Topic 3 - Theories of the family

• Functionalist perspective on the family:

  • society is based on a value consensus - enables members to cooperate harmoniously, and meet society's needs + achieve shared goals
  • family = sub-system + building block - e.g. organic analogy
• 4 functions according to Murdock:

  1. stable satisfaction of the sex drive
  2. reproduction of the next generation
  3. primary socialisation
  4. meeting members' economic needs
• Criticisms of Murdock:

  • functions performed equally well by other institutions and family structures
  • Marxists + Feminists reject "rose-tinted" harmonious consensus view that family meets the needs of wider society and members - neglects conflict and exploitation
  • Feminists - serve needs of men, oppressing women
  • Marxists - meets needs of capitalism
• Parsons' "functional fit" theory:

  Functions family perform affects its shape or structure

  e.g. nuclear and extended family

  2 basic types of society - modern industrial and traditional pre-industrial

  • nuclear family fits needs of industrial society and most dominant type (vice versa)

  CRITICISMS

  • macro / structural theory - bird's eye view of society, taking a positivist approach
  • deterministic - assumes that things are pre-determined
• Geographically mobile workforce:

  Parsons argues easier for nuclear family to move than 3 generational extended family

  • nuclear family better equipped for the needs that the modern industry has for a geographically mobile workforce
  • modern society - jobs spring + decline in different parts of the country / world
  • pre-industrial society - spend whole life in the same village
• Socially mobile workforce: constantly evolving science and technology requires skilled, technically competent workforce

  • essential that talented people win promotions and take most important jobs
  • In modern society, individual status achieved not ascribed - makes social mobility possible
  • results in mobile nuclear family "structurally isolated" from extended kin with no binding obligations
• Loss of functions:

  • pre-industrial = multi-functional unit

  e.g. both unit of production + consumption - more self-sufficient unit than modern nuclear family

  Parsons: when society industrialises, family changes structure and loses many functions

  • as a result, modern nuclear family specialises in performing "irreducible functions"
• 2 functions according to Parsons:

  1. primary socialisation - equip children with basic skills + society's values, so they cooperate with others and integrate into society
  2. stablisation of adult personalities - family = place adults relax and release tensions, so they can return to workplace refreshed + ready to meet demands

  functional for efficiency of the economy
• Marxist perspective of the family:

  • capitalist society based on unequal conflict between capitalist (bourgeoise) and working (proletariat) class
  • social institutes help maintain class inequality + capitalism
  • functions of the family purely based to benefit capitalist system
• Inheritance of Property:

  • the determining shape of social institution = mode of production

  who controls society's productive forces in modern society is capitalist class, who controls + owns means of production

  Marx: in classless society, "primitive communism" meant all members owned means of production communally

  Engels: no family "promiscous horde" so there were no restrictions on sexual relationships
• Private Property:

  • as forces of production developed, society's wealth increased + class of men emerged who controlled means of production

  Brought a patriarchal monogamous nuclear family

  Engels: men had to be certain of paternity of children to ensure legitimate heirs inherited wealth

  MNF represented "world's historical defeat of the female sex" as women's sexuality under male control (seen as just an instrument for procreation)

  • overthrowing private ownership help women achieve liberation for patriarchal control
• Ideological Functions:

  ideology - set of ideas / beliefs that justify inequality + maintain capitalist system

  • family socialises children into idea that hierarchy +inequality = inevitable - prepares them for working life, accepting orders from capitalist employers

  Zaretsky: family offers "haven" from harsh exploitative world of capitalism - workers can "be themselves" and have private life

  • argues this is largely an illusion + family can't meet members' needs
• Unit of Consumption:

  • exploits labour of workers making profit selling products, more than it pays to produce the commodities

  e.g. media target children "pester power" to persuade parents to spend more, and children lacking the latest trend so are mocked + stigmatised by peers
• Criticism of Marxist Perspective:

  • assume nuclear family = dominant in capitalist society, ignores wider variety of family structures

  Feminists: underestimates importance of gender inequalities within the family

  • more fundamental as family primarily serves interests of men

  Functionalists: ignores benefits family provides members
• Liberal Feminism: campaign against sex discrimination and equal rights + opportunities for women

  • women's oppression is gradually being overcome, due to changing attitudes and law - e.g. Sex Discrimination Act (1975) and Equal Pay Act (1970)
  • moving towards greater equality, BUT full depends on reforms and changes in attitudes + socialisation patterns
  • some studies suggest men doing more domestic labour and parents socialise sons +daughters more equally

  CRITICISM

  Fails to challenge underlying causes of women's oppression
• men are the enemy, the source of women's oppression and exploitation.
• Family and marriage are key institutions in patriarchal society, where men benefit from women's unpaid domestic labour and sexual services.
• Radical Feminists argue that men dominate women through domestic and sexual violence or the threat of it.
• Radical Feminists advocate for the abolition of the family, stating that it is the only way to achieve women's liberation.
• Radical Feminists argue for "political lesbianism", stating that heterosexual relationships are oppressive as "sleeping with the enemy".
• Critics of Radical Feminism, such as Lib Fem (Somerville), argue that they fail to recognise that women's position has improved, with better access to divorce and job opportunities.
• Liberal Feminists recognise that women haven't achieved full equality and need for "family friendly" policies to promote greater equality.
• Marxist Feminisms: main cause of women's oppression is capitalism

  • women reproduce labour force - unpaid domestic labor socialising next generation of workers
  • women absorb anger - Ansley describes women as "takers of shit" soak up frustration husbands feel from alienation +exploitation at work
  • women are reserve as cheap labour - taken on when extra workers needed + employers can let them return to primary role as unpaid domestic labourer
• Difference Feminism: argue can't generalise women's' experiences

  • different experiences of the family based on sexuality, ethnicity and class

  e.g. regarding family purely negatively, White feminists neglect Black women's experience of racial oppression - see as source of support and resistance against racism

  CRITICISM:

  • women share some of the same experiences like risk of domestic violence and sexual assault
• Personal Life Perspective:

  • Functionalist, Marxist and Feminist theories suffer from 2 things

  1. assume traditional nuclear family is dominant family type - ignores increased diversity (e.g. lone parent and step families)

  2. structural theories - assume families and their members = passive puppets manipulated by the structure of society to perform certain functions (e.g. patriarchy and capitalism)

  • sociologists influenced by interactionalists and postmodernists perspectives who reject structural view

  Structural theories reject that people have some choice in creating family relationships
• Sociology of Personal Life:

  • Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism take a "top down" structural approach

  Personal Life share "bottom up" approach of interactionalism

  • they believe to understand families, need to view meaning individual family members hold and how it shapes their actions + relationships
• Beyond ties of Blood and Marriage:

  • takes wider view of relationships than traditional relationships based on blood / marriage ties

  relationships with friends - feel "like a brother or sister" to you

  fictive kin - close friends treated as relatives

  Gay + Lesbian "chosen families" - supported network of close friends, ex-partners etc. - not related by blood / marriage ties

  relationships with dead relatives - live on in people's memories, continue to shape identities + affect actions

  relationships with pets - children view pets as "part of their family"

  • according to Tipper's study
• Donor - Conceived Children:

  Nordqvist + Smart: found the issue of blood and genes raised range of feelings

  • some parents emphasised importance of social relationships over genetic ones in forming bonds

  e.g. Erin a mother of egg donor - conceived child, defined being mum in terms of time + effort in raising daughter

  • difficult feeling could flare up for non-genetic parent

  e.g. wondering about donor's identity, and if possible "donor siblings" are family

  • lesbian couple concerned about equality with genetic and non-genetic mothers (treated as second parent)
• EVALUATION of Personal Life Perspective:

  • Nordqvist + Smart study illustrate value of PLP -helps understand how people construct + define relationships than imposing traditional sociological definitions of family
  • accused view = too broad, wide range of different kinds of relationships
  • recognises relatedness isn't always positive - e.g. people trapped in violent, abusive relationships
  • ignores special relationships based on blood / marriage