Families

• Delphy and Leonard emphasise the importance of work from a radical feminist perspective
• Delphy and Leonard's view

  It is men, rather than capitalists, who benefit most from the exploitation of women's labour
• The family


  Has a central role in maintaining patriarchy
• The family


  Is an economic system involving a particular set of labour relations in which men benefit from and exploit the work of women
• Women are oppressed because their work is taken for granted within the family
• When wives have paid employment outside the home they still have to carry out household tasks which are not equally shared with their male partners
• Perspective of Delphy and Leonard


  Radical feminist
• It is men, not capitalists, who benefit more from the exploitation of women's labour
• Patriarchy


  The family has a central role in maintaining it
• The family


  Is viewed as an economic system
• The family is a patriarchal organisation where the men benefit from the free labour provided by their wives
• Housework and childcare is provided by the female of the house
• The man's position in the family is a dominant one whilst the women and children have a subordinate position
• Even when women have paid employment outside the home, they still have to undertake household tasks and care for the children
• Talcott Parsons' two irreducible functions of the family


  1. Primary socialisation

  2. Stabilisation of adult personalities
• 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
• Agents of socialisation


  Institutions that teach people the norms and values of society
• Instrumental role


  The role performed by men, involving discipline and earning money
• Expressive role


  The role performed by women, involving caring, nurturing and raising children
• Gender division of labour


  The idea that men and women perform very different roles
• Warm bath theory


  The idea that the family helps to deal with the difficulties and challenges of life, providing care and support
• 5 types of family diversity identified by Rapoport and Rapoport


  • Organisational
  • Cultural
  • Social Class
  • Life course
  • Generational
• Rapoport and Rapoport carried out groundbreaking research into family life
• Ann Oakley defined the conventional family as "nuclear families composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing to have children"
• Conventional family


  Nuclear families composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing parenthood of one or more children
• The conventional family was portrayed as the "normal" or "cereal packet family" in television advertisements and soap operas
• Conventional family


  • It was a form of social control, as people were expected to live in these families and this made it harder to live alternative lives
  • Even in the early 1980s, the conventional family was being challenged as people explored different ways of living and different arrangements
• Oakley critically examined the idea of the conventional family and looked at where the idea that this was the "normal" way to live came from, and the influence it has over society and individuals
• Oakley noted that, even in the early 1980s, the conventional family was being challenged as people were exploring different ways of living and different arrangements that worked for them and did not conform to convention
• Stratified diffusion


  Changes in norms and values tend to start among the wealthier in society and then others start to behave in the same way
• Willmott and Young's prediction that the next stage of the family would be the asymmetric family has not turned out to be accurate, with - if anything - family life becoming more symmetrical since 1973
• Private sphere


  The family and personal relationships
• Public sphere


  The economy and work
• Family in capitalist society


  • Women became responsible for personal relationships within the family and for family member's emotional wellbeing
  • The family serves the interests of capitalism by providing unpaid domestic labour, reproducing social classes, and being a vital unit of consumption
• Zaretsky believes that the family is not able to fully meet people's emotional and social needs, and can only cushion them from the harsh effects of capitalism