Family

• It is not easy to define family, as there is no general or universal agreed definition of 'family' in sociology
• Many sociologists argue that we cannot discuss 'the family' as if there is just one model of it
• Family


  A group of people who are related by kinship ties (relation by blood, marriage or civil partnership), the adult members who of whom assume responsibility for caring for children
• Household


  More general than family, refers to either one person living alone or a group of people who live under the same roof and share living arrangements
• Marriage


  Helps to acknowledge and approve a sexual union between 2 adult individuals, when 2 people marry they become kin to one another and marriage connects to a wider range of kin
• Types of marriages


  • Polygamy (an individual marries more than one man/female)
  • Monogamy (an individual marries one partner only, mostly found in Western Societies)
  • Polygyny (a man is married to more than one woman, usually found in Islamic countries)
  • Polyandry (a female is married to more than one man, found in Tibet)
• In pre-industrial times, the family was traditional/extended, consisting of the parents, a particular number of children, grandparents, aunts & uncles
• The reason why these families used to have a good number of children is because they wanted help in their farms
• In pre-modern Europe, children were often working from the age of 7 or 8 in their family farms, with girls helping their mother with housework and boys helping their fathers take care of the farm
• As factories were being built and families were moving from rural to urban areas


  They did not need a good number of children to work in their farms because their income did not depend on their land, they used to work in factories
• The decrease in the number of children that families were having


  Extended family members did not live with them anymore, the family in industrial societies consisted of the parents and their children (nuclear family)
• Functionalism's view on the family

  • The family is a very important social institution because it socializes its offspring and helps them to fit better in society, the family is a source of social order as it socializes all its members and teaches them the norms & values of society
• Murdock's 4 functions of the family

  • Sexual (expressing sexuality in a socially approved context)
  • Reproduction (providing stability for the reproduction & upbringing of children)
  • Socialization (an important unit of primary socialization, where children learn socially acceptable behaviour and the culture of their society)
  • Economic (providing food & shelter for family members)
• Murdock argues that these functions are necessary for society and he suggests that the nuclear family is found in every society to carry them out
• Parsons' 2 main functions of the family


  • Primary Socialization (the process where children learn the values, norms, culture & lifestyle of their society)
  • Personality Stabilization (the role that the family has in helping family members emotionally)
• Sexual division of labour

  Females have the expressive role (providing warmth, security & emotional support) and males have the instrumental role (breadwinner of the family)
• Parsons looks at the nuclear family as the best equipped to handle the demands of the industrial society
• Parsons was criticised because his study is outdated, he puts lots of importance on family & forgets about other social institutions, he assumed that there is one ideal family type (nuclear), and he was criticised by the Feminists because he ignored the exploitation of women in the family
• Marxist view on the family


  • The family is a source of social control, it is based on private property and driven by profit, it teaches its members to submit to the capitalist class through the process of socialization
• Engels believes that the monogamous nuclear family developed as a means of passing on private property to the next generations
• Althusser believes that the family is an ideological state apparatus because it helps to pass on the ideas and beliefs of the ruling class
• Zaretsky looks at the family as an escape from oppression & exploitation at work, it acts as a cushion as it helps the working class to live with the daily oppression in the world of work and thereby, helps to undermine opposition to capitalism
• The Marxist view of the family was criticised as being too old-fashioned, the idea of the family having the cushioning effect is too romanticized, and Marxist Feminists argue that it is a very male Marxist perspective
• Feminist view on the family


  • The family and marriage are major sources of female oppression and gender inequalities in society, housework and childcare in the family, which are mainly performed by women, are unpaid and unrecognizable as work at all, this gives more power to men
• Types of feminists


  • Marxist feminists (emphasize on how females are doubly exploited)
  • Radical feminists (believe that the main problem is patriarchy, the family is a patriarchal institution which benefits men at the expense of women)
  • Liberal feminists
• Marxist feminists believe that the family, in particular the female's work, is contributing to the maintaining of capitalism in various ways
• Radical feminists like Christine Delphy & Diana Leonard focused on family exploitation, arguing that the family is patriarchal and hierarchal, and the man benefits the most by the work done by the female in the family
• Radical Feminists


  • Believe the main problem is patriarchy
  • Argue that many relationships between men and women in all spheres of life in society remain highly patriarchal and exploitive
• Radical Feminist view on the family


  1. See the family as a patriarchal institution which benefits men at the expense of women

  2. Believe women are better off without men and if they steer away from patriarchal situations

  3. Solution is that females should reject family and family life and reject relationships with men altogether
• Radical Feminists


  • Christine Delphy & Diana Leonard focused on family exploitation
  • Argue that the family is patriarchal and hierarchal, with the man ranked better than the female
• Radical Feminist Firestone


  • Believes the female is exploited because of her sex
  • Believes the female feels inferior to the man because of her sex (pregnancy, childbirth etc)
  • Supports contraceptives to give the female more control over her body
• Liberal Feminists


  • Look at females' position in the family, with major responsibility of housework & children
  • Aware of progress females made with more equality and free choices on motherhood and career
• Liberal Feminist approach


  1. Argue for change in socialization and parenting practices to avoid gender stereotyping

  2. Believe the best way to improve women's position is through different measures (policies) in society to remove or reduce discrimination
• Liberal Feminist policies


  • Establishing laws on equal pay and sex discrimination
  • Policies on equality of maternity and paternity leave
  • Policies on sharing of housework between partners and actions towards domestic violence
• Liberal Feminists


  • Put importance on the development of policies to promote equality, especially in the work place
• New Right Perspective


  • Support traditional values and institutions of the family
  • See the nuclear family and kinship network as having an important function in ensuring social stability by providing emotional security for children and socializing them into the culture of society
• New Right theorists believe the traditional heterosexual nuclear family, with a traditional division of gender roles, should remain the dominant family form in society
• New Right Perspective


  • Aware of threats to the family from social changes like rise in divorce, more stepfamilies, lone parents, cohabitation, births outside wedlock, same-sex partnerships
• New Right Perspective


  Believe different family forms are bringing about social instability, lack of respect, antisocial behaviour and dependency on welfare benefits
• New Right Theorists Murray & Marsland


  • Believe the welfare state is not helping family members to be responsible as they can now depend on welfare benefits, encouraging more adults to become lone parents