Families and Households: Perspectives

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Families and Households

Perspectives on the Family:

Functionalism

Murdock (1949) – The Four Essential Functions of the Nuclear Family

• Studied 250 different societies and concluded that the monogamous, heterosexual nuclear family was universal.
• Due to the fact that it performed four essential functions for society.

1. Stable satisfaction of the sex drive – monogamous heterosexual relationships prevented jealousy and everyone’s sexual needs could be satisfied as a sexual free-for-all would cause havoc and conflict.

2. Reproduction of the next generation – biological reproduction allows new children to be born so that life can continue.

3. Socialisation of the young – the family are a child’s first experience of the world and so they learn the norms and values of society from them (Primary Socialisation).

4. Meeting members economic needs – the family is an economic unit and it is cheaper for parents to live together with children to provide things such as food and shelter.

• Evaluations:
  • The nuclear family is not universal – the Nayar people of India practise polyandry where women have up to 12 husbands at any one given time and there is no jealousy and they own private property, not their husbands.
  • The extended family (especially grandparents) play a critical role in performing many of the four functions.
  • In today’s society, families no longer have to meet economic needs due to support available from the welfare state.

Parson (1955) – Functional Fit Theory

• A historical perspective on the evolution of the nuclear family.
•  As society changes, so does the type of family that ‘fits’ society, and the functions it performs.
• Over the past 200 years we have moved from a pre-industrial to an industrial society and so the nuclear family has emerged from the extended family as a result.
• The nuclear family fits the more complex industrial society better, however performs reduced functions.
  • Before the industrial era, over 80% of people were involved in agriculture, there was no welfare state and the family were entirely dependent on each other and between them were responsible for education, food, healthcare and work which required a lot of members and so the extended family was a better fit for society.
  • In industrial society, less that 1% of people were involved in agriculture. Factories and offices require a mobile workforce and the extended family broke up in to the nuclear family as it is hard for everyone to move to where there is work available. There was less need for an extended family as some functions that it would have originally performed were taken care of by the state.
• Evaluations:
  • Laslett points out that church records show only 10% of households contained extended kin before the industrial revolution thus suggesting that the nuclear family emerged prior to the shift in society.
    • Parish records could be misleading and invalid as families may live really close to each other and have actually functioned as extended families.
  • Young and Wilmott argue that extended kin networks were still strong in post-industrialisation and the extended family performs important functions such as childcare, emotional support and financial aid.
  • Is more accurate to describe it as the ‘modified extended family’ opposed to the ‘isolated nuclear family'. They may live geographically apart, but still maintain regular contact and support each other.

Parson – The Two Irreducible Functions of the Family

• Although the family perform reduced functions, it remains the only institution that can perform two core functions in society.

1. Primary Socialisation – the nuclear family is responsible for teaching children the norms and values of society which they internalise to become a social adult and feel a sense of belonging to their society.

2. The stabilisation of adult personalities – a marital relationship between two adults results in emotional security between two adults. Working life is stressful and the family is a place where the working man can return and be relaxed by his wife thus reducing conflict in society (Warm Bath Theory).

• Evaluations:
  • It downplays conflict, not recognising the darker side of family life.
  • It places emphasis on the male role in the family as being superior to the female who is subservient and acts only in his interests.
  • Gender roles are becoming more blurred in today’s postmodern society.

Declining Functions of the Family

• Reproduction of the population
  • Traditionally the reproduction and nurturing of children was seen as the main reason for marriage as a means of passing on family property and providing a future workforce.
  • Since the 1970’s there has been a steady increase in the reproduction of children and sexual relations before, alongside and outside of marriage.
• Unit of production
  • Before industrialisation, the family was a unit of production whereby the family home was also the workplace and the family produced its own goods necessary for its survival. Children would learn skills needed for working life from parents and the family ascribed occupational status of adults.
  • Since the early 19^th century in Britain, work has moved outside of the home to factories and offices (with the exception of domestic labour).
• Caring for the young
  • The family and kinship network traditionally played a major role in maintaining and caring for dependent children.
  • The modern nuclear family is less dependent on relatives for assistance with caring for children.
• Primary socialisation and control of children
  • The family still retains major responsibility for the socialisation and social control of young children, but there has been an increase in the number of children’s centres, child-minders, preschools and playgroups.
• Education of children
  • The education has mainly been taken over by the state and is now primarily the responsibility of professional teachers rather than parents.
• Caring for the old, sick and poor
  • The family provided most of the help for the old, the sick and the poor during periods of illness, unemployment and other crises. Poverty often meant poor health and healthcare.
  • This has become shared with the welfare state through the NHS and social services.

General Criticisms of Functionalism

• Downplays conflict
  • Both Murdock and Parsons are guilty of presenting family life as a harmonious and an integrated institution when in reality it can hide the darker side to family life such as domestic violence and child abuse.
• Out of date
  • Parson’s view of instrumental and expressive roles of men and women may have held some truth in the 1950’s, but today the majority of women are in paid work and so there has been a blurring of gender roles as both partners take on expressive and instrumental roles
• Ignores exploitation of women
  • Functionalists ignore the ways in which women suffer as a result of the sexual division of labour.
• Ignores the harmful effects of family life
  • Leach argues that the nuclear family become isolated from kin and the wider community and becomes inward-looking and prone to emotional stress. It can often be a ‘private hell’ for those trapped within it.

Marxism

Engels – The Emergence of the Nuclear Family

• The monogamous nuclear family emerged with capitalism.
  • Before capitalism, traditional, tribal societies were classless and practised a form of ‘primitive communism’ in which no private property was owned. There were no families but tribal groups in which there were no restrictions on sexual relations. This is like the Hudza today, a hunter, gatherer community who share almost everything.
  • Tribal lifestyles largely disappeared with the emergence of capitalism which is based on a system of private ownership. The bourgeois wanted to passes their wealth on to the next generation without sharing it between the masses, hence the emergence of the monogamous nuclear family as a means of guaranteeing that assets remain in the possession of your children. Ultimately it reproduces inequality as the children of the rich grow up into wealth while the children of the poor remain poor.
• Evaluations:
  • Gender inequality preceded capitalism

Cooper (1972) – The Family as an Ideological Apparatus

• The family acts as and ‘ideological conditioning device’ that promotes values and ways of thinking about capitalism that ensure the reproduction and maintenance of capitalism and does so in three main ways:

1. Promoting hierarchy and inequality as normal – Cooper argues that the nuclear family socialises people to think in a way that justifies inequality and encourages people to accept the capitalist system as fair natural and unchangeable. The hierarchy in a family reflects the hierarchy at work and so prepares children for this. Prevents people from realising their true position in society and their strength so that they don’t challenge the inequality inherent in the capitalist system. Marx described workers lack of awareness of their combined power and exploitation as ‘false consciousness’.

2. The family as a safe haven – Zaretsky argues that work under the capitalism was harsh, exploitative and alienating. The nuclear family provides comfort to alienated workers so that they continue to work, as it offers emotion support but also because supporting a family and children gave a sense of purpose. Without a family to motivate them, workers would be less willing to tolerate the characteristic exploitative conditions of capitalist society.

3. The family as a unit of consumption – Families consume the commodities that are produced by capitalist companies, helping the bourgeoisie to make a profit. Families must keep up with the material goods acquired by their neighbours such as family holidays, cars. Pester power from the media targeting advertisements at children result in them demanding more expensive products.

• Evaluations:
  • Functionalists argue that it ignores the positive aspects and the very real benefits that it provides for the family.
  • Feminists argue that the nuclear family is a private hell for women, not a safe haven.
  • Pester power is not prevalent in all capitalist societies – in Sweden adverts aims at children under 12 is illegal.

General Criticisms of Marxism

• Too deterministic
  • Based on the assumption that people accept that the future is pre-determined. Most people believe that they have some power to shape their own lives
• Ignores the benefits of the nuclear family
  • The nuclear family performs positive functions for both the individual and society such as children growing up in a stable family unit.
• Ignores the inequality between men and women
  • Ignores the true source of female oppression within the family – patriarchy – however there are plenty women in a pre-capitalist society who are limited to the ‘housewife role’.
• Denies family diversity
  • Postmodernists argue that nuclear families are in decline and there is an increase in alternative family structures thus undermining the view that the nuclear family is the main unit of consumption

Feminism

Feminism and the Family

• Gender is socially constructed and gender roles were created by men, for their benefit, known as patriarchy.
• From the 1950’s feminists were critical of the nuclear family which was dominant at the time.
• The nuclear family performed two key functions:

1.     Socialised girls to accept subservient roles within the family whilst socialising boys into believing they are superior.

2.     Socialised women into accepting the housewife role as the only possible role for a woman.

• In such a way, the family acts as a breeding ground where patriarchal values are learnt by an individual.

Marxist Feminist Perspectives on Family Life

• Engels and Zaretsky acknowledge that women are exploited in marriage and family life, but emphasise the relationship between capitalism and the family rather than the family's direct effect on women.
• See the exploitation of women as a key feature of family life.
• Reproduction of labour power – believe that the chores associated with the traditional expressive role, such as domestic labour, child care and emotional work are necessary to keep the family going.
  • Women's unpaid work benefits the capitalist class because they only have to pay the male breadwinner a wage. The women attends to both her husband's and children's needs for free which keeps him going as a worker and reproduces the next generation of workers.
  • The husband has to pay for his wife and children thus cannot easily withdraw his labour power even if he is exploited. This reduces his bargaining power and is likely for him to settle for a lower wage than risk being made redundant.
• The family and ideological conditioning – the family teaches the ideas that the capitalist class require for their future workers to be passive.
  • Feeley argues the family is an authoritarian unit dominated by the husband in particular. It teaches passivity not rebellion and children learn to submit to parental authority thus learning to accept their place in the hierarchy of power and control in capitalist society through this authoritarian ideology.
• Solutions:
  • We need to tackle capitalism to tackle patriarchy thus the solutions to gender inequality are economic. An example of a softer solution would be to pay women for domestic labour such as childcare and housework.
• Evaluations:
  • Parson's warm bath theory argues that male and female are different but equal, whereas Marxist Feminists see it as a case of different and unequal in which the inequality benefits capitalism.
  • Morgan argues that the traditional nuclear family is becoming less common so the theory is less applicable today.
  • Ignores the fact that women have made progress in family life as liberal feminist point out.
  • Female oppression in the family performs several functions for capitalism.

Radical Feminism

• All relationships between men and women are based on patriarchy.
  • Men are the cause of women's exploitation and oppression and the family is the root of the problem.
  • They entire patriarchal system needs to be overturned.
  • Men are described as “the enemy” and “unnecessary” with some women referring to themselves as “wimmin” to escape male control.
• Paid work has not been liberating, as a result woman now suffer the dual burden or triple shift in which men benefit the women undertaking paid work, domestic work and emotional work.
• For many women there is a dark side of family life.
  • According to the British Crime Survey 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence at some point in their life.
• Solutions:
  • Abolish the patriarchal nuclear family and establish alternative family structures and sexual relations.
  • Separatism, political lesbianism and political celibacy are all solutions put forth.
• Evaluations:
  • Ignores the progress women have made in many areas such as work, controlling fertility and divorce.
  • Too unrealistic as due to heterosexual attraction, separatism is unlikely.
  • Ignores the domestic and emotional abuse suffered by men who often don’t report it.

Greer (2000) – The Whole Woman and the Family

• Contemporary radical feminist who argues that the family continues to disadvantage women
• Women as wives – there is a strong ideology suggesting the wife is the most important female role.
  • Women must be seen to be at her husband’s side and adore him, and as a result have to be subservient to him. This inequality in most marriages is a result of patriarchal relations.
  • She refers to the ‘ghastly figure of the bride’ which expresses the confines of femininity once the honeymoon period is over and the husband spends an increasing amount of time away from the home in contrast to the wife. Wives see it as their job to keep their husband happy.
  • It is a myth that women need to be married to achieve happiness, as men gain more from marriage then women. Married men report higher levels of happiness than unmarried men, while unmarried women report higher levels of happiness than married women. 75% of divorces are initiated by women which Greer sees as a good thing because the illusion of traditional family life is built on the silence of suffering women.
• Women as mothers – Greer gives motherhood is extremely satisfying and not valued by society.
  • In childbirth, the attention is predominantly focussed on the wellbeing of the child while the mother’s health takes a backseat. Mothers bear children in pain, feed them from their own bodies, cherish and nourish them and prepare to lose them.
  • Mothers and babies are not welcome in society, for example on public transport or at restaurants.
  • The role of ‘mother’ is not a career option. Women are expected to return to work shortly after giving birth, on top of child care duties.
  • The female ideal is to be slim and hipless, and broad hips and a maternal bump are seen as monstrous. The woman who gave her all to mothering is then expected to get into shape shortly after birth.
  • Mothers, notably single mothers, are blamed if their ‘children go bad’.
• Women as daughters – men exercise control over women and expect them to service their needs.
  • Daughters are quite likely to experience sexual abuse from fathers and male relatives to which Greer describes this horrendous form of patriarchy as an extension of male heterosexuality.
• Solutions:
  • Women should cut themselves off from men and would be far better off in matrilocal households, where all adults are female. This would have a lot to offer women, particularly if they incorporate older women living alone.
• Evaluations:
  • Greer makes sweeping generalisations which are not backed up by evidence.
  • Somerville is critical of Greer arguing she does not take into account recent progress made by women within family life in recent years.
    • She also notes that due to high remarriage rates, heterosexual attraction and the need for intimacy and companionship shows that heterosexual headed households will not disappear.

Liberal Feminism

• Believe in a ‘march of progress’ view of the family as the family has gradually changed over time to become more democratic and equal.
  • There is evidence that men now do a greater share of domestic labour, decision making is more equal and that children are increasingly socialised in similar ways with similar aspirations.
  • Believe these changes have been brought about by legal reforms (Sex Discrimination Act) and by a general change in attitudes.
• Adult relationships are far less patriarchal today so children are less likely to learn patriarchal values and so current trends will continue.
• Somerville argues that many young women do not feel entirely sympathetic towards feminism yet still feel some sense of grievance.
  • Women have greater freedom to go into paid work, greater choice regarding both marriage and cohabitation, and type of relationship or none at all.
  • Rise in dual-earner households has helped to create greater gender equality within relationships, as while some men voluntarily do their share, men who don’t can be ‘shown the door’.
  • Somerville points out that due to high remarriage rates, heterosexual attraction and the need for intimacy and companionship shows that heterosexual headed households will not disappear.
  • Men’s inability to complete their fair share of chores means a high relationship breakdown rate will continue and as a result more complex family relationships will arise as women build new relationships with new partners after a previous relationship fails.
• Solutions:
  • Focus on policies that encourage greater gender equality within relationships and help women cope with the practicalities of daily life.
    • Somerville points out this is particularly true of working parents as working hours and culture are often incompatible with family life.
• Evaluations:
  • Somerville recognises that significant progress has been made in both public and private life for women.
  • It is more appealing to a wider range of women than Radical Feminism.
  • It is more practical as the system is more likely to accept small policy changes, while it would resist a revolutionary change.
  • Somerville’s work is based on secondary analysis of previous works and so is not backed up with empirical evidence.
  • Radical Feminists such as Delphy, Leonard and Greer argue that Somerville fails to deal with the patriarchal structures and culture in family life.

New Right

The New Right View of the Family

• The family is the cornerstone of society and the single correct type is the conventional nuclear family. This is seen as natural and based on fundamental biological differences between men and women.
• Children need a stable home with a married mother and father. The wife ideally would stay at home to care for the children.
• The introduction of the welfare state has led to a culture to a culture where people depend on hand-outs from the government and this encourages single parenting which leads to deviance and immorality.
• The decline of the nuclear family and the growth of family diversity are a cause of many social problems such as higher crime rates and declining moral standards.
  • The rate of family breakdown is much lower amongst married couples.
  • Children from broken homes are nearly five times more likely to develop emotional problems.
  • Young people whose parents have split up are also three times as likely to become badly behaved or aggressive.
  • Single parent families are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to families with two parents.
  • Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to become young offenders.
• Evaluations:
  • They exaggerate the decline of the nuclear family as most adults still marry a partner of the opposite sex and have children. Most children are raised by their two natural parents and most marriages continue until one partner dies. Divorces may have increased but many divorcees re-marry.
  • Feminists would argue that gender roles are socially determined rather than fixed by biology. Traditional gender rules are oppressive to women.
  • Feminists would also argue that increased divorce is good as women are able to escape being trapped in unhappy or abusive relationships.
  • Most single parents don’t aim to live off the benefits they receive, as many want to work but find it difficult to find jobs allowing them to balance their work and childcare duties.
  • Chester argues that the New Right exaggerate the extent of cohabiting and single parent families as most children still spend most of their lives in a nuclear family arrangement.

Postmodernism

The Postmodern Perspective on the Family

• The technological changes and globalisation have ushered in a new, globalised, media saturated, fragmented, unstable society which is fundamentally different to the more stable and orderly society of modern period and can be summarised in two key characteristics.
  • Diversity and fragmentation – society is increasingly fragmented, with a broad diversity of subcultures rather than one shared culture. People create their identity from a wide range of choices, such as youth subcultures, sexual preferences and social movements.
  • Rapid social change – new technology such as the internet, email and electronic communication have transformed our lives by dissolving barriers of time and space, transforming patterns of work and leisure and accelerated pace of change making life less predictable.
• As a result of these social changes, family life has become very diverse and there is no longer one dominant family type. It is no longer possible to make generalisations about society in the same way that modernist theorists such as Parsons or Marx did in the past.

The Consequences of Postmodernity on Family Life

• The emergence of consumer society has led to a ‘pick and mix’ society where people can choose their lifestyle and life course, but as a result the family has become less important and more disjunct.
  • The New Right would argue that this is a negative effect of modern culture contrary to Postmodernists.
• Less norms and societal expectations has meant that individuals are less shaped by their class, gender and ethnicity. Women are not expected to become housewives, class is less constraining and there is no longer 2 binary genders. As such, families are free to function in a way that suits them.
  • Feminists would argue that this is a positive aspect in contrast to Functionalists.
• The rise in digital media and internet allows us to be more connected to people across national boundaries and as such, greater long distance relationships. Baudrillard a hyper-reality has emerged and as a result the family is more disjunct due to greater individualism.
  • The reliance on media has resulted in things such as dating apps and celebrity culture becoming more popular.

Beck – The ‘Risk Society’ and Negotiated Family

• Beck argues that the traditional, patriarchal family has been undermined by two trends.
  • Greater gender equality –male domination has been challenged in all spheres of life and women now expect equality both at work and in the family.
  • Greater Individualism – people’s actions are influenced more by self-interest than by a sense of obligation to others.
• This has led to the negotiated family who do not conform to the traditional family norm but vary according to the wishes and expectations of their members who all decide what is best for them based on discussion as partners now enter relationships on an equal basis.
  • It is part of the move to a postmodern risk society as there is more freedom.
  • Postmodern society is more chaotic and uncertain and so people have developed a ‘risk consciousness’ as they constantly have to make choices and weigh up the benefits, costs and risks of different outcomes.
  • More time is spent discussing and making these decisions, and even though the negotiated family is more equal, it is less stable. These discussions have created far more scope for disagreement and conflict which can to divorce compared to the previous traditional nuclear family
  • Beck argues even though the traditional patriarchal family was unequal and oppressive, it did provide a stable and predictable basis for the family by defining each member’s role and responsibility.

Hareven (1978) – Life Course Analysis

• Life Course Analysis is a method using in-depth, unstructured interviews to explore the meanings that family members give to their relationships and choices at various turning points in their lives.
• Sociologists should be concerned with the choices individual family members make throughout life regarding family arrangements. This approach recognises that there is flexibility and variation in people’s lives.
• It is particularly suitable for studying families in postmodern society as there is more choice about personal relationships and more family diversity. Family structures are increasingly the result of the choices made by family members.

Giddens – Individualisation and the Pure Relationship

• Relationships in postmodern society have become individualised as people put themselves first and their partner second.
  • Giddens argues we have become obsessed with ourselves and our identities and relationships today have become a part of each individual’s process of self-discovery.
  • The typical relationship today is now the ‘pure relationship’ which exists solely to meet the partners’ needs and is likely to continue only as long as it succeeds. Couples therefore stay together because of love, happiness and sexual attraction rather than tradition and a sense of duty or for the sake of the children.
  • A high rate of relationship breakdown and divorce is a result as we move towards serial monogamy where people go from one committed relationship to the next rather than be in one relationship for life.
  • Marriage and family has now changed so couples are free to define themselves rather than act out roles defined by law or tradition.

Criticisms of the Postmodern Perspective

• Marxists and Feminists would argue that women are still unequal in relationships, particularly down to the triple shift and persistent inequality.
• The New Right would argue this anything goes mentality is what is causing a general decline in moral values and that the nuclear family is best.
• Smart argues that individuals are not as free or ‘individualised’ as Beck and Giddens suggest and are restrained by choices they can make about family life in three major ways:

1. Most people’s freedom is restricted by their own family history as people can’t simply break away from parents or pas relationships if children are involved.

2. People are restricted by social norms as there are still norms against polygamous relationships and promiscuity.

3. People are restricted by their social class, gender and ethnicity as people from a strict Pakistani-Muslim background would find themselves under more pressure to marry than many other groups in the UK.

Interactionism

The Personal Life Perspective on the Family and Relationships

• The family is not in decline, it is just very different and much more diverse and complex than ever before.
• Smart makes two criticisms of structural perspectives and the view that the nuclear family is the dominant type of family as it ignores the increased diversity of families today – many more people now live in alternate family structures such as single parent families.

• Smart rejects many assumptions about the decline of the family life in theories of individualisation by Beck and Giddens.
• The bonds between people need to be prioritized as well as the importance of memory and cultural heritage, the significance of emotions, how family secrets change over time, and the underestimated importance of shared possessions or homes in the maintenance and memory of relationships.
• By focussing on people’s meanings we draw our attention to a range of personal or intimate relationships that may not be conventionally defined as family.

• Evaluations:
  • It helps us to understand how people themselves construct and define their relationships as ‘family’ rather than imposing tradition definitions of the family from the outside.
  • Takes a too broad view and ignores what is special about relationships based on blood and marriage.
  • Rejects the top down view taken by other perspectives such as Functionalism but it does see intimate relationships as performing the important function of providing a sense of belonging or relatedness.
  • Recognises that relatedness is not always positive.