Theories of the Family

• Society developed naturarally into hierarchy

• Society is meritocratic

• Society needs to meet certain functional prerequisites

• Society is a body, and social institutions are its organs

Murdock's Four Functions

• Teaching sexuality/gender roles
  • Express in socially approved context
  • Heterosexuality is the norm
  • Men and women bahve 'properly'
• Reproduction
  • Ensure reproduction
  • Stable environment to rear children
• Primary Socialisation
  • Learn value consensus
  • Learn collective conscience
  • Provide primary socialisation
• Economic Security
  • Provide shelter/food/other materials
  • Self-supporting + responsible for itself

Parson's Two Functions

• Primary Socialisation
  • Same as Murdock

• Stabilisation of Human Personalities
  • Industrial society causes stress
  • Stress can destabilise
  • Leads to sexual division of labour + warm bath theory

Parson's Functional Fit Theory

• Nuclear family is functional fit in industrial societies

• Geographically mobile - can move where there is work

• Socially mobile - develop new skills and positions
  • Farmer's son can become a lawyer or doctor

Criticisms of Functionalism

• "Rosy" picture of the family

• Old-fashioned

• Ignore suppressive/destructive sides to the family

• Marxist Critique
  • Family serves interest of bourgeoisie
  • Reproduces to be exploited + consumers
  • Socialises to accept inequality

• Feminist Critique
  • Oppressive to women
  • Only benefitting capitalism
  • Never have equality if sexes live together

• Society is divided

• Bourgeoisie stay in power by exploiting proletariat

• Social institutions are used to strengthen position

• Exploitation creates class conflict

Class Consciousness

• Dominant ideology - ruling/dominant ideas in society

• Social institutions enforce dominant ideology

• False class consciousness - proletariat lack awareness of 'true' position

Althusser

• Working class must submit to dominant ideology for Capitalism to survive

• Family is the main method of passing on ideology

• Ideological State Apparatus - mental control

• Repressive State Apparatus - physical control

Marxist Functions of the Family

• Unit of Consumption - consume goods of Capitalism

• Unit of Production - produce goods of Capitalism

• Provide emotional support - Zaretski's 'Safe Haven' stops revolts

• Primary Socialisation - socialises children into inequality of Capitalism (FCC)
  • Age Patriarchy

• Reproduction of Inequality - reproduce labour force + heirs for inheritance of wealth, titles, etc

Friedrich Engels

• There was no family during class-less society

• Monogamy is essential due to inheritance

• Monogamy represents 'world historical defeat of the female sex'
  • Controlled and mere instruments of reproduction

Eli Zaretski

• Family performs the function of a "haven"
  • Protects against exploitation

• Agrues "haven" is an illusion
  • Based on a domestic servitude of women

Criticisms of Marxism

• Functionalist Critique
  • Doesn't believe Capitalism is unfair
  • Society is meritocratic so anyone can have status

• Feminist Critique
  • Family serves the interest of men

• Postmodernist/Interpretivist Critique
  • Reductionist theory/idea
  • Ignores family diversity

• General Critique
  • Fails to explain how family flourishes in non-Capitalist societies
  • Old-fashioned - women don't need financial support/more marrying for love

• Similar to Functionalism - more political

• Reaction to changes in the 1960s + 1970s

• Want a return to traditional values

• Modernists - society is fixed and predictable

Best Family Type

• Traditional nuclear family - male breadwinner + female expressive

• Definite divide between roles - seen as natural

• Conerstone of society - source of refuge and harmony

Family Diversity

• See it as cause of social problems
  • Increased crime rates , educational failure, dependence on welfare benefits
• Oppose new familiy forms
  • Single-Parent families
    • Unnatural and harmful
    • Parent married and dependent on the state

Attack Feminists

• Woman's first priority = caring for their family
• Marriage is essential basis for rearing children
• 3000 out of 15,000 mothers become lone parents during their child's first 3 years
• Marriage holds a family together
  • Push for married families

New Right Evidence

• Dennis + Erdos
  • Families without fathers are not adequate alternatives
  • Families are not changing, but deteriorating
• Amato
  • "Broken" families run greater risks

• Critical view

• Opresses women - inequality is constructed

• Unequal division of labour

• Domestic violence against women

Radical Feminism

• Society seen as fundamentally patriarchal

• 'Women's oppression as women is more fundamental than other forms of human oppression'

• Women are systematically dominated/oppressed

• See the family as important in maintaining male power

Germaine Greer

• Argues ideology of wife being the most important role
  • Always at his side, seen to adore him
  • Seen as unequal

• Inequalities soon appear
  • Make him happy
  • By marrying her, he feels he has done all necessary to make her happy

• Wife's duty to keep him interested in sex
  • No realistic chance as wives are not seen as ****

• No value is attached to motherhood
  • Expected to regain figure as soon as possible afterwards

• Evidence suggests daughters are likely to experience sexual abuse from male relatives
  • Youth itself is a turn-on

Liberal Feminism

• Campaign against sexual discrimination and inequality

• Gradual change through change in laws/attitudes

• Change needed in attitudes + socialisation patterns of both sexes

March of Progress

• View of things getting better

• Gradual progress

• Men doing more domestic labour

• Socialisation of children is more equal

Jennifer Somerville

• Proposals involve modest reforms

• Many have failed to acknowledge progress

• Greater equality but men do not take full share of responsibilty

• Principled Pragmatism - policies to increase equality in relationships

Marxist Feminism

• Reproduce workforce/heirs
  • Unpaid domestic labour
  • Socialise next generation to accept inequality

• "Reserve army" of cheap labour
  • Used when "real workers" unavailable
  • Go back to domestic labour afterwards

• Absorb anger
  • That would otherwise be directed at Capitalism
  • 'Women are the takers of ****' - Ansley
  • Explains domestic violence

Key Thinkers

• Fran Ansley
  • Translates Parson's stabilisation function
  • Frustrations are absorbed by comforting wife

• David Copper
  • Family is 'ideological conditioning device in an exploitative society'
  • Lays foundation for obedient and submissive workforce

Black Feminism

• Other sub-sections neglect Black racial oppression

• See the family as positive
  • Source of support and resistance against racism
  • Particularly in diasporas of matrifocal families

Postmodernist/Difference Feminism

• Still experience greater risk of sexual/domestic violence + low pay

• Difference feminism emerged in the 1980s

• Every woman has a different experience of the family
  • Intersectionality

Criticisms of Feminism

• Most assume traditional nuclear family is dominant

• Assumes that the family and its members are passive puppets, manipulated by structures

• Structural theories ignore that we have choices

• Interpretivist/Postmodern Critique
  • Issues with 'the family' - each family is different
  • Argue children are seen as passive/mere product of socialisation
  • Families are too diverse to be viewed collectively

• Life was once predictable

• Things were well structured

• Everyone had a clear identity

• Hard a firm belief about the nature of things

Chester

• Neo-conventional family
  • Characterised by dual-earning partners

• Functionalist
  • Agrees with the shift towards family diversity
  • Most people will still live in a nuclear family

Chester's Five Patterns

• Most families headed by married couples

• Most adults still marry and have children; most children raised by two neutral parents

• Most marriages last until dealth; divorce rate has risen but most remarry

• Cohabitation increased, but mostly temporary phase until marriage

• Births out of wedlock has risen but most are joint-registering - bring up child as a couple

Rapoports

• Disagree with Chester
• Families adapted to 'pluralist' society
  • Represents greater freedom of choice
  • Acceptance of cultural differences

Rapoport's Types of Diversity

• Organisational - how roles are organised
• Cultural - structured to cultural influence
• Social class - difference according to income disparity
• Life stage - where you are in life
• Generational - older/younger have different views on family life and structure

Life-Course Analysis

• Meaning that individual family members give to their relationships + choices they make

• From viewpoint of people involved

• Suitable for studying postmodern families

• Example:
  • Born into a nuclear family
  • Abandoned - fostered
  • Adopted by gay couple
  • Elope with sweetheart - cohabit
  • Marry sweetheart and have children
  • Divorce - single-parent
  • Remarry and have a child - reconstituted
  • Children leave home - empty nest

Anthony Giddens

• Increasing equality between genders

• Same-sex couples are the pioneers of diversity

• Marriage is no longer shouded by tradition

• Relationships are now less stable

Beck

• Now live in a 'risk society'

• Can choose who to marry

• Now have a 'negotiated family'
  • Leading to 'zombie family'

Judith Stacey

• Women are main agents for change

• Reject traditional gender roles

• Divorce-extended family - illustrates magnitude of diversity

Jeffery Weeks

• Long-term shift in attitudes since 1950s

• Sexual morality become personal choice

• However, family practices still traditional

• Sees New Right as fighting a losing battle

• Argues other perspectives have 2 weaknesses
  • All assume traditional nuclear family is dominant
  • All structural theories

• Influenced by interactionalist view

• To understand, most start from the point of view of the individuals concerned and the meanings they give

Evaluation

• Sees how people themselves construct/define relationships as "family"

• Accused of taking too broad of a view

• Sees intimate relationships as performing important functions

• Recognises relatedness is not always positive