Family sociologists

• Parsons - Functionalist


  > Warm bath theory

  > 2 Main functions of the family; primary socialisation and stabilisation

  of adult personalities  
• Murdock - Functionalist


  The nuclear family has 4 functions;

  > socialisation

  > reproduction

  > economic support

  > sexual satisfaction
• Engles - Marxist


  Origins of the family

  > Capitalism creates the nuclear family and the desire to pass on

  private property through a male line

  > Unit of consumption

  > Women reserve army of labour and reproduce the work force
• Zaretsky - Marxist


  Cushions the harsh reality of working life
• Murray - New Right


  Attacks lone parent families who receive benefits, the underclass, claim they raise delinquent, undereducated children
• Dennis

  Blames absent fathers, lack of a role model, leads boys to underachieve and commit crime
• Greer - Radical feminist


  Advocate of political lesbianism, exploitation of women, need a baby strike
• Somerville - Liberal Feminist


  Women's lives have improved as laws have created more opportunities.
• Benston - Marxist feminist


  Reserve army of labour – women work for free in the home 
• Ansley - Marxist feminist


  women are the ‘takers of shit’ – they absorb men’s anger and frustration in the form of domestic violence
• Dobash + Dobash - Feminists


  1-4 Women experience domestic violence

  > Unstructured interviews, most people do not admit to violence and

  therefore statistics are invalid 
• Oakley - Feminist


  Dual burden

  > Women work at home and in public, men do not contribute

  > Criticise Willmott and Young’s symmetrical family

  > Ethnographic, unstructured interviews
• Willmott + Young - Functionalists


  March of progress theory

  > Exaggerated results of questionnaire on men’s contribution to

  housework

  > Families are now symmetrical
• Sacks

  More recent evidence suggests men do work their fair share, more dangerous professions and more full time jobs. 

  More hands on with children  
• Duncombe + Marsden - Feminists


  Triple Shift – Many studies have ignored the emotional work involved in family relationships – e.g. coping with bullying, heartbreak, sickness etc.
• Smart - Personal life theory


  Donor conceived children , fictive kin, pets, God, dead relatives -  rejects postmodernism and structural theory
• Stacy - Postmodernist


  Divorce extended family – Silicon valley, diversity is the norm
• Beck - Postmodernist


  Negotiated family, risk society, individualisation thesis, zombie family
• Giddens

  Confluent love, pure relationship, serial monogamy, diversity is the norm 
• Faulcoult - Postmodern


  Surveillance of families, informal and formal control – Women ‘police’ /judge each other on social media
• Donzelot

  Echoes the work of Foucault;

  > Surveillance is unfairly distributed – working class are attacked and

  watched more closely than middle class 
• Edgell

  Men made the most important decisions when in the family such as where to live, cars to buy etc. 

  Whereas women tended to make the everyday decisions e.g. what to eat, What to do at the weekend 
• Phal

  Pooling and allowance system of family income

  This affected power in relationships, mainly biased towards men.   
• Dunne

  Lesbian families tend to be more equal in terms of power and domestic labour 
• Aries

  Childhood is a relatively new concept and historically socially specific.  Children have become economically worthless at the me time as being emotionally priceless 
• Postman

  Childhood no longer exists

  > The boundaries between children and adults is very weak, children are

  exposed to many adult themes through TV 
• Lee

  Childhood has not disappeared, Postman has exaggerated the situation. 

  Children in the Western world are their own economic force and drive much of the market. 

  Childhood has just become more complicated. 
• Jenks

  Childhood has become a more protected time than ever

  The media has created fear amongst parents that they take extra precautions to keep them safe e.g. not letting them out on their own to play. 
• Palmer

  Childhood has become 'toxic'

  Rapid technological and cultural changes over the past 25 years have damaged children, physically, emotionally and intellectually. 
• Harper - Demography


  Education of women is the most important reason for decline in birth and fertility rate

  Smoking biggest reason for decline in death rate
• Hunt - Postmodern


  Age is no longer important we choose our own identities regardless
• Goody

  Less stigma attached to divorce had meant that is has decreased
• Fletcher - Functionalist


  Higher expectations of marriage has lead to increase in divorce

  > NHS is a social policy that has indirectly helped families
• Weeks - Chosen families


  Increased acceptance of gay families – friendship/kinship are ultimately linked
• Brannen

  Bean pole family;

  > Extended family still exists, vertically, due to smaller families and

  longer life expectancy 
• Benson - New Right


  Married couples provide more stable relationships than cohabiting couples and are therefore better and more desirable for society
• Rapports

  Family diversity is now the norm and CLOGS is the way in which family diversity occurs

  (class, life course, organisational, generational, sexual)
• Chester

  Neo conventional family

  > Diversity has been exaggerated

  > Most families live or desire to live in nuclear family arrangements, the

  only major change is the roles within it, now most couples both work

  and are dual earners. 
• Drew

  Gender regimes

  > Familistic and individualistic

  > Different types of social policy that reflects attitudes of the country e.g.

  assumption that women will stay at home and look after children

  Greece vs Sweden (shared parental leave)