Evaluating parsons

• Social historians have questioned Parsons's key arguments
• Peter Laslett (1972)

  Found that pre-industrial households were often made up of nuclear families rather than extended families
• Michael Anderson (1971)


  Found that early industrial families were more likely to be extended, as people moved in with relatives when they migrated to towns
• Parsons is therefore criticised for being an armchair theorist
• Families were always rather more diverse than Parsons acknowledged
• Parsons's ideas about there being an ideal, "functional" family form, and there being appropriate gender roles, are seen as outdated