Marxism

• marxists believe that the nuclear family has an ideological role, in which it transmits capitalist values to the next generation, ensuring that false class consciousness is sustained
• Engels argued that the nuclear family served an economic role that was beneficial to the bourgeoisie as they are able to pass their wealth to the next generation of rich capitalists, ensuring that their capital & assets remained in the hands of the bourgeoisie
• with the emergence of capitalism, the bourgeoisie began owning businesses and private property as a means of generating personal profit
• before capitalism, traditional societies were virtually classless and practised a form of “primitive communism“ in which assets were distributed equally between the masses
• family relations, especially those proven by the existence of legal documents, facilitate inheritance, and thus aided in the bourgeoisie’s agenda in ensuring that wealth was passed to the next generation of capitalists
• Zaretsky argued that family provided working class men with a domain in which they can exercise their power, as opposed to their place of work in which they are powerless and forced to be domineered and to tolerate exploitation
• marxists see the family as a conservative institution that helps to preserve capitalism
• Zaretsky suggested that family is virtually an “escape route” from the exploitation and oppression faced at work, it’s the only place outside of work in which male workers had some measure of control of their lives, and where they felt like they were treated as individuals
• marxists believed that the family, as an institution, operated within the framework of a capitalist society based on private property, driven by profit and riddled with clashes between social classes with conflicting interests
• Engels highlighted that a woman’s role in the family was adjacent to that of a prostitute, in the sense that there is a financial trade in which she provides sex and heirs for her husband, in exchange for economic security
• Althusser argued that the family is one of the ideological state apparatus, alongside education and media, that transmits capitalist values in an attempt to maintain false class consciousness
• criticisms of marxist perspective

  • marriage is now less of a social necessity, many women now work and have independent incomes, meaning that economic security from a husband is not needed
  • A 2003 report by the Institute of Education “Changing Britain, Changing Lives” found that people are more likely to marry for love and affection, rather than social obligation
• Zaretsky also highlights that the family is a major unit of consumption of goods and services, as they are constantly encouraged to buy the latest products and services in order to appear more chic to their peers & neighbours
• many companies increase the demand of their products through targeted marketisation to children, who they rely on to request expensive products from their parents, this is called power pestering
• according to Zaretsky, the family serves an economic role of ensuring that profit is created for the bourgeoisie, by being swayed to spend money on products and services