Functionalism: Parsons.
Primary socialisation of children, value consensus, stabilisation of adult personalities (warm bath theory).
Males: instrumental leaders.
Females: expressive leaders.
Functionalism: Murdock.
Reproductive, sexual, educational, economic.
Functionalism: Evaluation.
Still aim to live as a nuclear family. Social policies have an origin in functionalist theories.
Consumption is a key feature.
Child abuse and domestic violence are ignored.
Ethnocentric and heteronormative.
Reproduction is less important.
Other sources of socialisation have overtaken the family.
Marxism: Zaretsky.
Family supports capitalism. Children are socialised into becoming future workers. Alternative ideas are suppressed. Manages resentment of capitalist system. Responsibilities such as bills and mortgages.
Inequalities are unchallenged.
Marxism: Overview.
Wealth is passed down through inheritance. Maintains divide between bourgeoisie and proletariat.
Workers are less likely to strike due to the necessity of providing for family.
Marxism: Evaluation.
Targetted by advertisers. Working class parents teach working class norms and values.
Too simplistic, dismissive of social and emotional satisfaction gained from family.
Feminism: Oakley.
Gender inequality is a product of institutional discrimination. Socialisation leads to creation of patriarchal discrimination.
Feminism: Wilkinson.
Women more able to take up jobs, no longer dependent on a partner. Genderquake.
Greater aspirations.
Greater reproductive rights.
Feminism: Evaluation.
Only explains progression for white, middle class, professional women.
Corsaro: no established link between gender role socialisation and role development.
Feminism: Marxists.
Social class inequalities main source of oppression. Patriarchal ideologies benefit the capitalist society.
Feminism: Radical.
Gender inequality main source of oppression. Nuclear family benefits heterosexual men. Permits violence against women. Natural division of labour.
New Right:
Family is central in social policies. Poor behaviour is down to poor family background. Nuclear family is ideal. Single motherhood leads to a culture of welfare dependency.
Postmodernism:
Free to construct own identity. Society is a collection of subcultures. Family is less stable. Greater diversity. Domestic violence undermines positives.
Policy: Donzelot.
Policy is a form of state control over family. Professionals exercise power over clients through knowledge (policing of families).
Fletcher says social policy is a progression to a society where families are assisted by the state rather than controlled.
Policy: Leonard.
Male head of household benefits from women’s services. Women financially and emotionally dependent. Nobody was interested in wellbeing of women. Single mothers reliant on state benefits. Lesbians regarded as a subject of amusement.
Social policies constructed on women and children’s dependency on men.
Equal pay and welfare benefits support women.
Policy: Murray.
Social policies designed to support nuclear families and encourage self reliance, reducing a culture of dependency.
Feminists argue this pushes women back into a homemaker role. Marxists say this would push more working class families into poverty.
Policy: Evaluation.
Tax and welfare favour heterosexual married couples. Mothers are more often granted custody after a divorce. Housing is designed with the nuclear family in mind.
State intervention has increase.
Functional single parent may be more beneficial than dysfunctional nuclear family.
Patterns in Marriage.
Steep decline, increase in age, increase in middle class.
Corse: less working class get married, decline in factory jobs. Berthoud: 3/4 Pakistani and Bangladeshi women married by 25, compared to 1/2 white women.
Married people live longer.
Secularisation.
Still a life goal.
Patterns in Cohabitation.
Number of couples doubled, fastest growing household type, increased children born outside of wedlock.
New Right: argue cohabitation is replacing marriage.
Morgan: ‘marriage-lite’.
Murphy: worse results, left school earlier, more likely to develop serious illnesses.
Beaujoauan and NiBrolchain: test run, decline in marriages ending in divorce.
Patterns in Divorce.
Major increase, number of silver splitters increased.
Alternatively: separation, empty-shell marriages.
1969 Divorce Reform Act. Changes in attitude. Higher marital standards. Secularisation of society. Declining influence of extended family.
Patterns in Childbearing.
Decreased over time, recent slight increase.
More reliable birth control. Prioritising careers. Voluntary childlessness.
Increase in fertility due to immigration.
Life Course:
Postmodernists: focus on life course instead of family. Individual may live in several different household types.
Single Person Household:
Largest type of household, increase in divorce, increase in geographic mobility, less social stigma, increase in affluence. 47% are elderly one-person households.
Single Parent Household:
91% led by women. New Right: incentive of welfare benefits. Large proportion not in work.
Mooney: parental conflict greater negative effect than parental separation.
Patterns: Chester:
Neo-conventional: dual earning, both spouses work, greater equality.
Patterns: Giddens:
Personal relationships less stable with choice. Less likely to get married due to structural changes.
Pure relationship: only lasts as long as both partners are happy.
Patterns: Rapoports:
Diversity in life-cycle, organisational, cultural, social class, life-stage, generational.
Explanations: Weeks:
Sexual morality personal choice, less social stigma. Church and state have lost power.
Non-heterosexuals, kin-like ‘family’.
Explanations: Snapshot Problem:
Chester: most are not choosing to live in alternatives. Most children still reared by two parents. Most marriages continue until death. Some ethnicities more likely to live in nuclear families.
Explanations: Stacey:
Greater choice for women, break free from patriarchal oppression. Women are main agents of chains. Reject housewife role for education.
Personal Life Perspective:
Smart: family like friendships, fictive kin, gay families, relatives who have passed away, pets.
Arguments: Young and Willmott:
Working class families: conjugal roles separated, males considered themselves the head of household. Wives dependent on husbands. Unequal power. Wives victims of domestic violence.
Later: more joint conjugal roles, equal distribution of family. Greater opportunity.
Arguments: Dunscombe and Marsden:
Triple Burden: girls emotionally skilled in empathy: worked all day, household and emotional labour.
Arguments: Pahl:
Decision Making:
Husband controlled pooling: 39/102.
Wife controlled pooling: 27/102.
Husband control: 22/102.
Arguments: Dunne:
37 lesbian couples, equal division of labour, highlights patriarchal nature of labour. More open to negotiation.
Relationship Aspects: Pahl and Vogler:
Only 1/5 households were egalitarian decision making households. The more a woman contributes financially, the more important decisions they participate in.
Even when earning the same, women more likely to care for children and complete housework.
Relationship Aspects: Dobash and Dobash.
Most domestic violence occurs in marriage. Marriage gives power to men through dependency.
Radical feminists: as long as men have the capacity to threaten women through violence, there will never be equality.
Relationship Aspects: Gershuny.
Wives working full time did less household labour: no job 83%, part-time 82%, full-time 73%. Increased over time.
Relationship Aspects: Fisher.
British father care rose 800% from an average of 15 minutes to 2 hours a day.
Craig: men more likely to play with and interact with children, women more likely to complete practical tasks.
Relationship Aspects: Evaluation.
Feminists emphasis negative too much. Ignores women who enjoy childcare and domestic labour. Women are more biologically suited to childcare.
Oakley: men are resistant to change because inequality benefits them.
Demographic: Birth Rate.
Number of live births per 1000 of the population over a year. Fall in births during WW1, baby boom. Repeated in WW2.
Decline in infant mortality. Improvements in sanitation, water and nutrition. Contraception widely available.
Demographic: Death Rate.
Number of deaths per 1000 of the population over a year.
Decreased, life expectancy increased. Dependent on region, social class and ethnicity.
Improved public health, technology and medical practice. Rising living standards. Improved welfare.
McKeown: rising wages, less poverty. Public health policy. Improved social housing. Maternity care. Welfare state and NHS.
Demographic: Ageing Population.
Increase in children caring for elderly parents. Increase in domestic burden, financial hardship and overcrowding.
Hirsch: changes in policy to cope with a longer living population. Earlier retirement needs reversing. Changes in housing policy.
Townsend: negative attitudes to elderly comes from a period of dependency.
Demographic: Migration.
Increase in both immigration and emigration. Over 50% of African-Caribbean families are single parents.
Most Asian families are nuclear.
1/10 mixed race families.
Demographic: The Griffiths Report.
Growing health and social care costs in look after the elderly - pensions time bomb.
Ageism: vulnerable, incompetent, burdensome.
Childhood: Laws.
Child labour laws, compulsory schooling, FGM banned, The Children Act.
Restrictions on smoking, drinking and sexual consent.
Social services. Medical knowledge advancements.
Childhood: Pilcher.
Childhood is a special time. Extended period of protection, nurture and socialisation. Dependency on adults. Distinct laws, dress, products and services.
Childhood: Aries.
Children were mini adults, looked serious in paintings (not necessarily representative). Decrease in infant mortality. Childrearing central focus of family life. Toys, games and clothes designed specifically for children.
Pollack: diaries and first hand sources may be more accurate.
Childhood: Donzelot.
Poor families more likely to be controlled and monitored. Health visitors, social workers, risk registers.
Prevents deviance and delinquency.
Cross Cultural Differences: Wagg.
No universal childhood experiences. Widely varies.
Cross Cultural Differences: Punch.
5 year olds in Bolivia. Work inside and out of the home.
Cross Cultural Differences: Malinowski.
Trobrian Islanders: allowed to explore sexuality without shielding.
Other cultures not separated like Western cultures. Not protected/shielded from sex, work.
Experiencing Childhood: Postman.
Childhood is under threat. Television exposes children to adult world too soon. Social blurring, less distinction between children and adults.
Opie: there is a separate childhood culture. Songs, rhymes and games.
Experiencing Childhood: Palmer.
Toxic Childhood: parents rely on technology and junk food. Deprived of quality time, easily distracted, impulsive and self-obsessed.
Experiencing Childhood: Womack.
Difficult to draw a conclusion on childhood due to variation. Children who are poorer are less likely to enjoy their childhood.
Experiencing Childhood: Aries.
Children nowadays are more valued, cared for, protected and educated. Have more rights.
Fmaily is child-centric.
Ethnicity:
Asian families less likely to cohabit, live in single-person households of divorce. Greater increase in empty-shell marriages and extended families households.
Some ethnic minorities have more children.
Gender Differences:
Hillman: Boys are given more freedom than girls. Boys are more likely to be allowed to stay out after dark.
Poorer mothers have lower weight babies.
Brannen: Asian parents more likely to be strict with daughters.
Howard: children in poor families more likely to die in infancy, suffer long-term illness, be shorter, fall behind at school, placed on the child protection register.
Gender: McRobbie and Garber:
Bedroom culture, follow codes on romance, fashion and beauty, creating a cult of femininity. Girls experiment with fashion and make-up, identity through presentation and developmental tastes.
Boys socialise in public spaces.
Griffiths:
Control inequality: Bodies. Access to Resources. Neglect or Abuse. Time. Space.
Sociologists: Policy.
Donzelot, Leonard, Murray.
Sociologists: Patterns.
Chester, Giddens, Rapoports.
Sociologists: Explanations.
Weeks, Chester, Stacey.
Sociologists: Arguments.
Young and Willmott, Dunscombe and Marsden, Pahl, Dunne.
Sociologists: Relationship Aspects.
Pahl and Vogler, Dobash and Dobash, Gershuny, Fisher.
Sociologists: Childhood.
Pilcher, Aries, Donzelot.
Sociologists: Cross Cultural Differences.
Wagg, Punch, Malinowski.
Sociologists: Experiencing Childhood.
Postman, Palmer, Womack, Aries.
