Marxism view on families

• Marxism

  Working class suffer from false class consciousness; unaware of the exploitation they experience
• Social institutions


  • Marx believed that the social institutions fool the working class into thinking they are getting a fair deal and that their status position is natural and therefore unchangeable
• False class consciousness

  The ruling class are seen to be acting for the benefit of society and the working class accept and are misled by this view, due to the influence that the social institutions have on the public
• Social institutions that influence false class consciousness


  • Religion
  • Education
  • Family
• Althusser takes a structuralist view to society and is close to Marx, however he also criticises Marx for his economic determinism beliefs and comes up with his own explanation of how the ruling class control the working class
• Althusser's interlocking systems


  • Economic System - produces all material goods
  • Political System - Organises Society, passes laws and provides leadership
  • Ideological System - provides all the ideas and belief systems that are followed by the population
• Gramsci


  Often referred to as a 'Humanistic Marxist' because he believed the proletariat can influence social change through developing their own 'hegemony' rather than waiting for economic changes that Marx referred to
• Counter-hegemony


  Gramsci suggested that the proletariat would construct a 'counter-hegemony' to provide people with an alternate way of life to the capitalist state
• Capitalism alternatives


  • Working class intellectuals - a group of well-educated working class individuals who could show the proletariat an alternative to Capitalism
• The only way to influence a revolution is by winning the hearts and minds of the proletariat and give them something to believe in
• Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)


  Institutions in society that spread capitalist ideologies of the ruling class
• Examples of ISAs


  • School
  • Media
  • Religion
• ISAs lead to


  False class consciousness in the working class
• False class consciousness


  Disables social mobility
• Marxism is deterministic and overemphasises the role of the family in maintaining capitalism, ignoring other inequalities such as the role of the family in maintaining patriarchy
• Marxists would see the family as a unit of consumption theory of capitalism
• society is not harmonious but based on a division between bourgeoisie and proletariat, capitalism
• cushioning effect:

  Zaretsky: The family acts as a comfort from the stresses and strains of society.

  Family allows the man to feel in control which they don't feel in the workplace due to bourgeoisie oppression.