Essays on Family and Household

Functionalism 10 marker 

Outline and explain two functionalist view of the family: 

One of the views of the family could be how the nuclear family is a functional fit. Parson said that the nuclear family is the typical family that consists of two parents and two children. The nuclear family is referred toa s the “cereal packet” family, this is due to the media’s saturated stereotypical view of the “model family”. In fact, often on tv adverts a family of four members was shown because that were the beliefs of society. However nowadays it seems a view that is quite old fashioned because more diverse families are part of the society. 

The other view could be that the society depend on the stabilisation of adult personalities. Parsons believed that the roles of society were two, the first one is the instrumental role that is covered by the male since he is the breadwinner which means that he is the head of the family as well as the provider for his family , the second role is the expressive role which is covered by the female as she is the housewife who need to take care of the children and do the house work.  Parson believed that the roles were biologically defined. However, this view is outdated and narrow minded because now days women have become independent as they can provide for themselves, if we were in the 1950s this concept would be acceptable. These are the two different functionalist view on the family  

Marxism 10 marker 

Outline two Marxists view on the family: 

One view is that the family is maintained and continues capitalism by the ideological reproduction. According to Marxists the family is an important agent of socialisation in order to pass on the values of the capitalist system. For example, discipline, hard work, obedience, respect for authority are all passed into children with the woman usually being the central transmission of this transmission. For example, even when children start primary school, most primary teachers are female, because they are the ones that prepare children for the capitalist society, getting them ready for the workforce. However, this view ignores the family diversity, it does not consider the same sex families, males can educate their children on their own as well. 

The other view is that the family is also maintained by the physical reproduction. The family needs to reproduce in order to have a society that keeps growing. The family rears the next generation of workers, this is quite cheap for the capitalist class, as they do not have to near the costs of reproduction of the labour force. This means that is if the work load is too much and the workers are not sufficient a capitalist employer would call in the wives of his employees, in order to have enough people but this will not affect the earnings of the employer since one wage maintains the whole family. This benefitted the capitalist society, but it disadvantaged the working class. Marxists are opposed to capitalism as they see it…