Theories of family

• Functionalists


  Believe society is made up of interdependent parts (e.g. the education system, the government, religion etc.) that work together to maintain the social system as a whole
• The organic analogy

  • The human body is made up of different parts that function together to meet its needs and maintain it
  • Functionalists believe society does the same
• Murdock

  Marxist

  • The nuclear family performs four essential functions:
  • Socialisation of the young
  • Satisfaction of the member's economic needs
  • Reproduction of the next generation
  • Stable satisfaction of the sex drive
• Parsons - The functional fit


  • The functions that the family perform depend on the type of society in which they are found:
  • Pre-industrial society - extended family - had the function of production and consumption
  • Modern society - nuclear family - have the function of social and geographical mobility
• Parsons - The functional fit (continued)


  • The nuclear family has two irreducible functions:
  • Primary socialisation of the young - equipping the next generation with basic skills and society's values
  • Stabilisation of adult personalities - enabling adults to relax so they can return to the workplace and perform their roles effectively
• Engels


  Marxist

  The family exists so men can pass their private property onto their biological offspring, notably a son
• Zaretzky


  Marxist

  There is an ideological function of the family called the 'cult of private life' - this is the belief that we can only gain fulfilment from family life, which distracts attention from exploitation
• Liberal feminists


  Gender inequality is gradually being overcome through reform and policy change, which changes people's attitudes towards socialisation and challenges stereotypes
• Marxist feminists

  • Capitalism is the main form of women's oppression in the family and this performs several functions for capitalism:
  • Reproducing the labour force - women socialise the next generation of workers
  • Absorbing men's anger - wives soak up their husband's frustration from being exploited at work
  • A reserve army of cheap labour - when not needed, women workers can return to their domestic role
• Radical feminists


  • The family and marriage are the key institutions in a patriarchal society, meaning that men benefit from the women's unpaid domestic labour and sexual services, as well as dominate them through violence or the threat of it
  • The patriarchal system needs to be overturned, and the only way to achieve this is through separatism, meaning women need to organise themselves to live independently to men
• Difference feminists

  Not all women share the same experience of oppression; women of different ethnicities, class, age etc may have different experiences of the family
• New right

  • A biologically-based division of labour - the division of labour between a male breadwinner and a female homemaker is natural and biologically determined
  • Families should be self-reliant - reliance on state welfare leads to a dependency culture and undermines traditional gender roles. It produces a family breakdown and an increase of lone-parent families, which results in social problems due to poor socialisation
• Personal life perspective (Smart)

  • Looks at relationships that individuals see as significant and gives a sense of identity, belonging and relatedness (pets, friends etc.)
  • Interactionists believe that structural approaches assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant type of family. This ignores the increased diversity of families today