Families & Households

• Familiar exploitation


  Key text on the GCSE specification, important for study at A-level
• Delphi and Leonard's argument

  • Exploitation of women in the family was not as a result of capitalism, but rather they were exploited because of the patriarchy
  • Domestic labor, child care, leisure time and decision making all benefited men to the detriment of women
  • Males had control of the home and the finances within it, giving them a sense of authority
• Domestic labor


  Women's unpaid labor in the home that would have economic worth in wider society, yet was deemed unproductive
• Domestic labor in the home

  Benefited men, was not seen as part of the male gender domain
• Male's role in the household

  • Their time was seen as leisure time, an opportunity to unwind from work
  • Women were more likely to continue working after 5pm, with less leisure time
• Domestic labor became associated with women, with language reinforcing this
• Recent changes in the division of labour

  Males may be doing more than in previous generations, but things are still far from equal in most households
• Critics argue Delphi and Leonard's research ignored the impacts of capitalism in shaping the economics of gendered labor
• Research by Jillian Dunn found the domestic division of labor was more equal in lesbian partnerships than in heterosexual relationships, suggesting the presence of males and patriarchal norms influences how housework is completed
• Functionalists

  • Divided on the use of social policies to control family life
  • More traditional functionalists like Parsons advocated the use of social policies such as tax incentives for married couples to reinforce the values of the traditional nuclear family
  • More recent approaches have suggested that state intervention in the family is less desirable
  • They argue that the family is a social institution that provides for its members without the need for assistance from the government
  • They advocate only intervening where there is dysfunction in the family unit e.g. increased divorce, domestic violence
• Functionalists hold traditional values and this has brought them into opposition with some of the more progressive policies of recent years such as same-sex marriage
• Marxists


  • Vocal in their criticism of the role of the state in creating social policy
  • Suggest that social policies are designed to serve the needs of the elites in society
  • Even policies that seemingly benefit the working class are actually a smokescreen to ensure that the economy continues to function and people are working
  • Policies such as free childcare are viewed with suspicion as they suggest that having somebody look after children of workers benefits the ruling class more whilst causing anxiety for parents
  • Donzelott suggested that through policies the state can effectively police the family with social institutions such as education and healthcare and the police being able to monitor the extent that the family is socializing their children into correct behaviors
  • Policies such as safeguarding allow inter-agency working to build up a picture of how children are being socialized by the family and although most would suggest that this is for the child's protection, Marxists would suggest this is a form of control over the family by the ruling class
• Feminists


  • Differ on their approaches to the role of the state in setting family policy
  • More radical feminists see the role of family policy as reinforcing patriarchal norms of women as the primary childcare provider
  • Liberal feminists utilize the system to enforce changes in the way that women are perceived and provide them with more opportunities particularly in employment
  • Radical feminists suggest that the traditional payment of benefits for children to women reinforced the expectation that they were the primary caregiver
  • Liberal feminists have made significant progress in creating greater equality between males and females in a range of areas such as divorce reform, equal pay, and sexual discrimination at work
• Critics will suggest that despite these step forwards, divisions remain at home and in the workplace
• Others would point to some of the benefits that state policy has had on the lives of women, such as helping women in need when leaving violent partners and providing support through benefits to tackle child poverty
• It can be argued that the biggest victims of policies of economic austerity have been women and children, which indicates that these structural inequalities still exist
• Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1990 and John Major from 1990 to 1997


  1. Advocated more personal responsibility towards families

  2. Established the Child Support Agency in 1993 to ensure that absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children

  3. Introduced Section 28 in 1988 that prevented local government from promoting homosexuality and this included the provision that schools could not teach the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship

  4. Back to Basics campaign by Prime Minister John Major and John Redwood urged a back-to-basics approach which put forward traditional family values
• New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown


  1. Advocated a rather different approach to family life

  2. Continued with the policies of neo-liberalism but combined these with social policies that filled in the gaps that had emerged from conservative rule

  3. Focused on family policy that targeted those most in need and addressed inequalities in society

  4. Introduced working family and child tax credits to help families back into work without the loss of benefits

  5. Introduced paid paternity leave of two weeks to allow fathers' time to bond with their children

  6. Introduced many policies about same-sex relationships, such as the Civil Partnership Act in 2005, the Adoption and Children's Act in 2002, and the repeal of Section 28 in 2003

  7. Introduced Sure Start and the Education Maintenance Allowance targeting low-income families and providing educational support in the early years and through further education
• Coalition of the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in 2010

  1. Their family policies were more pragmatic than previous conservative governments but often relied upon cross-party support in order to see the more progressive ideas turned into law

  2. Introduced shared parental leave so that partners could split the maternity allowance between themselves to help both parents bond with the child and allow women to go back to work earlier

  3. Introduced same-sex marriages in 2013

  4. Introduced policies targeting personal responsibility such as crime and education policies which targeted parents in antisocial behaviors or withdrawing students from school during term time

  5. Introduced austerity policies such as the benefits cap, a two-child limit for benefits, and the bedroom tax which impacted on low-wage and lone-parent families disproportionately
• Conservative governments since 2015

  1. Introduced Universal Credit, a means-tested benefit that is paid to one member of the family to replace all other forms of benefit

  2. Closed Sure Start centers which began in 2010 but was rapidly expanded post 2015, leaving many children and families vulnerable

  3. Seen a freeze on working age benefits and further cuts to the benefit cap to £23,000 a year
• It is still to be seen how the conservative government will react to the social and economic crisis that will be left by the COVID-19 pandemic and how that will impact on their social spending in the years to come