Theories of the family

• Murdock


  Argues that the family performs four essential functions to meet the needs of the family:
• Murdock's four essential family functions

  1. Stable satisfaction of the sex drive – with the same partner – being monogamous

  2. Reproduction of the next generation – having children

  3. Socialisation of the young – teaching children traditions

  4. Meeting it's members economic needs – living, surviving
• Parsons' 'Functional fit' theory


  The functions that the family performs will depend on the kind of society in which it is found in. E.g meeting welfare, political, military, and religious functions.
• Parsons' view of modern industrial society


  Has two essential needs: a geographically mobile workforce and a socially mobile workforce (individual status is achieved by their own efforts rather than being ascribed a status by their social and family background). Parsons argues that both these needs are easier met by the nuclear family.
• Marxist view on inheritance of property

  Capitalist class controls society's productive tools (e.g. tools, machinery, raw materials, land and labour) and as the mode of production evolves, so too does the family. However, Marxist tend to assume that the nuclear family is dominant in capitalist society and argues the wide variety of structure found today.
• Ideological functions of the family (Marxist view)

  A set of ideas or beliefs that justify inequality and maintain the capitalist system by persuading people to accept it as natural and unchangeable. The family does this by socialising children into the idea that hierarchy and inequality are inevitable (parental power over children accustoms them to the idea that someone will always be in charge)
• Marxist view of the family as a unit of consumption

  Capitalism exploits the labour of workers and makes a profit by selling the products of their labour. Family plays a major role in generating profits for capitalists, but this does not benefit the members of the family.
• Liberal Feminism


  Although they do not believe gender quality hasn't yet been achieved in the family, they argue that women are making gradual process through changes in laws (such as the Sex Discrimination Act that outlaws discrimination in employment)
• Marxist Feminism


  Argue that capitalism is the main cause for the oppression of women in the family. Women's oppression performs several functions for capitalism: reproduction of the labour force; absorbing anger (Fran Ansley describes wives as 'takers of shit' - allowing their partner to take anger out on them and then their partner can go back to work and be exploited as they are able to release their emotions on their wives); and women are a reserve army for cheap labour.
• Radical Feminism


  Believe that all societies have been founded on patriarchy. The key division in society is between men and women: men are the enemy-source of women's oppression & exploitation and that the family & marriage are the main institutions in patriarchal society.
• Difference or intersectional Feminism


  Believe that women have different experience the family, such as not all women live in a nuclear family so we cannot generalise experiences as we have different experiences.
• Personal life perspective


  Argue functionalism, feminism and Marxism all take a 'top down' structural approach, whereas the personal life perspective shares the 'bottom up' approach of interactionism. Emphasises the meanings of the individual family members hold and how these shape their actions and relationships. Also take a wider view of just the traditional 'family' members and identify relationships with friends, fictive kin, gay and lesbian 'chosen families', relationships with dead relatives, and even relationships with pets. All these kinds of relationships are what individuals see as significant and give them a sense of identity, belonging or relatedness.
• Nordqvist and Smart


  Found that the issue of blood and genes raised a range of feelings. Some parents emphasised the importance of social relationships over genetic ones in forming family bonds. Questions about who counted as family, e.g. possible 'donor siblings', do the donor's parents count as grandparents of a donor-conceived child? Also raised additional problems for lesbian couples such as: concerns about equality between the genetic and non-genetic mothers and that the donor might be seen as the 'real' second parent.