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Families and Households - Revision - ALL SOCIOLOGISTS / THEORISTS - Coggle…
Families and Households - Revision - ALL SOCIOLOGISTS / THEORISTS
Functionalism perspectives of the family
Murdock (Gorillaz)
It is socially acceptable to be in a relationship and have children
The social expectation is that a functional family must have "two adults of both sexes" and "one ore more children"
Stacey (Feminist)
Father is not essential for a family to perform effectively
The mother can perform the instrumental role
Wilmott and Young (two = symmetrical) :check:
Made predictions that the symmetrical family type would become dominant
(Ed) Sheeran
Female-carer core
Family only exist because of women
Feminist approach
Critical of Murdock's ideas
Murdock doesn't take into consideration the exploitation / conflict between family members
Men are not necessarily needed
Is the man in the family really needed?
A mother is able to effectively socialise a child without the father's presence
Parsons :check:
"warm bath" theory
Stabilisation of adult personalities in children
Gives an unrealistic optimistic view on the family, suggesting that members are always happy and sees socialisation as a one way system, when it is a two way system
March of progress + Marxism
Engels (angels = communists are horny)
"promiscuous horde" - but proved wrong
Primitive communism
Althusser (IDS is cool ig)
Family's role is to teach children to be subserviant
Zaretsky (welcome escape) - COMPARE TO PARSONS BECAUSE THEY'RE BOTH MUGS - Parson's warm bath theory
Family is a major "prop" as it depends on housewives to create future generations of workers
These children then perform "pester power"
Somerville (family is work or smth idk)
Family is very connected to the world of work
Critiques Zaretsky
Zaretsky "underestimates the extent of CRUELTY and VIOLENCE" of family life, and that IT IS NOT A WELCOME ESCAPE!!!!!!!!!!!
Parsons (smaller families exist because there's no need to have big fams because its long and expensive asf)
"family structure has changed"
smaller families = richer = more developed
Hoschild (capitalists will charge you for basically anything tbf)
Commodification and alienation
Profit off emotions of the public
Alienation of feelings
Feminism
Greer (greed for wanting to live with only women)
Somerville criticises Greer, suggesting women have made progress in society
Problems in society are because of patriarchy's existence, not because of capitalism
Political lesbians - living and dating women because men are the problem
String ideology for women to become wives of important political figures as a way of getting publicity (but remaining subserviant)
This inequality extends to all other relationships and disadvantages women
Benston
(Benson)
"The amount of unpaid labour performed by women is very large and very profitable"
Ainsley
Wives are "takers of shit"
The New Right and The Family Policy
Murray (perverse incentives) - benefits people
Incentives that result in unintended consequences due to actions people take to receive these incentives
Fitzpatrick (fuck murray amirite)
Suggests that Murray's views are politically motivated
Suggesting that Murray lacks evidence and ignores importance of poverty
Policy Bias and the Traditional Nuclear Family
Morgan (the state is the dad)
War between the state and the family
Abolishing the idea of marriage
As there isn't an advantage in tax / benefits for married couples
Divorce is a lot easier to obtain nowadays - benefits support lone-parent families
State performs as the breadwinner, as there is limited benefit of the father staying, so the state fills in for this role
State as child carer
Increased childcare
Allan
Wives look after the children
State provision is built upon the idea of the heterosexual relationship
Supporting points for their ideas
School holidays make it difficult for both parents to work at the same time to also look after the children
Care of elderly is seen as a female responsibility, as cuts to social care for elderly in their own home
Married couples with children are favoured when moving into a house
Families are increasingly expected to take care of their children, as young adults depend on their parents for housing and university funding
The sociology of personal life
Chambers
Critiques Smart's approach
Suggesting that Smart's approach IS useful, but it does not prioritise relationships based on the ideas of family and marriage
Modernity, late modernity and the family (Giddens)
Modern love
Based on romantic love / plastic sexuality
SEX IS A LEISURE PURSUIT (don't need to be bound to one partner)
Confluent love and the pure relationship
Love only lasts as long as it benefits the lover
This is encouraged as divorce is very easy to achieve in today's world
Modernity and self-identity
"reflexivity is the key characteristic of modernity"
Do not have to abide to tradition
Criticisms of Giddens
Says that EVERYONE has ability to be reflexive, doesn't take into consideration the idea of other cultures and ethnicity (e.g arranged marriage and marrying for the sake of love and not additional benefits)
Individualisation
People are able to make their OWN decisions, need not to be influenced by parents actions
Choice in families
Creating a family to love you is important, as society is unforgiving and not loving
Modern gender roles
Both parents are expected to work (dual-earner families), stress from work can family "the arena"
Finding common ground is hard
Beck et al suggest that both can work, but one must take the backseat in the relationship
Giddens suggests that both members of the couple must love each other for it to work
Post modernism and the family - Stacey (feminism)
The example of PAM and DOTTY (from Stacey)
Conventional family structure causes unhappiness, happier with a diverse family structure
Mostly becauise the housework is evenly split between members
"Compulsory heterosexuality" (against the idea of being gay)
Disallowed from experimenting with different sexuality, forced to be straight
Children who are born into unconventional family types are often less hostile towards gay and lesbian families
Critique of Stacey's views (are traditionalist families the best?)
Traditionally structured families are often better at raising children (more effective)
Stacey often exaggerates the extent of how diversified families are in the modern day
Neo-liberal theorists question the idea if whether diversification of families is a positive move
Child centredness
Children have gone from the DIONYSIAN (imps) to the APOLLONIAN (innocent) image
Postman (computer video from year 12)
Technological advancements can explain the risk about modern ideas about childhood
Childhood is disappearing
Edward Shorter (short = child)
Children are AN EXPRESSION OF A COUPLE'S LOVE
Instead of children being an ASSET
Aries
Modern childhood
Children went from being an economic asset to an economic burden
Childhood as a social construct
(Sophie) Pilcher = seperateness
"the most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is seperateness"
Childhood is a clear and distinct life stage
Children need to be protected from the idea of adult life, by adults
In Western culture, children are vulnerable and need to be protected / cared for
Stephen Wagg
Childhood means different things at different times and in different cultures
Aries (idea created by evidence from the Middle ages)
"idea of childhood did not exist"
Children were not separate from adults
Children entered world of work from young ages
Edward Shorter
Used paintings from the time period as a way of evidence for his claims
(Linda) Pollock
Criticises Aries by suggesting that during middle ages, there was a different idea of what childhood was (it had a different meaning)
Donzelot
Stressed the idea that children need protecting in the modern day as they are vulnerable
Child centredness continued
Womack (bullying and teen pregnancy)
Suggests that British children are the unhappiest
Prone to bad physical and mental health, often fail academically and bad at maintaining worthwhile relationships with friends and parents
Teenage pregnancy rates in Britain are amongst the highest in Europe
40% OF CHILDREN ADMITTED TO BULLYING THEIR SIBLING at some point during their childhood
Margo (friends over family)
British children often spend more time with friends compared to parents, mostly because British children fear that they will not be praised enough by their parents
Rees (runaway)
9% OF YOUNG PEOPLE aged between 14-16 runaway (Kanye reference) overnight at least once a year
Experience of family life might be negative
TRIPLE SOCIOLOGIST STATS
Contemporary debates on childhood
Postman (children watch bad things = bad)
The clear distinction between childhood and adulthood is becoming a lot more unclear
"information hierarchy"
Adults were once able to access that children couldn't at all / couldn't understand due to literacy ability and ability to interpret information
Media such as the TV allowed children to watch things that often included violence or sex
This is often because children don't require the ability to read to understand what's happening on TV, mostly because it consists of visual information
Marsh (club penguin fun)
Conducted group interviews on children who played online games (e.g Club Penguin)
Marsh suggested that children were able to involve themselves in creative play, that wasn't lead / shaped by the game itself
Grimes (money = bad = fuck EA)
Adds to Marsh's claims by stating how the games often had restricted opportunity for customisation ability, and often required children to spend real money on items as a way of maximising customisation
Jenks (children were devils now angels)
Dionysian image of children to Apollonian
Dionysian image: children love pleasure, and are curious and adventurous
Children need strict moral guidelines
Apollonian image of children
Children are naturally born good (compared to adults)
Children need to be "enabled, encouraged and facilitated"
Contemporary debates - continued
Jenks (children need to be free not contained)
Childhood is now a lot more focused on the idea of the child's future, instead of allowing the child to allow a period of time with no worries or responsiblity
e.g "what do you want to be when you're older?" or "what school do you want to go to?"
As children are no longer physically punished, children are instead controlled through being monitored and limiting their space
Children forced to spend time behind a desk
Links to the works of Beck et al
Parents are a lot more concerned with their relationships with their children compared to the stability of their marriage
Strong sense that children need to be protected so that old society values do not disappear
Chambers (children need phones to be cool)
Child centred family has posed many benefits for children
More of a say when it comes to their upbringing
Exposure to new kinds of media
Mobile phone possession / mobile phone use is key for peer integration
Childhood is characterised by the idea of protecting children from specific things in the adult world, to also giving them rights and giving them choice
Palmer (cole palmer thinks children are bad because they are all adhd)
Children often have difficulty concentrating + working with others
10% of children in the modern day have a mental health condition
Adult work life is a lot more demanding, which means parents often spend a lot less time with children
TOXIC CHILDHOOD SYNDROME
Is childhood harmful to children?
Differences and inequalities of childhood
Prout (p = poverty of children)
3.9 MILLION CHILDREN IN POVERTY BETWEEN YEARS 2014 - 2015
Poverty impacts health of children as they could be impacted by illness or lower life expectancy
McRobbie (bedroom culture)
"Bedroom culture"
Pre-teen girls are given less freedom than pre-teen boys
Boys often spend less time with adult supervisors compared to girls
Wells (the gendering of childhood)
Childhood is gendered in many different ways
"The allocation of tasks"
"The organisation of time and space"
Mayall (aLL = LACK RIGHTS)
Children need to be listened to more and taken a lot more seriously
Children have a very small voice when it comes to politics
The "sociology of children" reccognises the competence
Children have very little rights in society
The Growth of Family Diversity
Oakley (is the traditional structure of the family oppressive to women?)
Husband should be the main breadwinner and the wife should carry out domestic labour
Oakley critiqued this idea of gender roles in the household, suggesting that it was oppressive to women
Rapoport et al
Different variations of diversity
Organisational diversity
How families are organised
Cultural diversity
Different families often have different lifestyles
Class differences
Differences that result from stage in life cycle of family
Cohort
COCCD
Green (life is differently structured today)
Destandardisation of the life course
Course of life for a person is no longer a straight line
E.g people now might have children before getting married (being a bastard is no longer shamed due to how high divorce rates are now)
Children now depend on adults a lot more than before, extended childhood
Beck-Gernsheim (individualisation)
Some groups often "retain a traditional image of the family"
Marriage is actively losing its exclusivity
Suggests that increased individualisation has allowed these changes in family structure
As divorce is becoming more and more common, it is allowing a lot more possibilities of different family types
Traditional family roles are starting to become unclear
Ethnicity and Family Diversity
Berthoud(comparing different ethnicity of families)
South Asian population
Large amount of traditions within family life
Only a few cohabit outside of marriage
White British households
Low marriage + fertility rates
This often leads to smaller families / less children
Caribbean community origin
Low marriage rates
High rates of lone-parenthood
High rates of mixed marriage
Reynolds
Suggests that the stat of most Caribbean families being lead by a woman is incorrect, as family patterns are very diverse and can vary from island to island throughout this region
In countries like Barbados and Antigua, nuclear family households are extremely common
Bhatti (Asian loyalty)
Evidence for changing ways and attitudes in younger generations
50 British Asian families
LARGE EMPHASIS ON LOYALTY TO THE FAMILY
As well as maintaining the presence of traditional practices
BHATTI = BRITISH ASIAN
Quereshi (progressive Pakistanis)
British Asian families have the lowest rates of divorce and lone parenthood
But this % is rising in PAKISTANI families
As they are more accepting of the progressive idea of divorce and lone parenthood
QUE = QUEER = PROGRESSION
Sexuality, New Reproductive Technology, Lone Parenthood and Living Alone
Weeks (over "weeks" get to select family)
Same-sex couples look towards their friend groups or house mates to be their chosen families
Get to choose who they would like in their family
Roseneil (= neil = norm = heteronorm)
Heterosexual couples who cohabit are now no longer the basic unit of society
This shift away has allowed the rise in lone parenthood and a rise in divorce rates
Uses the term "heteronorm" to refer to the belief that it is conventionally normally for relationships to be based around heterosexual relationships
The idea of the "heteronorm" is breaking down
Temple-Malt (same-sex (hyphenated))
Interviewed same-sex civil partnerships, and wanted to explore the reasons as to why they had formed these partnerships
Discovered evidence to help prove Gidden's idea
Younger same-sex couples had similar reasons to get married as heterosexuals
It was the "normal" thing to do
Public expression of love
Older couples got married for protective reasons
Macionis et al (greek gaylords)
New biological technologies used by same-sex couples
Biological restrictions to form families have been greatly reduced
Postmodern approach, similar to Smart and Stacey
Beck / and / Beck (solo living)
Solo living is a trend caused by
individualisation
Solo living results from the difficulties of providing successful relationships
Divided up (solo living)
Family and Household Diversity
Brannen (= b = beanpole)
Beanpole family is the dominant type of family
Intergenerational links are strong
People live longer, this allows members of the family, like the grandparents to look after the children
Intragenerational links are weaker
Ruspini (Italy = women's liberation) - (women's liberation in the 1960s and 1970s allows women to follow unconventional paths in life, e.g obtaining a degree or not having children)
Transformation in family life are closely linked to changing gender roles within society
Women's liberation movement in the 60s and 70s has allowed women to make greater investments within education
E.g women no longer feel obliged to get married straight away or have a family
Hart (broken "hart" and divorce)
Value of marriage
Increased as people expect a lot more from marriage as a whole
Conflict between spouses
This has massively increased the rate of marital breakdown
Society becomes more indivdualistic
Gender, feminism and divorce
Women more independent financially and socially, marriage is less of priority
Modernity and freedom of choice
Couples expect more of their partners and expect them to always be satisfied in a relationship
Important years regarding changes in divorce legislation
The Divorce Reform Act of 1971 made divorce easier and essentially allowed for the dramatic rise in the numbers of divorce from 1971 onwards
The Family Law Act 1996
"period of reflection"
To see whether reconciliation was possible for the couple
Also no longer had to demonstrate if the marriage had broken down
Chester
Stats regarding family and household type can be misleading, as members of a family might have once lived in one type of family, and then lived in another at another time
Moral panic regarding the decline of the nuclear family is incorrect, as still the most dominant family structure
Conjugal Roles
Two types
Joint conjugal roles
Adults share responsibility for domestic duties
Segregated conjugal roles
Adults have different roles within their marriage
EXPRESSIVE AND INSTRUMENTAL ROLES - Parsons
Gabb (feeling rules, unconditional love of mothers for their children)
"you learn to be a mother"
Women are pressured to conform to these expectations of being a parent
e.g Supernanny
"feeling rules"
e.g unconditionally loving your children
Being close with your children compared to the father with his children
Domestic Division of Labour
Organisation of activities in the home such as childcare and housework
Crompton and Lynette
Used BSAS significant shift towards men contributing more to housework between 60s - 90s, but not improved much after this time
Economistic theories state it is rational for women to do a greater share of the housework if the men earn more and the family income is increased when they devote a lot more time to work
Alternatively...
Gender construction theory suggests division of domestic labour is irrational and is shaped by dominance ideas / hegemonic ideas regarding gender roles
Kan and Laurie
Used data from the U.K Household Longitudional study, and found that inequality in gender roles were reduced when women had a degree
Found that there was a statistical link between attitude to gender + gender inequality in domestic labour
Women who had trad attitudes to gender roles often did more housework
Childcare, Power and Money
Boulton
Childcare is "
about exercising responsibility for another person who is not fully able to care for themselves
"
Dex and Ward
When a family's baby was sick, 70% of mothers said they did most of the childcare, in 1.1% of cases the men would do the childcare
Dexter Morgan
Braun et al (men in public environment)
Men's involvement in childcare is greater than in prev gens but still limited
Performed 16 individual studies, found that 8 were active father, but the other half looked for the mother in the relationship for guidance to look after the child
PROVIDER IDEOLOGY
Linking the idea of the "breadwinner" to masculine identities
A lot of men thought that the father in the family was to provide financial support for his family
A lot of men were scared to look after their children solo in public places, e.g "moral panics" regarding pedos
Dunscombe et al (is the emotional shift a form of physical labour?)
Forms of domestic work cannot be measured in conventional surveys
For example, members of the family will perform emotional work instead of contributing to domestic labour
But, they found that a lot of wives were unsatisfied with their husbands contribution to the emotional work in their family dynamic
Forces the mother to perform the TRIPLE SHIFT
Women suggested that men lack in "emotional participation"
Women have to spend time soothing other's emotions and neglecting their own wellbeing
Miller (men want to be closer to their children)
Aunt
NEW FATHERS engage in UNDOING GENDER by engaging in parental practices that can challenge gender norms
These men wanted to be hands on and close to their children
Suggests that the idea of hegemonic masculinity (Connell) makes it hard for men to become equal partners with the wife as parents
Hardhill et al (HH - MEN IS IMPORTANT)
Examined power in dual-earner households in which partner's working career was considered more important in the family structure
Found that men's career was more important
Jan Pahl (Gaultier) - expensive = money pooling
4 main patterns of money management in families
Husband controlled pooling
Most common, money is shared by husband decides how money is spent
Wife-conrolled pooling
Husband controlled
Wife controlled
Vogler et al (hero's journey)
Similar to Pahl, distinguished 5 money management systems in families
Female whole wage system
Male whole wage system
Joint pooling system
Partial pooling system
Independent management system
Domestic Violence and Abuse
Gilchrist et al
Found two main types of offenders who had both psychological problems which motivated their offendings
Narcissistic offenders (Carti reference)
Emotionally volatile offenders
Walklate
Suggest that Gilchrist et al are wrong to explain domestic violence in terms of psychological characteristics associated with them
Walklate's study suggest that domestic violence is widespread - as 1/4 of women experience domestic abuse at some time in their lives
Male physical violence is a way of "doing gender", maintain patriarchal control
Dobashes
Domestic violence can only be understood in a broad historical context, and cannot be seen simply as a product of individual psychology
Domestic violence is linked with the existence of the patriarchy and is about the exercise of power by men over women to maintain this social dominance
Argue that women can be violent, but argue that it is used by men against their partners, compared to women against men
Gilligan
Violence results from feelings of shame which stem from mat dep, as mat success is important for producing a sense of self-worth
Family Policies and Stats
New Right and Family Policy
New Right beliefs surrounding the family
Mother plays expressive role whilst father plays instrumental role
Family is under threat from permissiveness and social change
Traditional image of the family is being conflicted by increased women's rights and the rise of new types of families
Local Gov Act 1988
Permitted the teaching or promotion of homosexuality in schools
Criticisms
Promoting patriarchy
Politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher have been criticised for emphasising the existence of the nuclear family, and that there are now more progressive forms of family in society
New Labour
Implementation of Sure Start centres (discussed in 1997, put in place in 1999)
Child poverty was reduced by
25%
Parenting Order
Additional support for parents if their children kept committing crimes and forced them to properly parent their children
Removed former policies which favoured the nuclear family structure, in favour of more diverse and varied family structures
300m invested in childcare since 1997, creating places for over 900k children
Conservative Coalition (2010 - 2015)
Couple Penalty
Introduced as a way of taxing couples who lived together more than those who lived apart, but a tax break was introduced in 2015
30 hours of childcare for free for families with children, whose parents both worked full time
(2017)
Does not support trad family structure, as the conventional idea is that the father works and the mother looks after the children
Policy designed to limit immigration
Immigrants could only move into the U.K if they had a partner there already who was earning 18.6k a year or more
Also withdrew child benefits for families which had more than 2 children, prevent families from having children which they could not afford to have
Births
Buchanan et al
Suggests that there is a strong correlation between female employment rates and fertility rates declining as employment rates increased after WW2
The age at which a woman has her first child has been raised significantly
"leaving it too late"
Women are focusing too much on their careers and individual goals, which means when they come to actually want a child, they are too old and infertile to do so
Modern mothers view children as an "economic cost", compared to an "economic asset"
Having a smaller family size means increased child centredness
This means that as women are no longer defined by how many children they can have, they are measured by individual success and financial success, much like men (egalitarian)
Ageing Population