Theories of the Family

Functionalist Perspective

Marxist Perspective

New Right Perspective

Feminist Perspective

They concentrate on the positive functions of the family, like why are families good for the whole of society?

Structuralist Conflict Theory

Traditional Values (keep things the same) - social developments in the 1960s had given way to a range of movements, that demanded societal changes;
. Civil Rights Movement
. Feminist Movement
. Student Movement
. Anti-war Movement
. LGBT Movement
. Youth Movements like punk, hippy, reggae ect.

Radical Feminism - They believe that all societies are founded on patriarchy, and men are the source of women's exploitation.
. Family and marriage are patriarchal.

  • men benefit from women's unpaid domestic work and sexual services.
  • Allows women to be dominated through domestic and social violence.
  • Girls are socialised to accept male dominance.
    . Separatism - women must organise and live independently of men.

Evaluations - Liberal Feminists - RF failed to recognise women's position has improved. Women also have better access to divorce, jobs and fertility control.

Murdock (1949)

Parsons (1959)

Compared 250 societies around the world, concluding that family is the most important institution in each society. He defined the family as 'a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction.'


And stated that their are 4 key functions of the family:

  1. Sexual - stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner, preventing the social disruption caused by a sexual 'free-for-all'.
  2. Reproductive - reproduction of the next generation, without which society could not continue.
  3. Education - socialisation of the young into society's shared norms and values.
  4. Economics - meeting it's members economic needs, such as food and shelter.

He says that the family does have important functions but changes depending on space and time.
Functional fit theory - each family type plays a specific role in the function of society.

Evaluations

. conflict approach would disagree with Murdock's assumptions.
. Marxists say the family exists to meet the needs of capitalism not the individual family members or society as a whole.
. Feminists say the family serves the needs of men at the expense of women, maintaining the patriarchy.

Pre-industrial Society

Industrial Society

Most people would live in the same village and farm.
The extended family meets the needs of the society - 3 generations living under one roof.

Society is constantly evolving with technology, industry moves and declines - 'all that is sold melts into air'. The nuclear family meets the needs of mobility - just parents and their children.

Loss of Function

The extended family was multi-functional as every family member worked, fed and clothed each other.
The nuclear family lost these functions but gained new ones.
Primary socialisation of children - give them basic skills and values to integrate.
Stabilises adult personalities - the family releases adult tensions allowing them to return to the workplace.

Society is in conflict, not harmony;
. Bourgeoise owns the factories, and materials to make products and has workers for their land.
. Proletariat sell their labour to the bourgeoisie.
All societal institutions exist to maintain inequality and dominance of the bourgeoise including the family, 3 functions to maintain capitalism;

  1. Inheritance of property
  2. Ideological functions
  3. A unit of consumption

Inheritance of property (Engels) - families exist so the bourgeoise can pass on their private property (homes, business and wealth) to their children.
. Capitalism promotes the monogamous nuclear family - all the wealth will stay in the hands of the rich, keeping the poor, poor.
. women's sexuality can be controlled by men reducing women to reproductive tools in a capitalist society.
. Marx further argues in the holy family - 'the change in a historical epoch can always be determind by the progres of women towards freedom'.

Ideological functions (Zaretsky) - the family breads capitalist ideology, but is not the same as a political ideology.
. You unconsciously learn that capitalism is a fair, natural and equal system, were socialised to accept inequality within the system.
. The family structure reflects the capitalist hierarchy, as parents have power over their children and children learn to be subservient ready for the workplace.
. It presents the illusion of respite from the capitalist world, families cannot meet the needs of its members.

A unit of consumption - the family is a source of profit for the bourgeoise by creating competition between families.
. Children are targeted for products via the media - pester power
. Children who lack the latest 'must haves are mocked and stigmatised by their peers'.

Criticisms

. Focuses too much on class conflict; what about gender inequality?
. Ignores positive functions of the family
. Assumes the nuclear family is dominant in a capitalist society.
. Families are natural and can't be helped
. Might have family members who aren't as rich as them

Decline of Family

Increase in the divorce rate, the average marriage lasts 12 years, 18% increase for opposite-sex couples and 428-822 divorces of same sex couples in 2019.
Children born out of wedlock was 48.1% of children in 2017, this lead to unsocialised children and decaying morals in society.

Who is to blame?

Charles Murry - makes 2 assumptions;

  1. Single parents were to blame for society's problems - society is too dependent on the welfare state, like pensions, healthcare, education, unemployment benefits etc.
  2. the new rabble - long-term unemployed underclass, people who have been out of work for more than a year.
    The welfare dependant - people who seek help from the government.
    Single Mothers - are considered extremely dangerous for society as children were not socialised properly. Lack of male role models which will lead young boys to a life of crime.

The New Victorians

Their are respectable middle classes who marry, socialise their children properly, work and pay their taxes.

Evaluations

. The decline of the nuclear family is exaggerated - most adults still have children. Divorce has increased but most divorcees remarry.
. Feminists - gender roles are socially determined rather than being fixed by biology. Traditional gender roles are oppressive to womwn.
. Marxists - single parents are not welfare scroungers, unemployment is due to economic circumstances.
. Chester - most children will spend most of their lives in a nuclear family arrangement.

Difference Feminism - other approaches generalise women's experiences of family.
. Not all women live in nuclear families
. Neglect family as a positive experience
. Black families argue it can be a source of support and resistance to radical oppression.

. Marxist Feminism - they believe that capitalism is to blame for women's weaker role in the family.

  • women perform key functions for capitalism to survive.
    . Reproducing the labour force -they socialise children into accepting the hierarchy.
    . Absorb anger - they soak up their partner's frustrations and alienation within capitalism (Ansley 1972).
    . Source of cheap labour -women are employed when companies are short on workers and forced to return to domestic role when needed.

Evaluations - Post-modern Feminists -when women have more choice over family types and can assert themselves in their relationships.

. Liberal Feminists - They fight for equal rights and opportunities within the existing legal system.
. laws can change people's attitudes to women's role in the family.
. Gender equality can only be won through legal reforms.
. Equal Pay Act 1970


- Young & Willmott - march of progress- change will come gradually, as men are now doing more domestic labour and children are now socialised with equal aspirations.


Evaluations - Marxists/ Radical Feminists - law doesn't change societies attitudes and liberal feminists do not address the causes.

Postmodern Feminism - other feminists theories are out of date.
. Women have more choice over their relationships and identities.
. Women have the option to resist oppression, what it means to be a women has extended.

Feminism aims to achieve political, social, economic and personal equality between sexes.
Structuralist approach - family maintains social order.
Conflict approach - family only benefits the patriarchy, men hold the dominant power in society.

Personal Life Perspective

Smart - focuses on how individual families construct meaning.

  • Emotional Responses
  • Family Cultures
  • Shared Experiences

Evaluations
. It helps us understand how people shape their families

  • Does not rely on imposed definitions
    . Too broad a view
  • Ignores the strength of conventional family structures
    . Argues with funtionalism
  • Intimate relationships perform important funtions by providing us with a sense of belonging and
    relatednes.
    . BUT the personal life perspective recognises thst relatedness is not always positive.

Interactionist Perspective - looks at how individuals make meaning.

  • They counter structuralist theories
    . Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism tend to assume that the nuclear family is the dominant
    family type - ignoring the increase in family diversity we now have.
    . It also assumes that family members are passive puppets being manipulated by the structure
    of society.
  • Personal Life Perspective looks beyond the traditional family types, and looks at a wider range of relationships that individuals see as significant in their lives.