Marxist Views on Family

• Marxists: Think the nuclear family acts as a unit of consumption and teaches passive acceptance of hierarchy. It is also the institution through which the wealthy pass down their private property to their children, thus reproducing class inequality
• The New Right point out that the nuclear family is the most functional type of environment in which to raise children, found in most societies around the world
• Marxists argue that the nuclear family performs ideological functions for Capitalism
• Engels' theory of the emergence of the nuclear family


  The monogamous nuclear family only emerged with Capitalism. Before Capitalism, traditional, tribal societies were classless and they practised a form of 'primitive communism' in which there was no private property. With the emergence of Capitalism, society and the family changed. Capitalism is based on a system of private ownership. Eventually, the Bourgeois started to look for ways to pass on their wealth to the next generation, rather than having it shared out amongst the masses, and this is where the monogamous nuclear family comes from. It is the best way of guaranteeing that you are passing on your property to your son, because in a monogamous relationship you have a clear idea of who your own children are. Ultimately, this arrangement reproduces inequality as the children of the rich grow up into wealth, while the children of the poor remain poor
• Marxism ignores family diversity in capitalist society, as the nuclear family is no longer the main type of family
• The modern nuclear family functions to promote values that ensure the reproduction and maintenance of capitalism. It socializes people to think in a way that justifies inequality and encourages people to accept the capitalist system as fair, natural, and unchangeable
• The family builds demand for goods in a number of ways, such as keeping up with material goods/services acquired by their neighbors and peers, known as 'Keeping up with the Joneses'
• Feminists argue that the Marxist focus on social class inequalities downplays the role of patriarchy, which is the real source of female oppression
• Engels believed the nuclear family emerged with capitalism and private property, contemporary Marxists argue the family performs ideological functions
• Marxism is a 'structural conflict' perspective that sees society as structured along class lines with institutions generally working in the interests of the small elite class (the 'Bourgeoisie') and the much larger working class (the 'Proletariat')