Families and Households

• Family life has changed dramatically over time due to changes in technology, industrialisation, urbanisation, globalisation and changing attitudes towards gender roles and sexuality
• Some sociologists believe domestic violence results from


  Patriarchy (Dobash and Dobash)
• Some sociologists believe domestic violence results from

  Stress from being poor (Wilkinson)
• Parsons - Men and women have biologically suited roles that are functional for society


  • Expressive role - Women = Homemaker (involves cooking, cleaning and looking after children)
  • Instrumental role - Men = Breadwinner (involves paid work, earning the income for the family)
• Bott - Conjugal roles


  • Segregated - Division of labour between men and women, couple spends leisure time separately
  • Joint - Couples share domestic tasks and leisure time
• Willmott and Young - There are now more symmetrical families as a result of


  Increased joint conjugal roles
• Perspectives on equality of couples


  • March of progress - The 'new man' means couples have an equal share of housework and childcare
  • Dual burden - Women now do paid work and domestic work (Feri and Smith)
  • Triple shift - Women not only carry the dual burden of paid and domestic work, but also have to do the emotional work (Duncombe and Marsden)
• Explanations for decision making power


  • Material - Men have more power in decision making because they earn more
  • Cultural - Gender role socialisation instils the view that men are the primary decision makers
• Dobash and Dobash - Marriage and the nuclear family is the key institution of


  Patriarchy, and the main source of women's oppression. Domestic violence is inevitable because it serves to preserve the power men have over women.
• Ansley - Domestic violence is the product of


  Capitalism: males workers are exploited at work and take their frustration out on their wives.
• Wilkinson - Domestic violence is the result of


  Stress on the family caused by social inequality.
• Aries - In the middle ages, the idea of childhood


  • Did not exist. Children had the same responsibilities, rights and skills as adults - in turn, they were considered economic assets. However, as the modern notion of childhood began to emerge, there became a profound distinction between children in adults in terms of clothing, rights and responsibilities.
• Postman - In modern society, childhood is


  • Disappearing. Children and adults have some of the same rights, children's unsupervised traditional games are disappearing, children are committing 'adult' crimes. The printed word created a hierarchy between adults, who can read, and children, who cannot - this gave adults the power to keep 'adult matters' private. However, TV blurs the distinction and information hierarchy; TV does not require special skills to access it.
• Shorter - In the middle ages, the high death rate of children encouraged


  • Indifference and neglect. For example, parents referred to their child as "it" or gave the child a name of a recently dead sibling.
• The March of Progress View


  Childhood has improved significantly, due to how children are now perceived as vulnerable people who need taking care of. There has been an introduction of laws which improve the experience of childhood (Eg. laws banning child labour).
• PALMER: ''Toxic childhood' - Rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged children's physical, emotional and intellectual development. This is the result of intensive marketing to children, parents working long hours and testing in education.'
• GITTINS: ''Age patriarchy' - There is an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency. This may assert itself in the form of violence against children.'
• Functionalists


  • Hold a consensus view of the family arguing that it plays a vital role in providing beneficial functions to meet the needs of society and its individual members.
• Marxists


  • Take a conflict view of the family, arguing it helps maintain class inequalities.
• Feminists


  • Hold a conflict view of the family, whereby they believe the family is the main source of oppression of women.
• Organic Analogy


  The human body is made up of different parts that function together to meet its needs and maintain it. Functionalists believe society does the same, in which it is made up of interdependent parts (eg. the education system, the government, religion etc) that work together to maintain the social system as a whole.
• MURDOCK


  • The nuclear family performs four essential functions: Socialisation of the young, Satisfaction of the member's economic needs, Reproduction of the next generation, Stable satisfaction of the sex drive.
• PARSONS - The Functional Fit


  The functions that the family perform depend on the type of society in which they are found: Pre-industrial society - extended family - had the function of production and consumption, Modern society - nuclear family - have the function of social and geographical mobility.
• PARSONS - The Functional Fit


  • The nuclear family has two irreducible functions: Primary socialisation of the young - equipping the next generation with basic skills and society's values, Stabilisation of adult personalities - enabling adults to relax so they can return to the workplace and perform their roles effectively.
• ENGELS


  The family exists so men can pass their private property onto their biological offspring, notably a son.
• ZARETZKY


  There is an ideological function of the family called the 'cult of private life' - this is the belief that we can only gain fulfilment from family life, which distracts attention from exploitation.
• POULANTZAS


  Nuclear families are brainwashed into thinking capitalism is fair, which teaches lower generations how to conform and co-operate with the capitalist system.
• Liberal feminists


  Take a march of progress view in suggesting gender inequality is gradually being overcome through reform and policy change, which changes people's attitudes towards socialisation and challenges stereotypes
• Marxist feminists


  Believe capitalism is the main form of women's oppression in the family and this performs several functions for capitalism
• Functions of women's oppression in the family for capitalism


  • Reproducing the labour force - women socialise the next generation of workers
  • Absorbing men's anger - wives soak up their husband's frustration from being exploited at work
  • A reserve army of cheap labour - when not needed, women workers can return to their domestic role
• Patriarchal society


  Men benefit from women's unpaid domestic labour and sexual services, and dominate them through violence or the threat of it
• Radical feminists


  • Believe the patriarchal system needs to be overturned
  • Believe the only way to achieve this is through separatism, meaning women need to organise themselves to live independently to men
• Difference feminists


  Not all women share the same experience of oppression; women of different ethnicities, class, age etc may have different experiences of the family
• New Right


  • Believe in a biologically-based division of labour - the division of labour between a male breadwinner and a female homemaker is natural and biologically determined
  • Believe families should be self-reliant - reliance on state welfare leads to a dependency culture and undermines traditional gender roles, producing family breakdown and an increase of lone-parent families, which results in social problems due to poor socialisation
• Personal life perspective


  • Looks at relationships that individuals see as significant and gives a sense of identity, belonging and relatedness (pets, friends etc.)
  • Interactionists believe that structural approaches assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant type of family, ignoring the increased diversity of families today
• Birth rate


  The number of live births per year per 1000
• There was a long-term decline in birth rate, but there were 3 'baby booms' after WW1, WW2 and during the 1960's
• Reasons for the decline in birth rate


  • Changes in the position of women - Increased educational opportunities, more women in paid work, change in attitude towards family life and the women's role, wider access to abortion and contraception
  • Fall in infant mortality rate - improved housing, sanitation, nutrition, knowledge of hygiene and child health, improved technology, antibiotics
  • Children as an economic liability - Laws banning child labour coupled with the introduction of compulsory schooling has meant children remain economically dependent for longer, changing norms about children's right to a high standard of living raises their cost
  • Child centredness - childhood is now socially constructed and uniquely important period of life, parents focus on quality not quantity, meaning they have fewer children but lavish more attention and resources on them
• Dependency ratio


  The relationship between the size of the working population and the non-working (dependent) population
• The dependency ratio increases


  The working population's earnings support the dependent population through tax