family

Question 1

Ansley- Marxist feminist

Answer 1

The family acts as a safety valve for capitalism. Instead of men directing their anger at the nature and organisation of capitalism itself through their experience of alienation, they are directing their anger at the family which leads to problems of domestic abuse and child abuse as men try to assert power over the family.

Question 2

domestic abuse- Ansley

Answer 2

Instead of men directing their anger at the nature and organisation of capitalism itself through their experience of alienation, they are directing their anger at the family which leads to problems of domestic abuse and child abuse as men try to assert power over the family. “Women are the takers of shit”

Question 3

Murray- domestic abuse perspective

Answer 3

Domestic violence only occurs in dysfunctional families. There are higher rates of DV in lower classes due to a lower moral standard

Question 4

Giddens perspective on DV

Answer 4

Domestic violence is caused by the emotional intensity of family life. The nature of family life makes domestic violence quite common as family life is characterised by emotional intensity and personal intimacy. Increasing isolation of the nuclear family, increases the intensity and escalations to violence.

Question 5

Dobash and Dobash view on DV

Answer 5

Domestic violence is evidence of the patriarchy and is caused by challenges to male authority. Linked to the crisis of masculinity as men do not know their place in society and strike out

Question 6

Rutherford- ageing population

Answer 6

Rutherford argues that due to an ageing population, future governments are going to have problems in funding both pensions and the NHS. He argues that, as a result, people will be instructed by law to make contributions to the cost of the care of elderly relatives. This causes problems for society as it causes a significant burden of dependency.

Question 7

Townsend- ageing population

Answer 7

Townsend argues that older people are perceived negatively through social construction as relying on benefits and services which may push them into poverty.

Question 8

ageing population stats

Answer 8

2011- abolition of retirement age (many older people now continue to work past 65)
Ageing population is becoming more of an issue as the ONS estimates that by 2038 only 17.4% of the population will be under 16.

Question 9

weber- family diversity (negative)

Answer 9

Weber views this negatively as he believes that modern societies have undergone rationalisation and disenchantment as people no longer believe in religion. This contributes to the nuclear family being under threat as it is no longer viewed as a sacred institution, which contributes to the rise of family diversity and cohabitation.

Question 10

Rapoport and Rapoports- family diversity

Answer 10

Argues that family diversity is increasing. They identified a number of ways in which family life was diverse, in contrast to the idea that the nuclear family was the clear norm.
1) Organisational. This refers to the way a family might organise itself in terms of the roles people perform (e.g. traditional male-dominated families and more symmetrical ones).

2) Cultural. Families differ in terms of their beliefs and values.

3) Class. Much writing about the family assumes that family life as experienced in a middle-class family is the same for other social classes, but this is not the case.

4) Life course. Rapoport and Rapoport point out that we do not live in the same family structure, family set-up or type of household for the whole of our lives. We might be born into a traditional nuclear family. This might change later in our childhood (for example it might become a lone parent family and then a reconstituted family).

5) Cohort. There is also change over time and what is the norm, in terms of family life, for one generation, is not for the next.

Question 11

Willmott and Young-symmetrical families

Answer 11

Willmott and Young argue that there has been a “march of progress” and now the family has become more symmetrical. Instead of segregated roles, the nuclear has moved to joint conjugal roles. Family life has become more shared and equal.

Question 12

Engels Marxist

Answer 12

Monogamous families are a mechanism in which the ruling class pass on inequalities in wealth and power, generation by generation, through acting as a means to pass down land and power through legitimacy. Thus, the nuclear family benefits the bourgeoisie and not the proletariat.

Question 13

Althusser Marxist

Answer 13

Althusser agrees as he argues that the role of the family is to promote capitalist ideology through socialisation and the transmission of capitalist values. According to Althusser, the family is a form of the ideological state apparatus which forms to serve capitalists through this function

Question 14

Cooper Marxist

Answer 14

• the nuclear family acts as an ideological conditioning device as it functions to promote and ensure the reproduction and maintenance of capitalism. It does this in several ways: promoting consumption (keeps capitalism going) , providing a safe haven for workers, making us believe inequality and hierarchy are normal.

Question 15

Greer- radical fem

Answer 15

• Argues that the family will always disadvantage women. She focuses on looking at the role of women as wives, daughters and mothers. Greer argues that these 3 roles that women undertake in the family are undervalued and patriarchal. Women are controlled within these roles and suffer from the traditional expectations placed in these roles in society. Women are subordinate to men in the household and therefore she sees the family as a key site of reproducing inequality and perpetuating wider inequalities in society.

Question 16

Diane Feeley-

Answer 16

argues that the family is an authoritarian unit dominated the husband. The family has an “authoritarian ideology” which teaches passivity, not rebellion and children learn to submit to parental authority thereby learning to accept their place in the hierarchy of power and control in capitalist society. Can also be spoken about when talking about age hierarchy in childhood.

Question 17

Sommerville

Answer 17

• Believes in a March of Progress view of the family. This means that they believe that the family is gradually changing for the better over time by becoming more democratic and equal. They argue that evidence shows that men are doing a greater share of domestic labour (childcare, housework), decision making is becoming more equal and that male and female children are being socialised into much more more similar manner with similar aspirations. To Sommerville, many feminists have failed to acknowledge progress for women such as the greater freedom to go into paid work, and the greater degree of choice over whether they marry or cohabit when and whether to have children, and which family type they would like to become a member of. The increased choice for women and the rise of the dual-earner household has helped create greater equality within relationships. However, many men do not take on their full share responsibilities and often these men can be “shown the door”.

Question 18

Ann Oakley-hegemonic gender role socialistion

Answer 18

Her study on primary socialisation and the impact of the family om hegemonic gender role socialisati0n showed the impact that the processes of canalisation/manipulation has on forming gender roles.

Question 19

Beck- postmodernism

Answer 19

Beck argues that the traditional, patriarchal nuclear family has been undermined by two trends:
1-Greater gender equality- has challenged male domination in all spheres of life. Women now expect equality both at work and in marriage.
2-Greater individualism- where peoples action are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interests than by a sense of obligation to others.
These trends have led to a rise in the negotiated family (do not conform to traditional norms but instead vary to the wishes and expectations of their members who decide what is best for them by discussion) partners now enter the relationship on an equal basis. According to Beck, the rise of the negotiated family is all part of the move to a postmodern risk society- because there is more individual freedom, postmodern society is more chaotic and uncertain than ever in human history, and people have now developed “risk consciousness” as people now have to weigh up the potential costs, benefits and potential risks of pursuing one course of action over another. - Beck argued that greater gender equality and greater individualism has lead to the negotiated family. Negotiated families do not conform to the traditional family norm but vary accordingly to the wishes and expectations of its members who decide what is best for them by discussion. According to Beck, men and women now enter into the relationship on an equal basis and this means we are more likely to see joint conjugal roles in the future.
Beck points out that divorce has increased because of individualisation. Increased conflict emerging from increased choice and uncertainty has lead to chaotic relationships and a high divorce rate.

Question 20

Giddens-postmodernism

Answer 20

• Giddens argues that relationships in postmodern society have become ‘individualised’- basically people put themselves first in relationships and their partners second. Giddens argues that in postmodern society we are somewhat obsessed with ourselves and our own identities and relationships today have become part of each individuals process of self discovery- trying different relationships has become part of establishing who we are, rather about the relationship itself.
  Giddens characterises the typical relationships today as the “pure relationship”, it exists solely to meet the partners needs and is likely to continue only so long as it succeeds. An upside of this is that couples are now free to define the relationship themselves rather than acting out roles that have been defined by law or tradition. A downside is that there are now significantly higher rates of relationship breakdown and serial monogamy.
  Confluent love is a theory designed by Giddens which argues that individuals are now looking to create meaningful relationships based on love and respect. Giddens describes the most appropriate type of relationship in which fits in with a late modern society characterised by dual-careerism, near gender equality and the eroding of traditional norms of masculinity or femininity.
  Believes that divorce has increased as the nature of marriage and intimate relationships has changed. States that plastic sexuality has increased which means that sex is now for pleasure and not for conceiving children. Marriage is now based on confluent love (love which is dependent upon partners benefitting from the relationship). If the partners are not fulfilled by the relationship, couples will no longer stay together out of a sense of duty and therefore divorce will increase.

Question 21

Carol Smart- personal life

Answer 21

She rejects the assumptions of about the decline of family life that Giddens and Beck state. Instead, her approach focuses on the bonds between people, importance of cultural heritage, memory, significance of emotions. This means according to Smart, that families can include all types of relationships that individuals see as significant which gives them a sense of identity such as close friends and pets.

Question 22

Dennis- functionalist

Answer 22

believes that because the family performs fewer functions in modern society, the bonds between men and women are weaker which causes an increase in divorce. (increase in divorce)

Question 23

Goode functionalist

Answer 23

believes that conflict has increase in the family unit because the family has become more isolated from other kin, placing an increased burden on husbands and wives that have little support from other relatives. (increase in divorce)

Question 24

Allan and Crow- diversity

Answer 24

They argue that there is now far greater diversity in peoples domestic arrangements with each family cycle being different. Each person follows an unpredictable family course. They state that diversity is based on increased choice in which people are now more able to exercise choice and personal volition over domestic and familial arrangements. Allan and Crow identify the following demographic changes contributing to increased diversity:
1-The divorce rate has risen.
2-Lone parent households have risen (due to divorce and pregnancy)
3-Cohabitation outside of marriage is increasingly common
4-Marriage rates have declined
5- Increase in the number of step-families
Causes of single parenthood- Allan and Crow believe trat the increase in lone parenthood is due to two factors: an increase in divorce and the increase in births to unmarried mothers. Allan and Crow argue that the trend towards increasingly single parents reflects an increasingly acceptance of diversity and individual choice. There is less stigma about being a single parent compared to in the 1960s when single mothers were outcast in society.

Question 25

Beck-Gernsheim

Answer 25

She argues that relationships and family life are so diverse that there are no longer any clear norms about what a modern relationship should consist of. Beck-Gernsheim points out that people today call their relationships different things, with different labels and LATs have become increasingly common. She also argues that the increase of divorce and higher rates of breakdown has led to a rise of the patchwork family in which adults go through life with a series of different partners. She also argues that reproductive technologies have changed our ideas of family life altogether. Due to increasing individualisation, this has resulted in array of different relationships and family forms that it has now become impossible to define what the family should be anymore.

Question 26

Klinenberg- solo living

Answer 26

Spent several years interviewing 300 single Americans who lived alone and the general picture he got was that these people wanted to live alone, it was a life choice not a transitory phase. Klinenberg provides 4 reasons for the increase in solo living:
The wealth generated by economic growth and the social security provided by the modern welfare state reflects solo living. Rise of solo living is a reflection of increasing wealth. Secondly, the communications revolution. For those who want to live alone, the internet allows us to stay connected. Thirdly, mass urbanisation. Fourthly, increased longevity- because people are living longer and woman are outliving their spouses ageing alone has become an increasingly common experience.

Question 27

Ballard- South Asian families in Uk

Answer 27

Noted that most South Asian families had a much broader network of familial relations than a typical white-British family. He argued that one individual household may only a small part of a complex global network of kin-relations. Ballard argued that in order to understand South Asian family types you had to look at the ideal model of the family which was patriarchal, being based on tight control of women and stressed the importance of honour (no divorce, adultery etc)

Question 28

Bhatti

Answer 28

Ethnographic research on 50 Asian families: conducted 50 in depth interviews with 50 Asian families and found that most were keen to maintain links and bonds with relatives abroad and would return “back home” when they could afford it. Particular emphasis was put on the behaviour of daughters and most mothers also believed very strongly in the importance of the traditional motherhood role. Bhatti also found evidence of conflicts between younger and older generations (usually over marrying someone out of ethnic group)

Question 29

Chester- Neoconventional families

Answer 29

believed that the Rapoports were exaggerating the decline of the nuclear family, arguing that changes to family life were far less dramatic. He used the term Neo-conventional family to describe these changes. He pointed out that: most children were still raised by their two natural parents, most marriages continued until death and while cohabitation has increased, it was only a temporary stage before marriage. He argues that the conventional family has been replaced with the neo-conventional family in which is a dual earner in which both spouses go out to work (new norm-similar to the symmetrical family)

Question 30

Bott- segregated and joint conjugal roles

Answer 30

distinguished between two types of conjugal roles (roles within marriage) to emphasise that the domestic division was becoming more equal. Segregated roles involve a clear differentiation between the tasks undertaken by men and women, with each pursuing clearly defined and distinct activities. A joint relationship is where the differentiation or division of labour is much less clear and tasks, interests and activities are shared to a much greater degree.

Question 31

Catherine Hakim- rational choice theory

Answer 31

• Hakim argues that the ability for women to make rational choices about their lives has been underestimated. She argues that women often make rational choices around the “employment career” or the “marriage career” and that feminism may be guilty of devaluing the role of the mother/housewide as a seco

Question 32

Braun et al- interviews with w/c parents

Answer 32

: Found that 50% of the fathers were classified as ‘active fathers’ who were highly involved with parenting, 50% were classified as “background fathers” in which believed that childcare was the mothers responsibility. Throughout the sample there was a “provider ideology” as most of the men believed that their masculinity was tied up in being the main income earner.

Question 33

Kauffman- changing fatherhood

Answer 33

Kauffman argues that there are three different types of dad based on how they responded to the challenges of balancing work and family life.
Old dads- did not change anything when their child was born, preferring to emphasise their role as breadwinner
New dads- placed high priority on involvement and made some minor adjustments to their work practices
Superdads- actively adjusted their work lives to fit in with their family lives, changed careers, adopted more flexible hours. Saw spending time with their children paramount.
Kauffman noted in her research that it was much easier for m/c dads to become superdads.

Question 34

Sommerville- March of Progress

Answer 34

: This refers to the theory that domestic roles have become more equal-the idea that there is more similarity today between men and women’s roles in the family than in the past. Sommerville recognises that significant progress has been made in public and private life for women. This increased choice for women and the rise of the dual earner household has helped create gender equality within relationships.

Question 35

Beck- the Negotiated family

Answer 35

Beck argued that greater gender equality and greater individualism has lead to the negotiated family. Negotiated families do not conform to the traditional family norm but vary accordingly to the wishes and expectations of its members who decide what is best for them by discussion. According to Beck, men and women now enter into the relationship on an equal basis and this means we are more likely to see joint conjugal roles in the future.

Question 36

Duncombe and Marsden

Answer 36

Research reinforces earlier studies that revealed inequalities in power and domestic responsibilities. They add to this the finding that women believe they make the primary “emotional investment” in the family and marriage. Women experience a triple shift due to having to take the burden of men’s emotional work. Many of their female respondents complained that their husbands were indifferent to their role in holding their relationship together.

Question 37

Jane Pilcher- Childhood and separateness

Answer 37

notes that the most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness which is emphasised in many different ways:
1-Children are physically and psychologically immature compared to adults
2-Children are dependent on adults for a range of biological and emotional needs- children need a lengthy process of socialisation which takes several years.
3-in contrast to adults, children are not competent to run their own lives and cannot be held responsible for their actions.

Question 38

Prout and James (1997)

Answer 38

argue that there is a “dominant framework” through which we view children in modern western culture: common sense assumptions see childhood as a natural and inevitable phase of life which we all have to go through and children and adults are seen in different ways. In contrast to the period of childhood, one of the defining characteristics of adulthood is that adults are biologically mature, competent to run their own lives and are fully responsible for their actions.

Question 39

Aires and Childhood

Answer 39

He argues that in the Middle Ages “The idea of childhood did not exist”- children were not seen as essentially different to adults as they are today. For example, Aires uses the following evidence:
-Chronological age was not considered significant
-Children were expected to work at a much earlier age
-The law often made no distinction between children and adults
-Art often just depicted children as small adults- they wear the same clothes and appear to work and play together.
Aires argues it is only from the 13th century onwards that modern notions of childhood- the idea that childhood is a distinct phase of life from adulthood- begin to emerge. Aries believes that towards the end of the medieval period (1400s) modern conceptions of childhood began to emerge. He argues that the following social changes led to the way children were viewed:
1-Church leaders began to see children as “fragile creatures” that needed to be safeguarded and reformed
2-The introduction of schools in which separate age groups were taught and children were segregated from the adult world helped to introduce the idea of childhood as a distinct phase of life.
3-The increasing wealth of the upper and middle classes- wealthier people started to dress their children in distinct clothing as a mark of status, reinforcing the idea that children were separate.
Aries argues that these initial changes gradually led to society moving from one in which children were not seen as particularly significant to becoming more child-centred with the well-being of the child gradually seen as more and more important. Ultimately these developments culminated in what he calls a “cult of childhood”- we now live in a society in which we are obsessed with our children.

Question 40

Donzelot- childhood and poor families

Answer 40

Argued that poor families and their children are more likely to be controlled and regulated by the state. For example, they are more likely to be put on “at risk” registers.

Question 41

McRobbie- childhood

Answer 41

States that the experience of childhood for girls may differ from boys because parents see them as in need of greater protection from the outside world. This means they are subject to stricter social controls than their siblings and spend more time in the family home (bedroom culture)

Question 42

Pugh- Childhood

Answer 42

Argues that parents consume as compensation. Parents who are cash rich but time poor alleviate their guilt about not spending time with their children by buying whatever consumer goods that they want. This contributes to the extreme rates of children as consumers that we now see.

Question 43

stat for voluntary childlessness

Answer 43

The Family Policies Study centre found that in 2000 one in 5 women over 40 had not had children compared to 1 in 10 women in 1980- showing a significant increase in the amount of women choosing to not have children.