What is family? Sociology

• Goode:

  Argued that worldwide trend is to move towards the western model of the nuclear family
• Cheal functionalist:

  • Parents encouraged to believe they have responsibility to ensure every child grows up happy, confident, literate and skilled in every possible respect
• Steel + Kidd functionalist:

  • Function of the family = relieve stresses of modern day living
  • Warm bath theory
  • Home = haven where adults can have a sense of stability
• Murray New Right:

  • Concerns over growing no. of individuals with lack of work ethic
  • Reliant on state benefits
  • Welfare dependency
• Engels Marxist :

  • Family in particular marriage + inheritance laws ensured ruling class stayed powerful + wealthy
  • Passed down the male line (primogeniture)
• Zaretsky Marxist :

  • Family supports capitalism
  • By providing unpaid labour, workforce + unit of consumption
  • Frustrations about capitalism absorbed by the family unit making challenge to ruling classes less likely
• Delphy + Leonard Radical fem:

  • Nuclear family benefits men due to gender role socialisation
  • Socialisation confirms male power + superiority
  • Patriarchal ideology is based down sexual division of labour is natural and unchangeable
  • Women seen either as sexual objects (single) or as mothers/housewifes (married)
• Oakley fem:

  • Optimistic about some greater equality
  • See shift in attitudes along with legal changes
  • Stress the importance of women being socialised + educated so they have right + freedom to choose career or family role / combination
• Beck postmodernist:

  • Argued there is no such thing as the family today
  • People make individual decisions regarding the structure of their family
  • Less pressure today for people to conform
  • Roles within home = negotiable