Marxism

• Marxism is a conflict theory - they believe there are two conflicting social groups in society, the bourgeoisie (the upper class) and the proletariats (the lower class)
• Marxism is a structural theory - they believe society is built up and maintained through certain institutions such as education or the healthcare system
• Four marxist theories are: Engles and inheritance of property, Zaretsky and ideological functions, Althusser and ideological state apparatus, Marx and unit of consumption
• Engles inheritance of property:

  • early society people lived in ‘promiscuous hordes’ no one knew whos children were who
  • everything was shared ‘primitive communism‘
  • as machinery developed people wanted to horde there wealth, private property was invented
  • the nuclear family was created so men in power knew who there children were to pass on there wealth to
  • this brought women under the control of men turning them into ‘instruments for the creation of children’
  • argue the only way women can be liberated is to overthrow capitalism and private ownership of the means of progress
• Engles: What did men turn women into

  Instruments for the creation of children
• Engles AO3 criticism: functionalist parsons would credit the creation of the nuclear family as a good thing as it means the family no longer has to perform these functions for themselves
• Zaretsky:

  • the family acts as a private life for members
  • shelters them from the exploitative world of capitalism
  • male workers can come home and feel like they have power and control over the family
  • this helps them accept their oppression in wider society
• Zaretsky: what does the private life do for male workers

  Helps them accept their oppression
• Althusser:

  • family is an ‘ideological state apparatus‘
  • it brainwashes its members into the capitalist system through generational socialisation
• Marx:

  • the family is a unit of consumption
  • capitalism exploits workers labour by selling the products to them for more than it pays to make them
  • therefore family generates profit for capitalists by purchasing goods

  Capitalist marketing:

  • encourages families to ‘keep up with the jones‘ by consuming the latest products
  • ‘pester power’ by marketing to children to get them to pester parents into buying things
  • peer pressure - children mocked and stigmatised for not having the latest clothes or gadgets
• Marx’s: what are the three capitalist marketing strategies

  Keeping up with the jones, pester power, peer pressure
• Zaretsky AO3: functionalist would argue this ignore the positive aspects of family, love and mutual support
• Althusser Ao3: some working class families resist inequalities by teaching their children working class culture, empowering them with the knowledge of exploitation
• Marxs Ao3: feminists argue this focuses too heavily on how it benefits capitalism and not on how it negatively effects women.