Sociologists- Family

• Delphy and Leonard

  Feminist. Men benefit the most from women's labour in the home. Women are oppressed due to family responsibilities. The family maintains patriarchy.
• Oakley

  Feminist. The conventional family (cereal packet family) is outdated. The family should be a safe haven, however, women are oppressed and men face depression due to expectations of being a breadwinner.
• Parsons

  Functionalist.

  Nuclear family performs 2 functions: 

  1.) Primary Socialisation

  2.) Stabilization of adult personalities
• The Rapoports

  5 types of family diversity:1.) Organizational (who does the housework)2) Cultural (catholics cannot get divorced, but protestants can)3) Social class (w/c families are headed by males with physical punishments. m/c families are more equal with a focus of teaching children to behave).4) Life course (an individual moves from one family type to another)5) Cohort (one moment in a life course, e.g. being in a single-parent household).
• Wilmott and Young

  Functionalist. Families have now become 'symmetrical'. Both the husband and wife share conjugal roles and do the same amount of housework, but different types e.g. childcare or cooking.
• Murdock 


  Functionalist.4 functions of the family:1.) Reproduce (children)

  2.) Sexual (monogamous relationship)

  3.) Economic (provide food and shelter)

  4.) Education/Emotional (primary socialization, love & support)
• Zaretsky

  Marxist. The family serves the need of capitalism e.g. parents work hard to buy materialistic goods for their children. Women produce the workforce by having children.
• Delphy and Leonard Evaluation

  it ignores Wilmott and Young’s ideas on the symmetrical family, and how there’s greater equalities in family life with shared conjugal roles
• Feminist Evaluation

  Functionalists (and even the New Right) would argue that feminists put too much emphasis on the negative side of family life because it ignores the possibility that women enjoy running the home, raising children and being married
• Marxist Evaluation

  Marxist ideas focus only on class inequalities, completely ignoring gender inequalities as well as other types of inequalities.
• Marxist Evaluation

  Ignore benefits of nuclear family
• Parsons Evaluation

  Parson's' ideas can be seen as outdated since nowadays both spouses work.
• Functionalist Evaluation

  Functionalists ignore the fact that there might be abusive families
• Functionalist Evaluation

  Functionalists ignore the fact that women might experience a dual burden.