Families and households

• Theoretical perspectives

  • Feminism
  • Functionalism
• Durkheim


  The family plays an important role in creating value consensus and integrating individuals into society so that society functions positively. The family also plays an important role in developing social solidarity.
• Parsons


  Over time the family has become more and more specialised, resulting in it carrying out two main roles: primary socialisation, where children are encouraged to internalise the norms and values of society; and stabilisation of adult personalities, where adults use the family as a source of comfort and support.
• Functionalists take a very positive view of family life, which has been criticised for ignoring problems that occur within families, such as domestic violence, abuse.
• Feminists are critical of the assumptions that functionalists often make with regards to women being 'naturally predisposed to taking the caring, housewife role.
• New Right ( Murray)


  Claim that men and women should take conventional roles in the family, with the woman being responsible for childcare and housework while the man should be the breadwinner. They argue that if the nuclear family breaks down then children will not be adequately socialised. They have concerns over the growing number of individuals who lack a work ethic and have become reliant on state benefits (welfare dependency), known as the underclass.
• Feminists strongly criticise New Right thinkers, claiming that conservative values in the family are oppressive to women. Others criticise the New Right, claiming that state benefits are important and necessary.
• Postmodernists ( Beck)


  Argue that there is no such thing as the family today; instead people can make a range of decisions about the kinds of relationships and family structures that they prefer as individuals. They claim that there is less social pressure on people to conform to expected norms of what is considered appropriate or acceptable. Postmodernists do not regard the family today as positive or negative; rather, they reflect on some of the changes that have occurred.
• Marxist feminists


  Women are dually oppressed by patriarchy and capitalist ideology. Both systems oppress women for the benefit of men. Families within capitalism require women to be a source of unpaid domestic work to ensure that the man can go to work. Women are also can go exploited in that they are expected to provide outlets for all the frustration and anger that their husbands experience at work and therefore prevent them from rebelling against their employers. Silvia Federici(2012) argues that many women are now forced into productive and reproductive labour, resulting in a 'double day'.
• Radical feminists


  Inequalities in the home are the result of the way that relationships in families allow men to control women. These inequalities in power relations relate to decision making and also control of finances, both of which advantage men. As well as this, radical feminists claim that men benefit from women taking responsibility for the mundane and repetitive tasks such as housework as well as emotional work (where women care for family members and put other people's feelings before their own). This suggests that women experience subordination and oppression while they cater to the needs of their husband - emotionally, sexually, physically - and spend their time raising the children at whatever cost to their own paid work or interests.
• Difference feminists ( Nicholson and Cheshire)


  Offer an interesting, more recent interpretation of the experiences of women in the family. They have criticised other types of feminists for failing to take into consideration the fact that women in different types of households experience family life differently. They claim that it is wrong to claim that all women are exploited in the same way in all types of families. Difference feminists argue that many factors shape the experience that women have of family.
• Liberal feminists ( Ann Oakley)


  Are optimistic about greater equality between men and women within the family. They claim that equality between men and women is slowly occurring through a shift in attitudes along with legal changes. Liberal feminists stress the importance of women being socialised and educated so that they have the right and freedom to choose a career, a family role or a combination of the two.
• Marxists

  Claim that the family is simply a way to maintain and reinforce a set of ideas which in turn maintain capitalist society. Marx went as far as suggesting that women in capitalist families are commodities, owned by men, like property. Friedrich Engels argued that the family, in particular marriage and inheritance rules, ensured the ruling class stayed powerful and wealthy as the wealth of capitalism passed through the male line to the son - primogeniture. Engels claimed that marriage within a monogamous nuclear family was a way to ensure that wealth was kept in certain families.
• The Conservative government of 1979-1997 developed policies that reflect the general desire of right-wing politicians, sometimes known as New Right politicians, to reinforce the importance of the nuclear family and conservative attitudes towards family life, which they believe were (and are) under threat.
• Key family policies of the Conservative government of 1979-1997

  • The Child Support Agency was set up in an attempt to make fathers pay maintenance for their children and discourage people from having children outside marriage
  • Providing people who were married with tax and welfare benefits, acting as an incentive for people to marry
  • Privatising care for the elderly, putting poorer families in a position of responsibility for elderly relatives, meaning that women were likely to take responsibility for their care, further reinforcing the idea of traditional gender roles
• Many Conservative government policies were criticised by feminists who argued that such policies were counter to improving gender equality. New Right policies were also criticised for 'blaming the victim', in other words, blaming single-parent families for societal problems such as antisocial behaviour.
• Key New Labour family policies (1997-2010)

  • Forming the Department for Children, Schools and Families
  • Prioritising education and introducing policies intended to make sure that children from poorer backgrounds were prepared for school, such as Sure Start
  • Investing funds in improving social housing and setting ambitious targets for building affordable housing
  • More generous maternity leave and pay, and paternity leave
  • Free childcare for two and a half year olds
  • Flexible working arrangements for parents
  • The New Deal (1998), which helped lone parents enter into paid work after having children by helping with the cost of childcare and training or education
• Many people welcomed New Labour's range of family-friendly policies. Some have suggested that they reflected the large proportion of women in ministerial positions in the government at the time, as well as the fact that Tony Blair, the prime minister, had young children himself when he was in office. However, critics such as the New Right suggested that New Labour intervened too much in family life, arguing that this results in a nanny state where individuals rely on what they see as the overly generous benefits the government gives rather than people taking responsibility for themselves and their families.
• Key Coalition government family policies (2010-2015)


  • The reintroduction of the married persons' tax allowance
  • Cutting Legal Aid, making it harder for some vulnerable groups, such as women who have no incomes of their own, to access legal advice when they most need it, for example if they experience domestic violence
  • The scaling back or cutting of benefits, which are replaced by a new benefit called universal credit, designed as a way of making people earn more through working rather than claiming benefits, intended to reduce welfare dependency
• The Coalition government has come under attack from many who claim that their family policies fail to support alternatives to the nuclear family or, at worst, regard the alternatives to the nuclear family as inferior or inadequate for raising children. Given that such a high proportion of families today are no longer nuclear, these policies are not regarded as reflecting the experiences of family life for many people. Feminists and others have argued that Coalition family policies have hit women hardest, resulting in greater hardship for women and their children in many cases. As the Coalition government attempted to cut back benefits in general, it is the poorest and most vulnerable groups who have been most negatively affected, thus, according to some, widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
• Murdock

  1. sexual
  2. reproduction
  3. socialisation
  4. economic
• Althusser


  Ideological states apparatus for the ruling classs