FAMILIES TOPIC 3 - THEORIES Flashcards
(5 cards)
The functionalist perspective
Murdock - the family performs four essential functions which meets the needs of the members and society as a whole
Stable satisfaction of the sex drive
Reproduction of the next generation
Socialisation of the young
Meeting members’ economic needs
Parsons - the structure of the family must fit the needs of society in which it is found. He argues that today’s industrial society requires a geographically and socially mobile workforce and therefore, the nuclear family fits the best. However, he argues that as society industrialised, the family lost many of its functions as it ceases to be a unit of production, meaning that society now performs two essential functions - the primary socialisation of children, the stabilisation of adult personalities.
The marxist perspective
Inheritance of property
Engels - uses the term promiscuous horde to describe the lack of restrictions on sexual activity.
However, as private property emerged, it brought about the patriarchal, monogamous nuclear family where monogamy become essential as parents had to know their legitimate heir. This represented a world historical defeat of the female sex.
The overthrow of capitalism and private ownership of means of production will liberate women from patriarchal control.
Ideological functions
Marxists define ideology as a set of ideas that justify inequality and maintain the capitalist system by persuading people to accept it as fair, natural or unchangeable.
Zaretsky - the family appears to offer a haven from the harsh and exploitative world of capitalism outside in which workers can be themselves and have a private life.
He argues that this is largely an illusion - the family cannot meet its members needs - for example, it is based on the domestic servitude of women.
A unit of consumption
Capitalism exploits the labour of the workers, making a profit by selling the products of their labour for more than it pays them.
The family plays a major role in generating profits.
Advertisers useg families to keep up with the joneses by consuming all the latest products.
The media target children who ue pester power to persuade their parents to spend more.
The feminist perspective
Liberal feminism
Liberal feminists do not believe that full equality has been achieved in the family, but they do think they has been gradual progress.
Jenny somerville argues there has been improvements in employment, abortion, childcare, divorce etc.
Men are doing more domestic labour, the parents now socialise their children more equally regardless og gender
Marxist feminism
Women reproduce the labour force
Women absorb anger
Women are a reserve army of cheap labour
Women are ‘takers of shit’ according to fran ansley
The oppression of women in the family is directly linked to the exploitation of the working class.
The family must be abolished at the same time as the socialist revolution
Radical feminism
Men are the enemy
The family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal society
The family, which they see as the root cause of oppression, must be abolished.
Greer argues for separatism - women must organise themselves to live independently of men such as through political lesbianism and the creation of all matrilocal households.
Difference feminism
We cannot generalise about women’s experiences.
Lesbian and hetrosexual women, white and black women, middle class and white women, have very different experiences of the family from one another.
White feminists neglect black women’s experiences of racial oppression.
The personal life perspective
It is strongly influenced interactionist ideas and argues that in order to understand families, we must start from the point of view of the individuals concerned and the meanings they give to relationships.
Takes a bottom up approach to interactionism.
The personal life perspective draws our attention to a range of other personal or intimate relationships that are important to people even through they may not be conventionally defined as family
Relationships with friends
Fictive kin: close friends treated as family
Gay and lesbian chosen families
Relationships with dead relatives
Relationships with pets
Nordqvist and smart - research into donor conceived children found that difficult feelings could flare up for a non-genetic parent if someone remarked that the child looked like them.
The new right (murray)
Sees the nuclear family as ‘natural’ and based on fundamental biological differences between men and women
Decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity are the growth of many social problems
Concerned about the growth of lone parent families
Lone mothers cannot discipline their children properly
Leave boys without an adult male role model resulting in educational failure and social instability
Likely to be poorer
Benson - couples are more stable when they are married because it requires a deliberate commitment to each other.
Only a return to traditional values including value of marriage can prevent social disintegration
Regard laws and policies such as easy access to divorce, same sex marriage and widespread availability of welfare benefits as undermining the conventional family
