Evaluating Marxist Views

• Engels's view of family and marriage


  Not a romantic one
• Families are not just a feature of capitalist societies
• Parsons' view


  The privatised nuclear family was a product of, and particularly suited to, an industrialised society
• Despite some experiments with communal living in the early years of the Russian Revolution, communist societies have been based around family life too
• Zaretsky's theory


  • Outdated, assuming a male breadwinner and female housewife
  • Only sees a negative side to the emotional support and comfort that a family can provide to its members