A* Summary Notes - Family and Households

FAMILY IN SOCIETY

Statistics on Family
+​ Same sex marriages and cohabiting families are growing.
+​ Marriage rates are declining as some people are deciding to get married later or want to
develop a career first - family is becoming less important.
+​ Divorce rates are declining or stagnant as people are not getting married in the first place.

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE FAMILY


Functionalists see family as an essential building block of society; it helps to create value
consensus and social solidarity. It has many positive functions for individuals and society.


Key ideas:
+​ Organic analogy - Society is like a human body and all parts are interconnected.
+​ Value consensus - Family is an important agent of primary socialisation and is responsible
for teaching norms and values.
+​ Functions - Family holds important functions on society and individuals.

Murdock: Functions of the Family
+​ Sex: Creates regulation and stability regarding sex.
+​ Economic: Meets economic needs such as food and children.
+​ Education: Teaches norms and values.
+​ Reproduction: Helps create the next generations.

★​ Evaluation:
-​ Other institutions or family types can also perform these functions.
-​ Marxists or Feminists would say this overly emphasises the positive aspects of family life.

Parsons: Functions of the Family
+​ Socialisation of children into their society’s culture - family teaches norms and values (also
in terms of gender roles [teaches men to be breadwinners and women to be expressing
caring role]) = value consensus.
+​ Stabilisation of adult personalities - refers to the comfort and emotional support that adults
gain within the family = ‘warm bath theory’.

★​ Evaluation:
-​ Not relevant to all family types which exist today.
-​ Feminists criticise Parsons for suggesting male and female roles set by society.
-​ Warm bath theory ignores abuse within families.

Parsons: Functionalist Fit Theory
+​ Argues that the classic extended family has disappeared and been replaced by the
privatised nuclear family or the modified extended family.

Reasons for the decline in the extended family:
+​ Geographical mobility.
+​ Higher rates of social mobility.

, +​ Greater affluence.
+​ Strengthened bonds between partners.

Have the Functions of the Family Changed?

Structural Differentiation - new social institutions emerge to take over a range of functions that
were once provided by one institution.


Traditional Functions Have they changed?

Reproduction of the Population -​ Can be done medically in hospitals e.g
IVF.

Unit of Production -​ People go to work to earn money to
buy them.

Caring for Dependent Children -​ People pay other women such as
childminders or nannies.

Providing care for the young, old, sick and -​ Welfare state now provides care
poor through the NHS, benefits and care
homes.

Primary socialisation and social control -​ Childcare, although family is still the
key place for socialisation.

Education -​ State has not taken over the education
role.


★​ Evaluation of Functionalist Theory

Strengths:
-​ The functions they identify are still somewhat important today.
Weaknesses:
-​ Murdock and Parsons paint rose like images of family life and downplay conflict within the
family.
-​ Parsons' views of gender roles are old fashioned.
-​ Ignores exploitation of women.
-​ Ignores harmful effects of the family.

NEW RIGHT PERSPECTIVE ON THE FAMILY​


+​ Believe nuclear heterosexual family is the best as it is the most
effective in socialising children into the norms and values.
+​ Believe changes such as divorce, lone parent families, same sex
marriages and welfare policies are a threat to family life.


Murray
+​ Believes the welfare state is responsible for creating a ‘culture of dependency’ which has
allowed other family types to survive.

, +​ Critical of welfare benefits and argues a ‘nanny state’ has been created in the UK.
+​ This has created an underclass which is made up of lazy unemployed people who are
usually in lone parent families.

MARXIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE FAMILY

Key ideas:
+​ Capitalism - family has control in enabling wealth to pass to the next generation.
+​ Ideology - family has a function in transmitting ruling class ideology.
+​ Exploitation - family aid exploitation by looking after the workers and making sure they are
fit and healthy for work.

Engels: The Inheritance of Property
+​ The monogamous nuclear family developed as a way for private property to be passed onto
the correct heirs.
+​ This benefitted the ruling class as the correct people received the wealth.

Althusser: Ideological State Apparatus
+​ Family is responsible for socialisation into norms and values.
+​ This helped the ruling class to maintain their position in society.
➔​ Example: Idea of meritocracy.
+​ Encourages people to accept their position.

Zaretsky: Family Supports Capitalism
+​ Family is a safe space away from work where they can be nurtured.
+​ Traditional gender roles ensure the man is fit and healthy for work.
+​ The wife helps the man deal with the stresses of work life.
+​ Family also acts as a unit of consumption which benefits capitalism.

★​ Evaluation of Marxist Theory:

Strengths:
-​ Marxists don't regard the nuclear family as functionally necessary, unlike functionalists.
-​ Acknowledged that the family has a dark side.
-​ Highlights the social inequalities.

Weaknesses:
-​ Marriage is now less of a social necessity with more women earning income.
-​ Focuses too much on the nuclear family and ignores a wide range of family types.
-​ Ignores the benefits the family brings.
-​ Feminists would say the perspective is more male.

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE FAMILY

Key ideas:
+​ Patriarchy - family is patriarchal as men dominate the head of the household and the
breadwinner.
+​ Liberal Feminism - women have the majority of housework and childcare and socialisation
into toys play a role in this.