1.2 The Marxist view on families

• What do Marxists think are the 3 functions of the family?

  the inheritance of property

  ideological functions

  unit of consumption
• What do Marxists think about the unit of consumption? (2)

  That capitalism exploits workers by selling products for more than it pays them to produce

  Families buy products to keep capitalism running
• What does ___ think about ideological functions?

  (Zaretsky) They argue that the family performs key ideological functions that support capitalism and that we socialise children into a system where hierarchy and inequality are inevitable
• What do Marxists think about feminism?

  -That the end of capitalism & private ownership will give women complete liberation from patriarchal control

  -The patriarchal family will no longer be needed as property will not need to be passed to the next generation
• What did ___ think happened because of the inheritance of property?

  (Engels)

  Monogamy became essential because of the inheritance of private property

  This defeated the female sex because they became a mere instrument for the production of children
• What does the class pyramid look like?

  The ruling class/bourgeoisie are on the top with the middle class/petite bourgeoisie next. After that is the working class/proletariat and then the under class/lumpen prolétariats are at the bottom
• What are the 5 communist countries today?

  China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos & North Korea
• Communism

  Equal ownership & contribution
• Capitalism


  Privately owned trade
• What else did Zaretsky say about unit of consumption?


  Children use 'pester power' to persuade their parents to buy things for them

  Makes having children more expensive

  Supports capitalism
• Althusser - the family is an ideological state apparatus - it gives social control and passes on the ideology of the ruling class