Families and household

• Parsons


  Functionalist.

  Economic Systems of Pre-Industrial Societies:

  • Based on extended kinship networks.
  • Roles determined by ascription rather than achievement.

  Impact of Industrialization on Family Dynamics:

  • Increased geographical mobility.
  • Reduced economic reliance on kin.
  • Other agencies (education, health, welfare) assume some family roles.
  • Clearer social roles for men and women (instrumental and expressive).

  Main Functions of the Family:

  • Primary socialization.
  • Stabilization of adult personalities (acting as "personality factories").
• Murdock


  Functionalist. Defined the family as a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. Identifies 4 functions of the family: economic, reproduction, sexual and educational.
• Zaretsky


  Marxist. The family is used by the capitalist class to instil values such as obedience and respect for authority that are useful to the capitalist ruling class ensuring that they can be exploited later in life by the ruling class.
• Oakley


  Feminist. 4 processes central to the construction of gender identity: manipulation (parents encourage or discourage behaviour), canalisation (how they direct interests), domestic activities and verbal appellation.
• Donzelot


  Conflict theorist. Sees social policy as a form of state power over families. Social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control poorer families. Families are policed by professionals and agencies.
• Leonard


  Feminist. The family is an economic system which benefits men and exploits women. Although men do some housework, women spend nearly double the amount of time on it. Women are still expected to care for children and the sick. Maternity leave reinforces patriarchy in the family.
• Murray


  Used the term 'underclass' to describe a subculture made up of the poor. The underclass is generally welfare dependent and argues that teenage girls are deliberately getting pregnant to obtain council housing or state benefits. The underclass is socialising children into a culture of crime and delinquency, to be anti-authority, anti-work and anti-family values.
• Chester


  What appears to be a decline in marriage is often merely a delay in marriage. Also argued that there is little evidence to suggest that families choose to live in alternative forms for a sustained period of time. It is usually a temporary measure.
• Giddens


  Family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice and equality between men and women. Contraception has meant that relationships can be based on love and intimacy rather than just procreation. Feminism has led to greater opportunities in work and education leading to more choice for women.
• Rapoports


  Family life in the UK is characterised by diversity. There are five elements of family diversity – organisational, cultural, class, life cycle and sexual.
• Weeks


  There has been a shift in attitudes since the 1950s. Sexual morality has become a matter of personal choice, the church and state have lost their power on sexual morality and there is a growing acceptance of diversity for under 35s in terms of cohabitation and homosexuality.
• Chester


  Family structure has moved away from the traditional nuclear family to the neo-conventional family. He defines this family type as a dual-earning family in which both spouses go out to work. Did not believe this was a negative thing unlike New Right thinkers.
• Stacey


  Greater choice for women means they are able to break out of patriarchal family structures and choice family structures that meet their needs more. For example there has been a rise in the 'divorce-extended family'.
• Smart


  In today's society, after a divorce, parents remain linked to and responsible for their children. This reinforces the moral nature of traditional family types
• Dunscombe and marsden


  Introduced the concept of emotional work done by women in the home, on top of their paid employment and domestic tasks. They called this combination the "triple shift".
• Pahl


  Despite the increase in 'pooling' of wealth, men still make the major decisions, reflecting their greater earnings.
• Dunne


  Conducted a study of the division of labour in lesbian households. Found greater equality in domestic tasks, particularly in childcare. She concluded that inequality in the family is more to do with gender relationships than the family itself.
• Pahl and Vogler


  Believed that working men give their non-working wives an allowance that they have to budget in order to meet the family's needs. Alternatively, when both partners work and have joint responsibility for spending it is known as pooling.
• Dobash and Dobash


  Conducted a study on beaten women based on interviews, court and police reports. They found violent incidents could be set off by a challenge to the man's authority (i.e. wife asking why he was home late). They argue marriage legitimates violence by granting power to husbands and in turn making wives dependent.
• Gershuny


  Domestic tasks are still sex-typed even in households where the wife worked full time.
• Pilcher


  Identifies the most significant factor in Western childhood as 'separateness' from adulthood. Children have clothes, toys, activities, laws and social norms separate from that of adults.
• Aries


  What we experience today is a recent social invention. In pre-industrial society, children were seen as 'little adults' who took part in the same activities and work as adults. Children were also seen as an economic asset rather than a reflection of people's love for one another.
• Wagg


  Identifies the experience of childhood as a social construct. Childhood in Western society is viewed as a significant time in the life cycle in which important developments are made.
• Postman


  Childhood in contemporary society is under threat as television exposes them to the adult world.
• Palmer


  In her book 'Toxic Childhood' she asserts that technology is used as an alternative parenting technique. TV, films and technology are used to keep children quiet and are deprived of a traditional childhood leading them to being more self-obsessed, distractible and impulsive.
• Womack


  Children are not equally affected by the trend that childhood is under threat. Rather, there are pockets of young people on the poorer end of the social scale that are more affected than others.
• Brannen


  Found that Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict towards their daughters.
• Howard


  Children born into poor families are more likely to die in infancy or childhood, to suffer long-standing illness, to be shorter in height, fall behind at school and be placed on the child protection register. Thus we cannot speak about childhood as if all children experience childhood equally.
• Punch


  Found that there are cross-cultural differences in childhood. Found that children in rural Bolivia are expected to take work responsibilities in the home and community once they reach the age of 5. Tasks are taken without hesitation or question.
• McKeown


  Argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths from TB. However his findings have been challenged as it does not explain why females who receive a smaller share of the family food supply lived longer than males, nor why deaths from some infectious diseases actually rose at the time of improving nutrition.
• Hirsh


  Argues that we will need new policies to finance a longer old age. This could be done either by paying more in taxes or by raising the retirement age, or both.
• Townsend


  One reason for negative attitudes to the elderly in our society is that old age has been socially constructed as a period of dependency by creating a statutory retirement age at which most people are expected to stop working and are forced to rely on inadequate benefits that push many into poverty.
• The Griffiths Report


  Found that society is facing the problem of meeting the escalating costs of health and social care for growing numbers of old people. Recently there have been concerns about the 'pension time bomb', with fears about how society will meet the cost of providing pensions for the elderly due to the ageing population.
• Blaikie


  Blaikie concentrates on the image of retirement, arguing that attitudes to retirement have changed dramatically and stereotypes of old age have broken down. He attributes this partly to the development of consumer culture.
• Two criticism of Parsons theory of domestic division of labour

  • Young and Wilmott argue men are taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners
  • Feminists reject Parsons' view that the division of labour is natural and argue it only benefits men
• What are the two types of conjugal roles distinguished by Bott?

  • Segregated Conjugal Roles: Traditional gender roles. Male breadwinner, female homemaker.
  • Joint Conjugal Roles: Shared tasks like housework and childcare. Spend leisure time together.