Family

• Reasons why the family benefits the ruling class in a capitalist society

  • Socialisation of children (they learn norms and values that favour the ruling class)
  • Psychological outlet (the family distracts workers from being oppressed by capitalist society)
  • Economic function (working class families keep the bosses rich through buying their goods)
• Socialisation of children

  The family as part of the superstructure of capitalist society socialises children, especially working-class children, into norms and values that are useful and in favour of the capitalist ruling class
• Psychological outlet


  The family acts as a comforting device for the worker against the hardships of an oppressive and exploitative workplace, keeping the workers docile and maintaining a false consciousness
• Economic function


  The family is the main institution where the majority of consumer goods and services are consumed (bought), which means working class families are keeping the bosses rich
• Criticisms of Zaretsky's ideas

  • Feminists argue that the Marxist focus on social class inequalities downplays the role of patriarchy, which is the real source of female oppression
  • Marxism ignores the benefits of nuclear family e.g. both parents support the children
  • The New Right point out that the nuclear family is the most functional type of environment in which to raise children, and is found in most societies around the world, suggesting it is something people choose
• Whereas functionalists generally see the family as good for both society and the individual, Marxists are much more pessimistic about the role of the family
• Marxists suggest that the family is used by the capitalist class to ensure that the extreme inequalities in wealth and income produced by the capitalist economic system are never challenged by the working-class or the poor
• New Right

  A sociological theory closely allied with political movements, particularly the conservative party and their beliefs, which further developed functionalist ideas
• Golden age

  The period of time around 1950's where the nuclear family was strong, partners were committed to one another and children obeyed their parents
• Familial ideology


  A set of ideas about what constitutes as an 'ideal' family, transmitted by sections of the media and advertising, as well as other social institutions
• Saunders' view

  Governments should 'explicitly favour married parenthood over all other choices for raising children' and introduce taxes and benefits to support this
• Reasons for the decline of the nuclear family according to the New Right

  • Divorce
  • The breakdown of traditional values
  • Increase in same-sex families
  • Over generous welfare
• Dennis and Erdos' view

  Families are not just changing, they are deteriorating. Children raised outside of a marriage (especially by single mothers) are at a disadvantage
• Murray's view

  Welfare policies have undermined the nuclear family and given perverse incentives for people to start lone parent families or to end their marriages and form lone parent families. This has led to a dependency culture and an 'underclass' of people living off benefits
• New Right's influence on policy

  • Introduction of CSA (Child Support Agency)
  • Increased tax allowances for married couples
  • Reduction of state benefits
• Feminists, like Marxists, are generally highly critical of the family because they believe that it has harmful effects for women and that it is generally responsible for patriarchy (society dominated by men) and the inequalities that patriarchy generates between men and women
• Liberal Feminism


  Wants to change culture and laws to make society more equal, viewing gender socialisation as the cause of inequality
• Hegemonic masculinity

  The family teaches males to see themselves as providers, protectors and as superior to females
• Hegemonic femininity

  The family encourages females to be nurturers, emotional caretakers, to be focused on their looks and as secondary to males
• Gender socialisation

  The processes of Manipulation (parents encouraging/discouraging behaviour based on appropriateness for the child's sex) and Canalisation (parents channeling children's interests into toys and activities seen as 'normal for that sex')
• Despite gender socialisation, Liberal Feminist writers consider progress has been made over time in the relations between men and women and consequently they argue that family roles and relationships have become more egalitarian (equal)
• Evidence suggests it is still women who bear the major burden of childcare and housework even when engaged in full-time careers
• After two parents decide to raise their baby as gender neutral, they discover that gender-creative parenting comes with its own set of worries and challenges
• 1970s teenagers aspired to get married and have children whilst the 1990s teenagers saw educational qualifications and careers as far more important
• Women now have much more choice about whether to marry, whether they take paid work when married and whether they stay married

  • There is now greater equality within marriage and greater sharing of the responsibility for paid and unpaid work and childcare
• Being raised as gender neutral

  After two parents decide to raise their baby as gender neutral, they discover that gender-creative parenting comes with its own set of worries and challenges
• Bringing up a child without assigning a gender

  • List examples
• Positive effects from raising a child without assigning a gender

  • Note the positive effects
• Negative effects from raising a child without assigning a gender

  • Note the negative effects
• Marxist feminism

  Rejects the optimism of liberal feminists and argue that women's inequalities are the result of being forced to serve the needs of capitalism both inside and outside the family
• Marxist feminists see the family


  As the cause of inequality as women are domestic servants to men and this mirrors the inequality of capitalist society
• Benston and Ansley argue that married women who stay at home are exploited by the capitalist class because they produce and bring up the future labour force but receive no wages from the capitalist class for this domestic service
• Benston argues that patriarchal views are a feature of capitalism and that it functions to convince women that their main place is in the home

  This ideology produces a reserve army of female labour who are hired when the economy is strong as low-paid, part-time and temporary labour
• Criticisms of Marxist feminism

  • New Right and Functionalist sociologists would criticise Marxist feminists for attacking and undermining the nuclear family
  • They would argue that the nuclear family is the cornerstone of society, and without support for it, many social problems such as youth crime and educational underachievement can arise
  • They ignore recent changes to the economy especially the feminisation of the workplace and cultural changes such as Wilkinson's genderquake which mean that women today are less likely to choose to be a stay-at-home mother
• Radical feminism

  Women's oppression must therefore be the result of male domination and not capitalism because it happens in all societies, whether they are capitalist or communist
• Men are seen as the dominant class and use their power to exploit women in any way possible, not just economically
• Delphy and Leonard argue that women contribute a great deal to their husbands' work and leisure by providing for their emotional and sexual well-being
• Germaine Greer argues that even in marriage today women remain subservient to their husbands
• Greer claims that wives are much more likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse than husbands, and daughters are often victims of sexual abuse by male relatives within the family
• Criticisms of radical feminism

  • They fail to account for recent economic and social changes, such as the feminization of the economy, the educational success of young females, women's use of divorce, and many women's rejection of domestic labour as their exclusive responsibility
  • They ignore examples where men are the victims of abuse in families and therefore seem to only focus on females as victims