Families & Households

• Parsons ; Men and women have biologically suited roles that are functional for society:

  Expressive role - Women = Homemaker (involves cooking, cleaning and

  looking after children)

  Instrumental role - Men = Breadwinner (involves paid work, earning the

  income for the family)
• Bott ; Segregated conjugal roles - Division of labour between men and

  women, couple spends leisure time separately

  Joint conjugal roles - couples share domestic tasks and leisure time.  

   
• Triple Shift - Women not only carry the dual burden of paid and domestic work, but also have to do the emotional work (Duncombe and Marsden).
• Dual Burden - Women now do paid work and domestic work (Feri and Smith).
• March of Progress - The ‘new man’ means couples have an equal share of housework and childcare.
• Decision Making : Material Expl. - Men have more power in decision making because they earn more.

  ​Cultural Expl. - Gender role socialisation instils the view that men are the

  primary decision makers.
• Dobash & Dobash - Marriage and the nuclear family is the key institution of patriarchy, and the main source of women's oppression. Domestic violence is inevitable because it serves to preserve the power men have over women.
• Ainsley - Domestic violence is the product of capitalism: males workers are exploited at work and take their frustration out on their wives.
• Wilkinson - Domestic violence is the result of stress on the family caused by social inequality. (being poor and material stresses)
• Aries - In the middle ages, the idea of childhood did not exist. Children had the same responsibilities, rights and skills as adults - considered economic assets. As modern notion of childhood began to emerge = a profound distinction between children & adults in terms of clothing, rights and responsibilities.
• Postman - In modern society, childhood is ‘disappearing’.  Children and adults have some of the same rights, children's unsupervised traditional games are disappearing, children are committing ‘adult’ crimes. The printed word created a hierarchy between adults, who can read, and children, who cannot - this gave adults the power to keep ‘adult matters’ private. However, TV blurs the distinction and information hierarchy; TV does not require special skills to access it.
• Shorter - In the middle ages, the high death rate of children encouraged indifference and neglect e.g parents referred to their child as “it” or gave

  the child a name of a recently dead sibling.
• March of Progress view - Childhood has improved  significantly, due to how children are now perceived as vulnerable people who need taking care of - there has been an introduction of laws which improve the experience of childhood (Eg. laws banning child labour).
• Palmer - ‘Toxic childhood’ - Rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development. This is the result of intensive marketing to children, parents working long hours and testing in education.
•  ‘Age patriarchy’ (Gittins) - There is an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency.  This may assert itself in the form of violence against children.
• Murdock believes the nuclear family performs four essential functions:

  • Socialisation of the young
  • Satisfaction of the member's economic needs
  • Reproduction of the next generation
  • Stable satisfaction of the sex drive
• (Parson's functional fit) The functions that the family perform depend on

  the type of society in which they are found:

  • Pre-industrial society - extended family - had the function of production and consumption
  • Modern society - nuclear family - have the function of social and geographical mobility
• (Parsons' functional fit) The nuclear family has two irreducible functions:

  • Primary socialisation of the young - equipping the next generation with basic skills and society’s values.
  • Stabilisation of adult personalities - enabling adults to relax so they can return to the workplace and perform their roles effectively.
• Engels - The family exists so men can pass their private property onto their biological offspring, notably a son.
• Zaretsky - Ideological function of the family called the ‘cult of private life’ - this is the belief that we can only gain fulfilment from family life, which distracts attention from exploitation.
• Liberal feminists take a march of progress view in suggesting gender

  inequality is gradually being overcome through reform and policy change, which changes people’s attitudes towards socialisation and challenges stereotypes. For example, the new man is becoming more

  widespread.
• Marxist Fem. - Capitalism is the main form of women's oppression in the family and this performs several functions for capitalism:​

  • Reproducing the labour force - women socialise the next generation of workers.
  • Absorbing men's anger - wives soak up their husband's frustration from being exploited at work.
  • A reserve army of cheap labour - when not needed, women workers can return to their domestic role.
• Rad. Fem - The family and marriage are the key institutions in a patriarchal society, meaning that men benefit from the women’s unpaid domestic labour and sexual services, as well as dominate them through violence or the threat of it.
• Radical feminists also believe the patriarchal system needs to be overturned, and the only way to achieve this is through separatism, meaning women need to organise themselves to live independently to men.
• Difference Fem - Not all women share the same experience of oppression; women of different ethnicities, class, age etc may have different experiences of the family.
• New Right - A biologically-based division of labour; the division of labour between a male breadwinner and a female homemaker is natural and biologically determined.
• Families should be self-reliant - reliance on state welfare leads to a dependency culture and undermines traditional gender roles. It produces a family breakdown and an increase of lone-parent families, which results in social problems due to poor socialisation.
• Personal Life Perspective (Smart) Looks at relationships that individuals

  see as significant and gives a sense of identity, belonging and relatedness (pets, friends etc.). Interactionists believe that structural approaches assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant type of family, which ignores the increased diversity of families today.
• Birth rate - the number of live births per year per 1000. Trends: a long-term decline in birth rate. However, there were 3 ‘baby booms’ after WW1, WW2 and during the 1960’s.
• 1. Changes in the position of women - Increased educational opportunities, more women in paid work, change in attitude towards family life and the women's role, wider access to abortion and contraception.
• 2. Fall in infant mortality rate - improved housing, sanitation, nutrition, knowledge of hygiene and child health, improved technology, antibiotics.
• 3. Children as an economic liability - Laws banning child labour coupled with the introduction of compulsory schooling has meant children remain economically dependent for longer, changing norms about children's right to a high standard of living raises their cost.
• 4. Child centredness - childhood is now socially constructed and uniquely important period of life, parents focus on quality not quantity, meaning they have fewer children but lavish more attention and resources on them.​
• Impact of falling birth rate - The dependency ratio increases - the relationship between the size of the working population and the non-working (dependent) population.
• Impact of falling birth rate - The working population’s earnings support the dependent population through tax.
• Impact of falling birth rate - Women are having fewer children because this reduces the ‘burden of dependency’.
• Impact of falling birth rate -Public services ; fewer schools, child health services etc.
• Death rate - The number of deaths per 1000 per year. Trends: declining. With the exception of fluctuations in WW1, WW2 and the 1918 flu epidemic.
• Reasons for decline in death rate:

  • Improved nutrition
  • Medical improvements (vaccinations, antibiotics, NHS)
  • Public health improvements (better housing, clean water, clean air)
  • Social change (decline in manual labour, greater knowledge of
  • disease)
• The average age in the UK is increasing because of:

  • Increased life expectancy
  • Low infant mortality rate
  • Declining fertility