society
How do functionalists view the family?
- family is a key institution vital in keeping society moving
What is Parson’s theory of the family?
- functional fit theory
What are the two types of functionalist family?
- nuclear
- extended
What is the functional fit theory
- the idea that the family can perform many functions and the functions that it does perform depend on the needs of the family
What needs from the industrial revolution made the nuclear family preferreable?
- geographically mobile workforce
- socially mobile workforce
What functions does Parsons believe the family has?
- primary socialisation
- stabilisation of adult personalities
What are some criticisms of Parsons?
- Young and Willmott – the pre-industrial family was nuclear not extended
- young and willmott – the hardship of the early industrial period gave rise to a ‘mum-centered’ working class extended family
- Hareven – extended family not the nuclear was the best equipped to meet the needs of early industrial society
What do liberal feminists believe about the family?
- there has been gradual progress towards equality but there still needs to be improvements
What do Marxist feminists think about the family?
- women reproduce the labour force, absorb anger and are a reserve source of labour
What do radical feminists think about the family?
- family is the number 1 source of women’s suffering
What do difference feminists believe about the family?
- it’s important to remember that not all women live in nuclear families and have different experiences
What is a criticism to the four types of feminism’s view of the family?
- liberal feminists – overestimate positive change in domestic life
- marxist feminists – ingnore the role men play in the oppression of women
- radical feminists – fail to recognise any improvements in domestic life
- difference feminists – fail to recognise that women share many experiences such as low pay
How do Marxists view the family?
- the functions of the family are performed purely for the benefit of the capitalist system
What are the three Marxist functions of the family?
- inheritence of private property
- unit of consumption
- ideological functions
What does Engels believe about the function of the family?
- capitalism created the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family
- monogamy became essential because of the inheritence of private property
- ‘world historical defeat of the female sex’
- women have been turned into ‘a mere instrument for the production of children’
What does Poulantzas believe about the functions of the family?
- ideological functions
- family socialises children into the idea that hierarchy and inequality are inevitable
What does Zaretsky believe is the function of the family?
- unit of consumption
- family plays a major role in generating profit
What are criticisms of the marxist view of the family?
- marxists ignore the increasing variety of family structures
- feminists – underestimates the importance of gender inequalities
- functionalists – marxists ignore the very real benefits that the family provides
What is the personal life perspective on the family?
- draws our attention to relationships that can’t conventionally be defined as family
