Marxist Views On Family

• Marxist view of the family


  Opposed to the value consensus based society functionalists adhere to
• Marxist view of capitalist societies


  • Based in unequal conflict between two main classes: the capitalist class who controls production and the working class whose work is exploited for profit by the capitalist class
• Marxist's central belief


  Societal institutions such as education, media, religion, the state and the family maintain class inequality through capitalism
• Main functions of the family according to Marxists


  • Inheritance of property
  • Ideological functions
  • Unit of consumption
• Marxist view of the origin of the family, private property and the state


  Suggested by Friedrich Engels, who worked with Marx
• Origin of the family, private property and the state

  1. Earliest classes were called primitive communism where there was no private property and all members of society owned production communally

  2. As the forces of production developed and wealth increased, the advent of private property as well as a class of men able to secure and control the means of production was created

  3. This led to patriarchal monogamous nuclear families, as monogamy was vital to the inheritance of private property
• Marxist view of the rise of the monogamous nuclear family


  A world historical defeat of the female sex, due to male control of women's sexuality rendering them into sole instruments of child rearing
• Overthrow of capitalism and private ownership of production


  The only way to free women from the patriarchal control, creating a classless society where means of productions are collectively owned and eliminating the patriarchal nuclear family
• Ideological functions of the family according to Marxists


  The family supports the ideology that justifies inequality by persuading individuals to accept it as fair, natural and unchanging for the sole purpose of upholding capitalism
• How the family accomplishes the ideological function


  Through the socialization of children into accepting the inevitability of hierarchy and inequality, where parents, most notably fathers, exercise control over their children
• Eli Zaretsky's view on the family's role


  Offering a haven from the harsh and exploitative capitalist world, offering workers a private life to express themselves freely
• Zaretsky believed this was a false reality as the family cannot meet its members' needs due to the domestic servitude of women
• Family's role as a unit of consumption


  Capitalism exploits the production of workers by making a profit off their products sold for more than these workers are paid for their efforts, and the family plays a vital role in making profits as an important consumer of produced goods
• Advertisers encourage families to consume the latest products, and media targets children to persuade parents to buy goods and spend more money
• Children are stigmatized by peers if they do not have the latest goods and products
• Functions of the family according to Marxists


  • Inheritance of private property
  • Socialization into accepted inequality
  • Source of profits
• Marxists believe these functions do not benefit the members of the family at all
• Zaretsky's view on the family in the world of paid work


  He portrayed the family as connected spheres, disagreeing with radical feminists that blamed patriarchy and not capitalism for oppression of women
• Changes in families as related to economic development


  1. In the late middle ages and early days of the industrial revolution, men and women engaged in production with the help of children

  2. Victorian laws stopped child labor, forcing mothers to care for children at home and meant to be the sole breadwinners, thus causing women to lose family status

  3. Automated and unsatisfying industry alienated male workers into seeking satisfaction at home, thus forcing women to the role of comforting domestic expected to keep beautiful homes
• Zaretsky's belief


  Encouraging and enforcing career equality through pay would fail at liberating women and improving their familial status, more radical changes were required
• Zaretsky's suggestions for radical changes, similar to Engels' but less threatening to the family love than revolutionary Russia, include care of children and dependents carried out by community services run by both sexes, enabling women to work in a communist collective and reducing isolation, and shorter work hours enabling both sexes to mix with the community, eliminating class divisions and family relationships
• Jennifer Summerville believes Zaretsky exaggerated the family role as a refuge from capitalism, as it was also violent and cruel, thereby dispelling the imagery of working-class women not having to do paid work and solely taking care of the home
• The idea that community child care and dependent services are equal to loving family relationships is debatable
• Engels' theory is based on unreliable historical evidence but makes an interesting analogy between men's control of women and capitalists' domination of the proletariat
• Marxists' view that the nuclear family is the dominant structure ignores the vast and increasing variety of family structures in modern society
• Feminists indicate that the Marxist's emphasis on capitalism and social class suppresses the feminist-centered aspects of gender inequalities within the family which upholds the interests of men rather than capitalism
• Functionalists indicate that Marxists discount the benefits that the family provides for its members such as intimacy and mutual support
• Societal institutions like education, media, religion, and the family maintain class inequality through capitalism
• The family is sometimes seen as subservient to the economic and ideological needs of capitalism, for example, as units of consumption