Marxist Explanations of the Role of the Family

Question 1

Main Argument

Answer 1

The family serves the needs of capitalism , not individuals.

Question 1

Key Thinkers

Answer 1

Engels
Zaretsky

Question 2

Engels

Answer 2

Family developed to ensure property inheritance; supports patriarchal control over women.

Question 3

Zaretsky

Answer 3

Family offers an illusion of a private life but ultimately supports capitalism.

Question 4

Functions of the Family (According to Marxists):

Answer 4

1. Inheritance of Property
2. Ideological Functions
3. Unit of Consumption

Question 5

Inheritance of Property

Answer 5

Maintains class inequality through private property.

Question 6

Ideological Functions

Answer 6

Socialises children into accepting hierarchy and authority (e.g. parental power reflects capitalist rule).

Question 7

Unit of Consumption

Answer 7

Families buy goods (toys, fashion, tech) and are targeted by capitalist advertising.

Question 8

Evaluation

Answer 8

✅ Highlights link between family and economy.

❌ Ignores family diversity, gender roles, and emotional aspects of family life.

❌ Feminists argue it underestimates patriarchy.

Question 9

Althusser (marxists and functionalists agree)

Answer 9

agree that the family is a key part of the socialisation process
- marxists believe that the family socialises the next gen into the ruling class ideology
- and unequal social hierarchy
- maintains capitalism by ensuring the next gen accepts the ruling ideology as normal

Question 10

Althusser and marxists

Answer 10

• marxists believe that the family socialises the next gen into the ruling class ideology
• and unequal social hierarchy
• maintains capitalism by ensuring the next gen accepts the ruling ideology as normal

Question 11

The traditional Marxist view on families is that

Answer 11

they perform a role not for everyone in society but for capitalism and the ruling class (the bourgeoisie).

Question 12

family keeps the wc in a state of ___ ____ _________

Answer 12

false class conciousness
- believing that if they can look after their family they are suceeding in life

Question 13

Freidrich Eingels

Answer 13

looked at the evolution of the family as a monogamous relationship to serve the needs of capitalism

Question 14

Louis Althusser

Answer 14

family acts as a form of ideological state apparatus, controlling the way that the w/c think in order to stop them from rebellion

Question 15

Arlie Hochschild

Answer 15

more contemporary
- looks at the commodification of the family
- and how alienation is spread from work to home

Question 16

Eli Zaretsky

Answer 16

• writings in the 1970’s
• thorough examination of how family serves the needs of capitalism

Question 17

Engels suggested that the …

Answer 17

advent of capitalism and specifically the ownership of property had changed the way in which the family unit operated

Question 18

Engels: prior to capitalism

Answer 18

There existed a promiscous horde with polygamous rels. between members of a society

Question 19

Engels: Why did the family unit evolve?

Answer 19

the family unit and monogamy evolved in response to the private ownership of property

Question 20

Engels: ownership of private property…

Answer 20

Land and property needed to be transfered from a father to his rightful heir, and with practices of polygamy this was not possible =
society –> monogamous rels.
(fathers certain that those who inherited their property were their bio. children)

Question 21

Engels: Patrilineal inheritance meant that…

Answer 21

Women’s sexuality was controlled, and became ‘glorified prostitutes’ - exchanging food and shelter for the production of ligitimate heirs to a man’s property

Question 22

Engels: link to women’s roles

Answer 22

• ‘glorified prostitutes’
• a man could only be certain that his heir was biologically his if his wife’s sexual nehaviour was controlled
  = monogamous rels. to protect themselves from claims on their property

Question 23

Engels” the need for legitimate heirs to pass on property led to…

Answer 23

the control of sexual behaviours and the development of monogamous rels.

Question 24

Feminist critics of Engels

Answer 24

Suggested that E sees the role of women and children as being influenced solely by economics - whereas they would argue that this was a form of patriarchal control over women's sexuality

Question 25

Evaluation of Engels

Answer 25

- little historical evidence of the 'promiscous horse' that E describes as pre-dating inheritance & monogamy - monogamous rels. do not stop people from commiting adultery - infidelity still exists and paternity is not certain despite monogamous marriages

Question 26

Althusser : focus

Answer 26

The ideological state apparatus (utilised by the ruling classes to ensure obedience and conformity of the w/c)

Question 27

Althusser: The ideological state apparatus controls the...

Answer 27

behaviours of the w/c through social institutions such as family

Question 28

How does the ideological state apparatus control family

Answer 28

- ideas on how to raise children and the norms & values expected of family life were passed down from ruling classes - as were the organization of the roles within the family - & the expectations of males and females in providing for their children

Question 29

ideological state aparattus and socialisation

Answer 29

ideological state aparatus (what is seen as norm) --> parents socialize their children into socially acceptable behaviours that were determined by those with power in society

Question 30

Elites suggest (Althusser)

Answer 30

The ways in which family life should be organised and this is passed through social institutions, eg family socialising children into acceptable behaviour

Question 31

Althusser: families policed through...

Answer 31

other agencies eg education, welfare, social services - children 'brought up properly'

Question 32

Evaluations of Althusser - form of data

Answer 32

- ideas not based on empirical data, theoretical basis (based on no researcg evidence)

Question 33

Evaluations of Althusser - subcultures

Answer 33

extent to which families are influenced to raise their children by the behaviour of the elites - some socs argue that cultural values are stronger within lower social classes - subcultural values stronger than example set by elites

Question 33

Evaluations of Althusser - deterministic

Answer 33

- ignores the meanings that people assign to their own actions - contemporary soc, many parents make value judgements on the raising of their children based upon their values rather than those of wider soc

Question 34

Zaretsky (1976)

Answer 34

argued that family life gave proletarian men something they could control and a space where they could be the “boss”

Question 35

Zaretsky : how did the family cteate a clear function for capitalism

Answer 35

because it meant that workers would tolerate the powerlessness and frustration of being exploited at work because they had this private domain where they were “king of the castle” and could take out their stress and frustrations.

Question 36

Zaretsky's theories ties in with

Answer 36

Fran Ansley’s Marxist-feminist perspective of women being the “takers of shit”.

Question 37

Marxists see families as essentially a

Answer 37

- conservative institution that helps to preserve capitalism - They also weaken the position of individual workers in relation to the boss

Question 38

Family and strikes

Answer 38

- If a worker thinks they are not being paid enough/ treated badly - a single person could choose to walk away / join with other workers and go on strike and temporarily do without pay by way of a protest to push for better pay or conditions. - But when that worker has to also take dependents into account (e.g. a spouse and children) that becomes a much more difficult decision. - This weakness benefits the boss.

Question 39

Evaluation of Zarestky's theory

Answer 39

- clearly outdated - assumes the worker is male and that there is only one worker in the family - ignores the other benefits that all family members may get from family life: the emotional support, comfort and generally the positive benefits.

Question 40

Hochschild

Answer 40

family life has become commodified in the 21st century - rels now being translated as a series of transactions that have values to individuals

Question 41

Hochschild - relations more like ...

Answer 41

connections in the 21st century , have become transactions - connections severed if it is less likely to impact positively on somebody's self worth

Question 42

Hochschild - alienation

Answer 42

occurs not only in work, but at home with a separation of the emotional burden of caring for children and others in family - how dissatiosfaction with living in a cap. soc. can no longer be soothed by the family unit = emo struggles between family members