Family

• Young and Willmott

  They were functionalists who wrote the book “symmetrical family”. The symmetrical family is where adults share decisions and appear more equal. They looked at the 4 stages of the family and how over time have less to do with extended family.

  The 4 stages were:

  -pre-industrial family

  -early-industrial family

  -symmetrical family

  -asymmetrical family

  These changes have happened due to increase in male wages, having less children and geographical mobility.
• Parsons - functionalist 


  Believes that stable and supportive families are key to a successful society and that men and women should have a clear division of labour.

  Women should fill expressive roles: providing care for children and offering emotional support (warm bath theory)

  Men should fill instrumental roles: being the breadwinner

  ^ this ensures stability within the family.
• Delphy and Leonard - radical feminists


  Believe that family reflects the patriarchy (men make the final decisions)

  Women do the majority of household labour and experience the triple shift.

  Women contribute the most to family life while men gain the most from it. - its men that benefit from the exploitation of women, not capitalism.
• Ann Oakley - feminist


  -Believes that women suffer the dual burden (working paid and unpaid work)

  -There are strong segregated roles within the household - she did a study on housework and discovered women did the majority of the housework even if they worked.
• Triple shift - Duncombe and Marsden 


  women are not only expected to do the double shift of paid and unpaid work but also deal with the emotional burden of partners and children.
• segregated conjugal roles - Ann Oakley 


  where the responsibilities within the household are clearly divided into male and female tasks
• Rapoport and Rapoport - family diversity


  -Believes that nuclear families are no longer the traditional family norm.

  -families are now pluralistic (have more cultural diversity)

  5 types of family diversity found in the Uk:

  • Organisational
  • cultural
  • social class
  • Life stage
  • generational
• rapoport and rapoport - 5 types of family diversity


  organisational

  • How roles are organised (eg - conjugal)

  Cultural

  • Different family structures due to different culture, religion ethnicity (eg - an increase in lone female parents in African Caribbean households)

  Social class

  • different family structures as a result of income (eg - whether both parents work)

  life stage

  • different family structure due to stage reached in life-cycle.

  Generational

  • older vs younger attitudes reflect experiences
• zaretsky - Marxist


  -Believes that the nuclear family is a tool to teach people to submit to ruling-class authority

  -Family = aid to capitalism since it’s based around the ideas that the domestic labour of housewives produce the next generation of workers.

  -Families consume the products of capitalism which increase profits of the ruling class
• Young and Willmott - 4 stages of the family

  Pre-industrial

  • families were close and worked together (eg - communes still in this stage)

  Early-industrial

  • segregated roles and kinship is important. Women would socialise with other females whilst men would be in the pub.

  Symmetrical

  • adults make shared decisions and appear more equal. Both do equal amounts of work but by gender.

  Asymmetrical

  • family disrupted by industrialisation process, now a clear separation between home and work. Father is absent (at work) mother is at home (domestic labourer)
• Parsons - warm bath theory


  Also known as the stabilisation of adult personality

  Where the wife should provide a warm and loving environment for the man to relax into after a stressful day at work - like a warm bath.