Sociology Family

• Nuclear Family


  Father, Mother & Children
• Same-Sex Family


  Gay or lesbian couple living in a house, possibly with children
• Extended Family


  Includes relatives beyond the nuclear family
• Beanpole Families


  Multiple generations of older people and few children
• Lone-Parent Families


  One parent and child(ren) who live together
• Reconstituted Families


  Sometimes referred to as a step family. Children from a previous relationship so one adult is a biological parent, the other is a step-parent
• Household


  Consists of one person who lives alone or a group of people living at the same address
• Reasons for increase in one-person households

  • Remain single and childless
  • Divorced
  • International migrants
  • Living alone through choice
  • Cohabiting (potentially before marriage)
  • Choosing to live apart from partner
• Functionalist view of the family


  • The family is a key social structure as it performs several essential functions for individuals and society
  • Murdock (1949) argues four vital functions: Sexual Function, Reproductive function, Economic function, Educational function
• Marxist view of the family


  • The family is one of the key institutions that social inequalities are passed on through the generations
  • The bourgeoise pass on their wealth to family members
  • Educational advantages are passed down as people from wealthy backgrounds can afford to send their children to private schools
  • Through the socialisation process people learn to accept their position
• Feminist view of the family

  • Families have a negative impact on the lives of women
  • Families socially construct gender differences-canalisation
  • Children also learn gender expectations through the division of domestic labour e.g. Mum cleaning up
• Segregated conjugal roles


  Clear division of tasks divided into male and female tasks. Husband & wife spend little time together
• Joint conjugal roles


  Do not have a rigid division of household tasks. Husband & wife spend time together
• How have families changed?

  • Smaller (less children)
  • Marriage is less likely
  • Parents are older
  • Joint Conjugal roles
  • Family diversity
  • Increase in divorce, rise in reconstituted
• Why have families changed?

  • Laws (gay rights, divorce is easier)
  • Rise of feminism
  • Diversity
  • Technology (contraception, fertility)
  • Changing norms & values
  • Secularisation- religion is less of an influence
• Patterns of marriage


  • Decline
  • Later in life
  • Civil partnership/same-sex
  • Increase in cohabitation
  • Increase in births outside of marriage
• Patterns of divorce


  • Changes in the law
  • Changing social attitudes & values
  • Impact of secularisation
  • Changes in the status of women
  • Influence of media
• Consequences of divorce


  • Emotional distress
  • Financial hardship
  • Remarriage
  • Parent & child relationship change
• Families used to rely on children's income until the Education Act of 1918 and childhood began
• Boomerang children


  Young people who leave home (for university or travelling) & return to living with their parent(s)
• Children are seen as important members of the family and their opinions are listened to
• Parents are now less authoritarian
• Contemporary social issues


  • The quality of parenting
  • Relationships between teenagers & adults
  • Care of the elderly
• Rapoport and Rapoport (1982) - Family Diversity


  • They identified 5 clear types of family diversity: Organisational, Cultural, Class, Life course, Cohort
• Young & Wilmott (1973) - Symmetrical Family

  • Families had become symmetrical - that is, that men and women performed similar roles
  • Part of this was also that men and women and children spent more time together in the home rather than separately outside the home
• Talcott Parsons (1956) - Functionalist


  • Parsons suggests that there are two irreducible functions of the family: primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities
• Eli Zaretsky (1976) - Marxist


  • The family is one of the key institutions that social inequalities are passed on through the generations
• Delphy & Leonard - Radical Feminists


  • Families have a negative impact on the lives of women
• Ann Oakley (1974) - Feminist


  • The concept of the symmetrical family was flawed, as women had now had a dual burden - going out to work and also doing the bulk of the housework and childcare
• Primary socialisation


  The process through which people learn how to behave in society - what is normal and what is important
• Secondary socialisation


  Learning universalistic values through school, the media and other agents of socialisation
• Parsons' view of gender roles

  • Men were the instrumental leader while women were the expressive leader and both were necessary
  • Men carried out discipline and earned money, while women cared and nurtured and raised children
• Parsons' view of gender roles is now seen as rather outdated
• Parsons' view of the family's role

  • Families performed an important role for individuals and society in keeping people stable
  • Family members give each other care and support and help each other through difficult times
• Marxist sociologists like Zaretsky

  See the family as benefiting not society or the individual but the bosses
• Feminists


  See the family as men taking out their frustrations on their wives
• Parsons' view of the family may have been describing middle-class families and ignored the different experiences of families from different social classes
• Zaretsky's Marxist analysis


  The family works in the interests of capitalism by cushioning the damage caused by capitalism and providing free labour
• Zaretsky's ideas now seem rather outdated as the nature of both work and families has changed, particularly in relation to women's role in the workplace
• Delphy & Leonard's feminist view


  • The family maintains patriarchy (male-dominated society) rather than benefiting capitalism
  • Women are exploited in the family system by doing the bulk of domestic labour