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Marxist Perspective on the Family (Engels (1820-95) (Development of…
Marxist Perspective on the Family
Marx (1818-1883)
Engels (1820-95)
Development of private property -> heirs -> monogamy
Prostitution -> material provision in return for monogamy & reproduction
Nuclear family -> men control women's sexuality
Modern interpretations -> reproducing the capitalist system
Free domestic labour reduces the cost of labour through subsidisation
Family as an instrument of capitalist oppression
Negative view of the family
Influenced by Marx' precis of Lewis Henry Morgan's work 'Ancient Society' (1877)
Functionalists
Positive view of the family
Common ground ?
Supportive of wider economic processes
Zaretsky
Split between personal and economic is a social construct as a result of capitalist forms of production
The price paid for greater economic freedom is frequently greater oppression of women
Further elaborated by feminists
1976, p. 141
Oakley (1974)
Men - > public sphere, women -> private sphere
Actively denies women the same opportunities as men
-> family is alienating to women
Feminists
Some common ground
Whatever freedom is proved to men is paid for in the greater oppression of women
General views
Marriage and dependency appear the only viable route for bearing and rearing children
Difficult to break away once ensnared
Concede psychological factors in addition to sociological (Leonard, 1984)
Marxist-Feminist vs Feminist-Marxist
(Jorgensen, 1995, p. 5)
M-F -> primarily economically exploitative
F-M -> ideological institution that has associated with it a set of beliefs, ideas and expectations
Criticisms
Exploitation and oppression continue in socialist/communist societies. Otherthrow of capitalism does not necessarily alleviate the problems of family life as identified.
(Jorgensen, p. 6)
Jorgensen, p. 42
Chapter 4.
Engels' views are anachronistic but useful as a starting point
Neo-Marxism
Althusser
Repressive state apparatuses
Ideological state apparatuses
Contains potential rebellion against or criticism of the capitalist status quo
Psychological dimension
Marxist theory
Means of production -
instruments of labour (tools, infrastructure)
subjects of labour (raw materials)
Factors of production, less financial capital and human capital