Topic 6: Marxism and the Family

Question 1

Engels
(angels statues/mansion wealth property)

Answer 1

-Monogamy (marriage)ensured that any children born were the legitimate heirs of the father and inheritance stay within the family.
-reproduce inequality
-inequality – the children of the
rich grow up into wealth, while the children of the poor remain poor.rather than redistributed throughout society.
-

Question 2

Evaluation of Engels x3

Answer 2

-Weak evidence: Engels’ ideas of the evolution of families lack evidence many simple hunting-and-gathering societies that attach little importance to private property still practise monogamous relationships.
-Does Engels’ theory explain monogamy in same sex couples? Most same sex couples are monogamous – but since there is never a “legitimate” biological heir from both partners, there isno capitalist necessity for monogamy – but they still pursue it!
-Does Engels’ theory explain unregulated sexual behaviour amongst the rich? Many are aware of celebrity scandals around cheating or multiple partners with multiple children – the richest group of people would be more inclined to pursue monogamy to preserve the wealth of their heir?

Question 3

Zaretsky (swarosky) 3 points
Capitalism, the Family and
Personal Life

Answer 3

1) The family as a refuge
-with the rise of capitalist industrial
production in the nineteenth century,
-Under capitalism, work became an alienating experience,
-an illusion, as the family is unable to overcome the alienating and brutalising effects of capitalism.
2) Reproduction of the labour force: Secondly, women in the family reproduce and bring up
children. Capitalist employers benefit from this unpaid domestic labour as the next generation of
workers are reared at no expense to them.
3) Unit of consumption: Thirdly, the family acts as a unit of consumption, buying the products of
capitalism and allowing capitalists to continue to make profits from their businesses.

Question 4

Cooper: Ideological conditioning
(cooperation between cap and fam

Answer 4

-we live in a hierarchical and unequal society-The family is a miniature version of this
-the family operates to
indoctrinate its children into accepting the capitalist society.
-where children learn to submit to those higher up

Question 5

Evaluation of the Marxist View

Answer 5

 Assumes individuals are passive:
individuals’ personal lives are largely shaped or even determined by economic forces. this ignores the extent to which we have the capacity to make choices about our own lives;
 Ignores diverse family forms: tends to focus on the nuclear family rather than its alternatives.
 Over-focuses on class:
fails to fully consider the importance of other kinds of social divisions such as gender, ethnicity and sexuality and their importance in personal relationships.
 Ethnocentric:
mainly focuses on family life in Western capitalist societies, and has
little to say about the nature of families in other parts of the world.