Theories of the Family

• Functionalists hold a consensus view of the family, arguing it plays a key role in providing beneficial functions to meet the needs of society and its individual members
• Marxists take a conflict view of the family, arguing it helps maintain class inequalities.
• Feminists also hold a conflict view of the family, whereby they believe the family is the main source of oppression of women.
• Organic Analogy: Functionalists believe that society is similar to a human body. The human body is made up of different parts that function together to meet its needs and maintain it. Society does the same as education system, government, religion etc work together to maintain the social system.
• Parsons belived the family has 2 irreducible functions:

  
  

  • Primary Socialisation of the young - equipping the next generation with basic skills and society's values
  • Stablisation of adult personalities ( warm bath theory) - family provides emotional security for adult members
• Parsons Functional Fit Theory:

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  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 suggested that roles in the family were divided based upon biological characteristics and gendered socialisation.

  • Men: instrumental role - economic support through going to work and being the 'breadwinner'
  • Female: expressive role - emotional support and nurturing role by the female
• Evaluation of Functionalist View of the Family:

  
  

  • Feminists criticise Parsons for stereotypical views of female role and expectations of females towards males
  • Ethnocentric view based on Americal ideals
• Marxist View of Family (Engels) :

  • Engels suggested that the family exists so men can pass on their private property onto their biological offspring
• Evaluation of Engel's View on the Family ( marxist):

  • Feminist critics suggest that engels sees the role of women and children as being influenced solely by economics
• Marxist View of the Family (Althusser): Ideological State Apparatus

  
  

  • Althusser views the Family as an ISA which plays a key role in reinforcing capitalist ideology and maintaining class structure
  • Ideological state apparatus controls the behaviours of the working class through social institutions such as the family
  • Elites suggest the ways in which family life should be organised and this is passed through social institutions, such as family, socialising children into acceptable behaviours
  • e.g Families transmit dominant ideologies that justify and normalize the existing social order.
• Evaluation of Marxist View of Family ( Althusser):

  • Ignores the meanings that people assign to their own actions
  • Althusser's theory is rooted in the traditional nuclear family model, which may not adequately explain the diversity of family forms seen in contemporary societies, such as single-parent families, same-sex families, and cohabiting couples.
• Marxist View on the Family: Zaretsky

  • Zaretsky argues that the family provides an emotional refuge from the alienation and exploitation experienced in the capitalist workplace.
  • The family is seen as a haven where workers can recover and rejuvenate, allowing them to return to work refreshed and thus more productive.
• 2) Marxist View on the Family: zaretsky

  • In contrast to the pre-industrial family, which was a unit of production, the modern family has become a unit of consumption.
  • Families purchase goods and services produced by capitalist enterprises, thus playing a crucial role in sustaining consumer demand.
• Feminist Views on the Family:

  • Liberal Feminsts: saw a 'march of progress' towards gender inequality at home and in wider society suggesting gender inequality is gradually being overcome through reform and policy change
  • Marxist Feminists: capitalism is the main form of women's opression, challenging unpaid labour of women etc
  • Radical feminists: Critical of marriage, sees it as an unequal institution that was partriarchal where men used financial and physical power to control women
• Feminist View on the Family: Liberal Feminism

  • Changes to social polcies have impacted the role of women in the family
  • E.g Equal Pay act, equality act encourages employment
• Feminist View on the Family: Marxist Feminism

  • Marxist feminists argue that capitalism and patriarchy are interlinked systems of oppression. The family serves to reproduce both capitalist and patriarchal structures.
  • Women are exploited both as workers (in the labor market) and as unpaid laborers (in the home).
• Feminist View on the Family: Radical Feminism

  • Radical feminists view the family as a fundamental institution that upholds patriarchal power structures.
  • They argue that the family serves to maintain male dominance over women and children, perpetuating gender inequalities and reinforcing traditional gender roles.
• New Right View of the Family:

  • Families should be self reliant
  • Murray sees the growth of lone parents as resulting from an over generous welfare state
  • Murray Believes Reliance on state welfare leads to a dependency culture and undermines traditional gender roles
  • Produces a family breakdown and an increase of lone parent families
• Personal Life Perspective of the Family:

  Smart : looks at relationships that indiviudals see as significant and give a sense of identity, belonging etc ( pets)
• Postmodernist View of the Family: Giddens:

  • People have more choice in terms of relationships and the family
  • Today's relationships are pure relationships - they last as long as they are happy, so cohabitation and serial monogamy are more common
• 4 Functions of the Family According to Murdock:

  • Sexual function
  • Reproductive function
  • Socialisation
  • Economic
• 1)

  Marxists suggest the family performs 3 main functions for capitalism:

  • Inheritance of property

  With the emergence of capitalism, the bourgeoisie owned private property for profit and needed a way to keep it exclusive. This led to the formation of the monogamous nuclear family, ensuring legitimate heirs could inherit property and wealth. Engels argued this reinforced social class inequality: the bourgeoisie passed down wealth to their children, maintaining their status, while the proletariat remained poor.
• 2)

  Marxists suggest the family performs 3 main functions for capitalism:

  • Ideological Functions

  Zaretsky argues that the family socializes proletariat children to accept norms and values that support capitalism. They learn that social class inequality is normal, to respect and conform to authority, and to accept hierarchies, typically starting with the father at home and extending to teachers and employers. This conditioning prepares them to be obedient workers, maintaining false class consciousness. Thus, the family has an ideological function that upholds the capitalist superstructure.
• 3)

  Marxists suggest the family performs 3 main functions for capitalism:

  • Unit of Consumption

  Zaretsky sees the family as a major unit of consumption, serving both ideological and economic functions. Families are encouraged to buy the latest products to appear fashionable and maintain status Companies target children with advertising, leading to 'pester power,' where children pressure parents to buy expensive products. This economic function supports bourgeois ideology, ensuring families spend money to create profits for the bourgeoisie, with no material benefit for the families themselves.
• AO3: Evaluation of Marxist View on the Family:

  Strengths:

  • The Marxist approach explains how the nuclear family is a social construct, not universal and natural as Murdock describes.

  Weaknesses:

  • Marxists focus only on the nuclear family, but there are increasingly diverse family types in Britain. This means it is an outdated theory.
  • The family mainly serves the interests of men, not of capitalism. Marxists don’t explain in enough detail how women are harmed by the family, or how it serves the patriarchy primarily.