Feminist view of the family

The Nature and Role of the Family – Feminists

While Marxists see class inequalities as the main source of conflict in society, feminist sociologists think it is gender inequality. They say that in most societies, men are favoured over women in almost all areas of life, including education, domestic labour, career opportunities, wages and religion, and this can also be seen within families.

Marxist Feminists

Unpaid domestic labour is vital to upholding capitalism because women produce and socialise the next generation of workers at no cost to the capitalist ruling class.

Overall

In a patriarchal society, the family serves as another institution in which men can oppress women in a number of ways. Within the family, there is a lot of domestic labour such as childcare and housework, and this is still largely done by women even though more women than ever are working fulltime outside of the home too…