Theorists - Views of the Family

Question 1

KEY THEORIST - MURDOCK (1949): FUNCTIONALIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What does Murdock believe?

Answer 1

The TNF can provide the following functions:

1) Sexual - stable sexual relationships for adults
2) Reproductive - continuing to create members of society
3) Economic - to provide resources for each other
4) Educational - teaches the norms and values of society and socialise its members.

Question 2

KEY THEORIST - PARSONS (1959 AND 1965): FUNCTIONALIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What does he believe?

Answer 2

The family provides the following:

1) Primary socialisation - teaching norms and values of society.
2) Stabilisation of adult personalities.

Question 3

KEY THEORIST - PARSONS (1959 AND 1965): FUNCTIONALIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What is the concept of ‘warm bath theory’ about?

Answer 3

• the women are expressive - provide the emotional support to the man after a day at work
• the men are instrumental - they go out to work to provide economically.

Question 4

How can functionalist ideas of the family be criticised?

Give at least two examples.

Answer 4

At least two from:

1) Ignore the fact that the dark side of the family can bring harm.
2) Fail to understand that the TNF is not the only family type that can provide these functions.
3) Marxist Feminists suggest the TNF benefits men more than women.
4) Marxist Feminists believe that there is a ‘slave to the wage slave’ where women are slaves to their husbands and men are slaves to the workplace.

Question 5

KEY THEORIST - MURRAY: NEW RIGHT VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What did Murray find from research?

Answer 5

That an underclass had emerged which consists of:

• Unemployed
• Criminals - children without a father figure.
• Single parent mothers
• Welfare dependents
• Teenage girls who deliberately become pregnant to receive free council houses and benefits.

Question 6

KEY THEORIST - MURRAY: NEW RIGHT VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What does he argue?
Give at least two examples

Answer 6

• Illegitimacy in families is linked to social problems - crime, drugs, long-term unemployment and educational underachievement.
• In family types (not the TNF) children have no male role model so are free to run wild and act as irresponsibly as their fathers.
• In a TNF the above would not happen
• Members of the underclass are socialising their children into a culture of crime, delinquency, anti-work and anti-family values.

Question 7

KEY THEORISTS - DENNIS AND ERODS: NEW RIGHT VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they argue?

Answer 7

Children in families with absent fathers turn to:

1) Anti-social behaviour
2) Criminality
3) Delinquency
4) Educational underachievement

Children bought up in a two parent family have less social problems.

Question 8

KEY THEORIST - MARX: MARXIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What does he argue?
Give at least two examples.

Answer 8

• TNF is the best
• We need a clear division of labour between men and women.
• The family is part of the superstructure
• Function of the family is to benefit capitalists and serve the needs of the economy.

Question 9

KEY THEORIST - ENGELS (1972): MARXIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What does he argue?
Give at least two examples.

Answer 9

• Early society was classless - no private property.
• There was a shared means of production in early society.
• People lived in tribes, where sexual relationships were free - anyone could have sex with anyone in the tribe.
• Capitalism monopolises the means of production and wealth.
• Monogamous marriages were imposed through capitalist ideologies.
• TNF was developed to allow people to leave private property to their own biological children.

Question 10

KEY THEORIST - ZARETSKY (1976): MARXIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What does he argue?

Answer 10

• Family is a safe haven from the capitalist world of work.

Question 11

How can Marxist ideas of the family be criticised?

Give at least two examples.

Answer 11

1) Ignores the family diversity of capitalist society.
2) Emphasises the impact on class but fails to emphasise the impact on gender
3) Ignores the benefits of the TNF

Question 12

KEY THEORIST - BENSTON: MARXIST-FEMINIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they argue?

Answer 12

• TNF reduces worker power and provides the family with only one breadwinner.
• Capitalist society reduces the husbands bargaining power and makes him feel like he has to stay in a job even if he doesn’t like it, to support his family.

Question 13

KEY THEORIST - AINSLEY (1972): MARXIST-FEMINIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they believe?

Answer 13

• The emotional support of the wife acts as a safety valve.

- Women are the ‘takers of the shit’ - this could explain domestic violence.

Question 14

KEY THEORIST - COOPER (1972): MARXIST- FEMINIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they believe?

Answer 14

• That the family acts as an ideological auditioning device in which children learn to submit authority.

Question 15

How can Marxist-Feminist ideas be evaluated?

Give at least two examples.

Answer 15

• Assume all families are patriarchal
• The solution to create a communist society won’t work because the TNF still exists.
• Ignore the progress made by women in capitalist society.

Question 16

KEY THEORISTS - DELPHY AND LEONARD (1992): RADICAL FEMINIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they argue?
Give at least two examples.

Answer 16

• Family is a patriarchal and hierarchal institution through which men dominate and exploit women.
• Women are economically dependent on men.
• Women are forced to do unpaid labour and sex.
• Other sociologists ignore the dark side of the family
• The traditional nuclear family must be abolished and replaced with separatism.
• In heterosexual relationships, women are sleeping with the enemy.

Question 17

KEY THEORIST - GREER: RADICAL FEMINIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they believe?

Answer 17

• Society needs to start the creation of all female families.

Question 18

How can radical feminist views be evaluated?

Answer 18

• Ignore the progress women have made

- Separatism is unlikely and too radical

Question 19

KEY THEORIST - SUMMERVILLE (2000): LIBERAL FEMINIST VIEW OF THE FAMILY

What do they believe?
Give at least two examples.

Answer 19

• Women have more opportunities open to them than in the past.
• Most women do not want to live without a male partner.
• Some studies show that men are doing more housework/childcare
• Women’s oppression is being gradually overcome through changing attitudes and laws.
• A solution for equality would be to improve childcare provisions and change people’s attitudes.

Question 20

KEY THEORISTS - WILLMOTT AND YOUNG (1950S/1970S) EVALUATION OF THE NUCLEAR FAMILY

What did they do?

Answer 20

• Create a study of working class families in the 1950s.

Question 21

KEY THEORISTS - WILLMOTT AND YOUNG (1950S/1970S) EVALUATION OF THE NUCLEAR FAMILY

From their study, what did they find?
Give at least two examples.

Answer 21

• There was a clear division of labour with segregated conjugal roles - men are the breadwinner and women are economically dependent on them, women carry out childcare/housework tasks.
• Leisure time was gender segregated - men went to the pub and women spent time with female extended family members.
• TNF was the most appropriate for society at the time.
• By 1973 - ‘march of progress’ - symmetrical family was becoming more common with shared childcare/housework chores.
• Roles between mother and father were more equal
• Change from TNF to symmetrical came about in order to fit with the changes in society.