Sociological Theories of the Family (2) Flashcards
(81 cards)
1
Q
What were sociological theorists ideas about?
A
Sociological theories are ideas about how to understand and explain the relationship between individuals, social institutions (such as the family) and society. There are two approaches to understanding this relationship: structure and social action.
2
Q
What is meant by the theory structuralism?
A
Society shapes the individual. ~Individuals are like puppets. ~Our behaviour is determined by society we live in. ~Macro approach. ~Positivists. ~Quantitative research. ~Marxism, functionalism and feminism.
3
Q
What is meant by the theory social action?
A
Individuals create society through actions. ~Individuals have free will and choice. ~Micro approach. ~Interpretivists. ~Qualitative research. ~Interactionism. ~Postmodernism.
4
Q
How does the structural view see us?
A
The structural view sees society as shaping the individual.
The structural view sees us as entirely shaped by the structure of society (the way society is organised or set up). It sees us as behaving according to society’s norms and expectations which we internalise through the socialisation process.
In this view, society determines our behaviour - we are like puppets on a string, manipulated by society. This is sometimes described as a ‘macro’ (large scale) approach because it focuses on how wider society influences us. The emphasis is firmly on the power of society to shape us.
5
Q
How does social action view see us?
A
The social action view sees individuals as having choice, creating social reality through their interactions.
The social action view sees us as having free-will and choice. It emphasises the power of individuals to create society through their actions and interactions. This is sometimes described as a micro approach because it focuses on small scale face-to-face interactions between individuals.
6
Q
How do functionalists sociologists see society?
A
Functionalists see society as based on value consensus, with interdependence parts performing functions for the good of the whole.
Functionalist sociologists see society as based on value consensus; that is, harmony and agreement among its members about basic values. According to Functionalists, society is held together by a shared culture into which all its members are socialised. Sharing the same culture integrates individuals into society by giving them a sense of solidarity or ‘fellow feeling’ with others. It enables members of society to agree on goals and how to achieve them and so allows them to co-operate harmoniously.
7
Q
How do Marxists sociologists see society?
A
Marxists see society as based on class conflict, in which the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat. Marxist sociologists see society as based on conflict, not consensus. They argue that society is divided into two social classes: ~The minority capitalist class, or bourgeoisie, own the means of production (ways to produce goods to buy and sell) such as the factories, raw materials and land. ~The majority working-class or proletariat own nothing but their labour, which they have to sell to the bourgeoisie in order to survive. The bourgeoisie exploit the workers and profit from the labour. This exploitation breeds class conflict.
8
Q
How do feminist sociologists view society?
A
Feminists see society as patriarchal or male dominated. Feminist sociologists agree with Marxist that there are fundamental divisions and conflict in society, but they see gender rather than class as the most important division. This creates conflict between men and women; for example, in the family women are said to do most of the housework and childcare.
9
Q
How do the postmodernists view society?
A
Postmodernists believe we have moved to a more fragmented society in which there are diverse sources of identity.
10
Q
What is the perspective of functionalism?
A
A consensus perspective.
11
Q
What is the perspective of the new right?
A
The family is breaking down perspective.
12
Q
What is the perspective of Marxism?
A
A class conflict perspective.
13
Q
What is the feminism perspective?
A
A gender conflict perspective.
14
Q
What is the perspective of social action?
A
The personal life perspective.
15
Q
What is the perspective of postmodernism?
A
A choice and diversity perspective.
16
Q
What is the functionalist theory?
A
Structural - individuals are shaped by society.
Consensus - society is based on value consensus (a set of shared norms and values) into which society socialises its members.
Macro - large scale; society controls individuals through BIG institutions like the family and education; all parts of society are linked.
17
Q
How do functionalists regard society?
A
A system or structure of inter-related parts (different parts that depend on each other such as the family and the economy).
A living organisms (the organic analogy) like the human body - where all parts are dependent on each other for the well-being of the whole.
18
Q
What are the functionalist theories of the family?
A
The family is a vital ‘organ’ in maintaining the ‘body’ of society, just as the heart is an important organ in maintaining the human body (the ‘organic analogy’). According to functionalists, the family has a number of responsibilities placed upon it - these are the functions it performs in society.
19
Q
What are the three key functions fulfilled by the family according to functionalists?
A
- Preparation of children to fit into adult society.
- Enabling society to survive - the family is a ‘functional prerequisite’ (basic needs) of all societies.
- Fitting with other social institutions (like education of the economy) so that society can function efficiently and harmoniously.
20
Q
Who are the functionalist that studied into the role of the family in society?
A
Murdock (1949)
Parsons (1955)
21
Q
What did Murdock believe about the family in regards to society? (Functionalist)
A
The family is a basic building blocks of society. It performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members:
1. Sexual - regulation and the stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner, preventing the social disruption caused by a sexual ‘free-for-all’.
2. Reproduction - of the next generation, without which society could not continue.
3. Socialisation - of the young into society’s shared norms and values.
4. Economic - providing family members with necessities such as food, clothing, warmth and shelter.
The family lives together, works together pools resources, shares domestic tasks and income and reproduce - they have children (own or adopted) and are heterosexual married adults as it is socially approved.
22
Q
What are the arguments against Murdock?
A
- The Nayar - of south west India, before the 19th century there was no nuclear family. A woman could have sexual relations with any man she wished (up to a maximum of twelve) and the biological father of children was therefore uncertain. The mother’s brother, rather than the biological father, was responsible for looking after the mother and her children. Unlike many British families where most biological parents live together, marry or are responsible for rearing their children, amount the Nayar there was no direct link between having sexual relations, child-bearing, child-rearing and co-habitation.
- Conflict and exploitation - feminists see the family as meeting the needs of men not women and children, whereas Marxists argue that its functions for the needs of a capitalist economy, not those of family members or society as a whole.
- Outdated and irrelevant to an understanding of family and households in 21st century.
23
Q
What did Parson (1955) believe about the family in regards to society? (Functionalist)
A
Functional fit
1. Adaptation - Parsons argues that the role of the family (its function) depends on the kind if society in which it is found. E.g. if a society’s economy changes, the family are required to adapt accordingly. So, the functions the family has to perform for the economic need of society will affect its ‘shape’ or structure.
2. Industrialisation - when societies change from a pre-industrial to an industrialised one, Parsons argues that the family structure changes from a functional, extended to a function, ‘isolated’, nuclear structure. During the economic changes produced by the Industrial Revolution in England (1750-1889), a geographically and socially mobile family unit was required to enable workers to move off the land, away from farming and into factories and mass production. The emerging nuclear family FITTED the needs of the new economy. People needs to move to where jobs are and it’s easier to do this few rather than more family members.
3. Achieved status - industrialisation also requires individuals to achieve their status as individuals not as members of an ascribed family unit. In addition, children may achieve higher status at work than their parents which could result in family conflict; the modern, “structurally isolated” (from extended kin) nuclear family avoids such conflict and tension.
Parsons’ conclusion - the nuclear family is uniquely suited to the needs of industrial society.
24
Q
What are the three parts of Parsons (1955) functional fit?
A
Adaptation
Industrialisation
Achieved status
25
What does Parsons (1955) say are the two essential functions of the nuclear family?
Parsons identified two specialised or “irreducible functions of the modern nuclear family” which were:
1. Primary socialisation of children - to equip them with the basic skills and society’s values, to enable them to cooperate with others and begin to integrate them into society.
2. Stabilisation of adult personalities (warm bath theory/SOAP!) - The family is the place where adults can relax and release tensions, enabling them to return to the workplace refreshed and ready to meet its demands. Marital partners provide each other with emotional support and patenting enables them to indulge the ‘childish side’ of their personalities - e.g. by playing with their children.
26
What are the arguments against Parsons?
1. Has the family lost all its other function? - functionalists like Fletcher argue that far from losing its functions, the functions of the family have increased. For example, he argues that the family has more responsibilities for children as childhood has ‘extended’; and more responsibilities for the emotional needs of adults as the higher expectations of marriage and romantic love place more demands on the family to provide for satisfying and fulfilling relationships. He argues that the family still has health, education and economic functions in a modern society.
2. Was the extended family dominant in pre-industrial society? - Willmott and Young stated the pre-industrial family was nuclear, not extended as Parsons claims, with children and parents working together. Similarly, Laslett’s study of English households before the industry revolution (from parish records) found that they were almost always nuclear. A combination of high infant mortality rates and low life expectancy meat that few grandparents were alive - two generations was the norm.
3. Did the family become nuclear during industrialisation? - according to Willmott and Young, the hardship of industrialisation intensified some of the relationships within the extended family, especially the between mothers and daughters who relied on each other foe financial, practical and emotional support. Similarly, Anderson’s study of the 1851 census showed far from disappearing during industrialisation, the extended family was strengthened by the increased dependency of extended kin on one another to cope with the conditions of industrialisation such as poverty, sickness and the need to find paid work.
27
What is the New Right theory?
Political - often referred to as ‘political functionalism’ or neo-functionalism. Like functionalists, the new right argues there is only one ‘proper’ or ‘normal’ family type - the traditional nuclear family.
Conservative - committed to traditional values.
Anti-society - the ‘nanny state’; people are individuals and must stand on their own two feet rather than depend on the welfare state.
Highly influential- it has had a profound impact on the social, political, economical and cultural life of the UK since 1979.
28
How do the New Right regard society?
```
Over regulated - individuals must be responsible for themselves, ‘free’ from state intervention.
Requiring free markets (limited state control of economy) to run efficiently and encourage individuals to be self-reliant; public sector (e.g. NHS) should be privatised to drive up standards and efficiency.
Breaking down due to a lack of respect for traditional values and moral order, especially the irresponsible, “feral” underclass and fatherless families.
```
29
What are the New Right theories of the family?
The nuclear family performs important and beneficial functions in securing social stability, through providing emotional security for children, socialising them into the culture of society and establishing respect for and conformity to social and moral values and norms.
Like functionalists, the New Right see the traditional heterosexual nuclear family, with two natural parents and a traditional division of gender roles in the family, with men playing the instrumental roles as authority figures and providers and women playing the expressive roles of providing affection and nurture as the best (and natural) means of bringing up children to become conformist, responsible adults.
For the New Right, it is vital for society that the nuclear family should remain the dominant family type. This traditional family is under threat, according to the New Right, from social changes like feminism, the rising divorce rate, more stepfamilies, more lone parents, and cohabitation as an alternative to the commitment of marriage, birth outside marriage, gay marriage and welfare state policies that support relationships outside the conventional nuclear family.
30
What are key names and concepts of New Right?
Murray and Marsland - dependency culture, underclass, single parent families, moral decay, decline of the family.
Dennis and Erdos - fatherless families.
31
What is the difference between the New Right and functionalism?
Functionalism describes how things are and the New Right identifies policies and actions about a situation - what we want to do.
32
What does Murray (1984) argue about families in society? (New Right)
Murray argues that welfare benefits should be abolished as it would reduce the dependency culture that encourage births outside of marriage.
He sees the growth of single parent families (SPF’s) as dysfunctional - harmful to society and individuals. SPF’s are the result of an over-generous welfare state that provides benefits for unmarried mothers and their children. This over-generous benefits system has created a dependency culture and an underclass of people who assume the state will support them and their children - ‘Benefits Britain’.
These benefits have created a ‘perverse incentive’, rewarding irresponsible behaviour such as having children without being able to provide for them.
33
What do Dennis and Erdos (1992) argue about families in society and what did they find in their research? (New RIght)
They argued that single parent families produce boys/men who are irresponsible, un-disciplined and anti-social. They call on the government to introduce social policies which incentivise nuclear families and discourages single parent families.
They conducted research in the 1980s on single parent families and argues that their increase had led to a decline in the role of the father in families as 90% of SPFs are headed by women. This was bad for society as it discourages men from taking responsibility for the family and their children.
Their research showed that the children of single parent families experience poorer life changes and that boys are especially adversely affected due to lack of a positive male role model in the socialisation process.
34
What are the argument against the New Right?
- A lack of affordable childcare prevents lone parents from working (60% are unemployed).
- Conflict theorists argue that welfare benefits are inadequate and trap families into poverty and dependency. Children of SPFs experience poorer life chances due to poverty rather than SPFs being ‘inherently bad’.
- ‘Fatherless families’ do not mean a total lack of male role models for boys e.g. uncles, brothers, teachers, granddads; or indeed no contact with fathers - children of divorces families today are increasingly co-patented.
- Are fathers always beneficial for families e.g. dark-side?
- Feminists argue that the New Right reflects patriarchal ideology.
- SPFs status tends to be temporary since most become step families (75% of divorcees remarry).
35
What are the strengths of the New Right?
+It is credible and believable.
+There is a clear link between theory and social policy.
+Highlights the role of individual responsibility.
36
What are the weaknesses of the New Right?
- Marxist argue that New Right policies generate inequality, the free market would cause the rich to get richer.
- Feminists argue the stress on traditional family values is a step backwards for society - a return to patriarchal values and oppression.
- It ‘individualises’ poverty, blaming the poor for circumstances beyond their control.
37
What is the Marxist theory?
Structural - individuals are controlled by capitalist society.
Conflict - society is divided by two, unequal social classes.
Macro - large scale.
38
How do Marxists regard society?
```
Capitalist - motivated by profit rather than need.
Divided unequally between the capitalists (bourgeoisie) who own the factories and land and the workers (proletariat) who own nothing but their labour (ability to work/do a job) which they must sell to the capitalist class in order to survive.
Determined (controlled) by the economic base/infrastructure (e.g. capitalism) and the non-economic/ideological superstructure (such as families or education).
Containing the seeds of its own destruction - the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class produces class conflict, class struggle and a need for workers to overthrow (get rid of) capitalism and replace it with communism - a classless and therefore entirely equal society.
Revolutionary - from capitalism (class divisions) to communism (classless).
```
39
What are the Marxist theories of the family?
Marxist do not regard the nuclear as a functionally necessary (and therefore universal) institution (unlike functionalist). Marxists see the family within the framework of a capitalist society, which is based on private property, driven by profit and riddled with conflict between social classes opposing interests.
40
What do Marxists believe the main functions of the nuclear family in a capitalist society is?
```
~Socially control its members by teaching children to submit to the capitalist, ruling class.
~Reproduce unequal class relationships e.g. via ruling class family networks.
~Dampen down inevitable social conflict e.g. by discouraging workers from losing wages by going on strike.
~The family is a core market for the consumption of the commodities (goods and services) produced by capitalist companies and is therefore a key source of its profits. - Ads are targeted at families, encouraging them to ‘keep up with the Joneses’. The media target children who use ‘pester power’ to persuade parents to spend more. Children who lack the latest fashion or ‘must have’ gadgets are mocked and stigmatised by their peers. The need to financially support family members also discourages a proletariat revolution - since workers are too busy earning the money needed for their families to survive.
```
41
What did Engels (1884) believe about the family? (Marxist)
Inheritance of property.
Engels, along with other traditional Marxists, believe that the monogamous nuclear family developed as a means of passing on private property to heirs. The family, coupled with monogamy, was an ideal mechanism as it provided proof of paternity (who the father was) and so property could be passed on to the right people.
Women’s position in this monogamous nuclear family was not much different from that of prostitutes in that a financial deal was struck - she provided sex and heirs in return for the economic security her husband offered.
Women can only achieve liberation (freedom) from patriarchal control with the overthrow of capitalism. A classless society with no private property will no longer require a monogamous, patriarchal nuclear family.
42
What are the arguments against Engels (1884)?
- Old fashioned and outdated view - the idea that men marry and have children to pass on property ignores other reasons for getting married or having children. Many women now work, own property in their own right, have independent incomes and are less likely to marry for economic security or social necessity.
- Perhaps monogamous family also benefits women - know who the father of their children is and can demand support.
- How common is the patriarchal (traditional) nuclear family today?
- Main pattern of marriage seems to be serial rather than fixed monogamy.
43
What does Zaretsky (1976) believe about the family? (Marxist)
Unit of consumption and safe haven.
Zaretsky emphasises the ideological and economic roles of the family in propping up capitalism:
1. Primary socialisation and parental power over children, especially paternal power (‘age-patriarchy’) gets children used to the idea that there is always ‘someone in charge’. This prepares children for a working life in a capitalist society in which they will accept orders from their capitalists employers.
2. The illusion of a haven (‘buffer zone’) from the harsh exploitation workers experience at work. At home, family members can ‘be themselves’ and have a ‘private life’ away from the alienation of capitalism.
3. Unit of consumption - in addition, families play a major role in generating profits for capitalists because they are in important market for the sale of consumer goods. Marxists argue that capitalism exploits the labour of workers, making a profit by selling the products of their labour back to them for more than it pays workers to produce these commodities e.g.
~Adverts urge families to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ to consume all the latest products.
~The media target children, who use ‘pester power’ to persuade parents to spend more.
~Children who lack the latest fashion or ‘must have’ gadgets are mocked and stigmatised by their peers
44
What are the arguments against Zaretsky (1976)?
- Are families so easily ‘brainwashed’ into a false consciousness? Children resist parental authority and not all families are materialistic (concerned with consumption of goods).
- Theory depends on the existence of the nuclear family which ignores the increasing diversity of family structures, roles and relationship in society today.
45
What does Althusser (1971) believe about the family? (Marxist)
```
Ideological state apparatus (ISA).
Althusser argues that in order of capitalism to survive, the working class must submit to the ruling class or bourgeoisie. He suggested that the family is one of the ideological state apparatuses (along with others such as education and the media) which are concerned with social control and passing on the ideology (ideas and beliefs) of the ruling class.
Through socialisation into this ideology in the family, the ruling class tries to maintain false class consciousness by winning the hearts and minds of the working class into accepting capitalism as a fair and just system:
~As part of the superstructure of society, the family has an ideological function to reflect and reinforce the economic needs of the capitalist infrastructure.
~Society’s superstructure is controlled by the bourgeoisie and used to create values, attitudes, beliefs and practices which support the ruling class (false class consciousness).
```
46
What are the arguments against Althusser (1971)?
-Donzelot argues that state apparatus used to control families is much more direct and repressive than ideological.
47
What does Donzelot (1977) believe about the family? (Marxist)
Although not a Marxist, Donzelot is interested in how the state controls working class families. Unlike Althusser, who argues that state control of families is ideological (and therefore indirect), Donzelot identifies state policies and professional associated with the state (doctors, social working, teachers, health visitors and so on) as policing families directly in order to control and change them. Poor families in particular are likely to be targeted by professional since they are identified as the cause of crime and anti-social behaviour. Such families are seen by the state as ‘problem families’ requiring ‘improvement’.
48
What are the arguments against Donzelot (1977)?
-Marxist and feminists criticise Donzelot for failing to identify clearly who benefit from policing the family - why are poor families particular targeted? Marxists argue that family policies and professionals generally operate in the interests of capitalism, while feminists argue that men are the main beneficiaries.
49
What are the criticisms of Marxism and the family?
- Engels: old-fashioned view that men marry/have children to pass on property ignores other reasons for getting married.
- Feminists say the family mainly benefits men rather than capitalism.
- Functionalists say Marxists ignore the benefits that the family gives to its members.
- The focus is no the nuclear family - this ignores diversity (postmodernists).
50
What is the Feminist theory?
Structural - individuals are controlled by patriarchal society.
Conflict - between men and women due to gender divisions.
Macro - large scale.
Divided - there are four main types of feminism with different views as to the causes of and solutions for gender inequality: Liberal Feminism, Marxist Feminism, Radical Feminism and Difference Feminism.
51
How do feminists regard society?
Patriarchal - dominated by and beneficial to men.
Unequal - men tend to have more status, power and wealth/income than women.
Gendered - divided and differentiated by gender (socially constructed differences between boys and girls, men and women).
52
What are the feminist theories of the family?
Feminists approaches have probably had more influence on the study of the family than any other perspective and they have been very important in introducing new areas into the study of the family, such as housework and its contribution to the economy; domestic violence; the negative impact of family life on women's careers in paid employment; and the continuing inequality between men and women in the home.
F eminists argue that the family and marriage are major sources of female oppression and gender inequalities in society.
53
What are the key names and concepts in Feminist theory?
```
Ansley - women as 'takers of shit'.
Oakley - housework/housewife role.
Dobash and Dobash - violence against wives.
Somerville - march of progress.
Greer - matrilocal families.
Dunne - lesbian couples/gender scripts.
```
54
What does Ansley (1972) believe about the family? (Feminist)
Women as 'takers of shit'.
Ansley translates Parson's view that the family functions to stabilise adult personalities into a Marxist-feminist framework. She argues that the emotional support provided by the wife acts as a 'safety value' for frustration produced in the husband by working in a capitalist system. Rather than being turned against the system which produced it, this frustration is absorbed by the comforting wife. In this way the system is not threatened.
"When wives play their traditional role as takers of shit, they absorb their husbands' legitimate anger and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression. With every worker provided with a sponge to soak up his possibly revolutionary ire, the bosses rest more secure."
55
What are the arguments against Ansley (1972)?
Outdated view of heterosexual relationships in the family? Most women are also in paid work; what happens to their frustration?
56
What does Oakley (1974) believe about the family? (Feminist)
Housework/housewife role.
Oakley argues that industrialisation led to the separation of pain work from the home. Women were gradually excluded from the workplace and confined to the home with sole responsibility for housework and childcare while men became the sole breadwinners. This enforces women's subordination and economic dependence on men. The housewife role was socially constructed and not women's biological role as parson's claims.
Women who work are concentrated in low-paid jobs that are an extension of the housework role such as nursing, secretarial work or childcare.
57
What are the arguments against Oakley?
- Women are no longer economically dependent on men and are rarely 'just housework'. Women tend to prioritise their education and careers before considering marriage and family (Sue Sharpe - Research Methods/Education).
- Dunne (1999) constructed research on lesbian couples and found that their relationships differed considerably to heterosexual couples. Lesbian couples were able to 'create' more equal relationships because household tasks were not linked to 'gender scripts' (the expectations or norms that set out the different gender roles men and women in heterosexual couples are expected to play). This suggests: that an unequal domestic division of labour is not an inevitable outcome of industrialisation or capitalism. Also that families and households and women's experiences within them are highly varied and different.
58
What does Dobash and Dobash (1979) believe about the family? (Feminist)
Violence against wives.
Dobash and Dobash argue that patriarchal, heterosexual marriage legitimates (justifies) violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and economic dependency on wives. Their research (based on police and court records and interviews with women in women's refuges) found that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority such as his wife asking him why he was late home for a meal.
Unlike Ansley, who identifies Capitalism as the cause of domestic violence, Dobash and Dobash argue it is patriarchy (a male dominated society) which both encourages violence against wives and depends on it.
59
What are the arguments against Dobash and Dobash (1979)?
-Heterosexual married women are not the only victims of domestic violence. The dark side of the family occurs in same-sex relationships, between siblings and against husbands/boyfriends.
60
What does Somerville (2000) believe about the family? (Feminist)
March of progress.
Somerville suggests reform (especially family policy) rather than revolution is a more realistic approach to improving the position of women in society and the family. She argues that increasing choice and the growth of dual-worker families have created equality within marriage. She argues that policies to help parents such as increasing flexibility in paid employment will progress society towards more egalitarian relationships.
61
What are the arguments against Someville (2000)?
-Social reform will not necessarily deal with the persistence of patriarchal structures and a patriarchal culture in contemporary family life.
62
What does Greer (2000) believe about the family? (Feminist)
Matrilocal families.
Greer argues that family life continues to disadvantage and oppress women. She maintains that there remains a strong patriarchal ideology suggesting that being a wife is still seen as the most important female role where wives are expected to be subservient to their husbands. all this is a 'con', she argues, because it is men who need marriage more. Married men score much higher on all measures of psychological well-being than unmarried men, whereas single women tend to be more content than married women.
For Greer, family instability is a positive development because it shows that women are becoming less wiling to accept unsatisfactory relationships. Furthermore, Greer argues that, given the 'dismal prospects' for women within patriarchal families, the best bet for women is segregation. She concluded that women do not need to disassociate themselves from men completely, but they would benefit from living in matrifocal households where all the adults are female.
63
What are the arguments against Greer (2000)?
- This is an impractical and unrealistic solution which presents women as 'victims' who continue to accept their 'humiliation' by men in conventional families.
- Outdated? - has it changed much from then to now?
64
What are the four types of feminism?
Liberal
Marxist
Radical
Difference
65
What is the cause of gender inequality according to Liberal Feminists?
Gender role socialisation and sex discrimination in society.
66
What is the solution to achieve gender equality according to Liberal Feminists?
Gender neutral socialisation.
| Policies and laws which prevent discrimination.
67
What is the contribution to an understanding of the family according to Liberal Feminists?
Gender differences affects boys too.
| Optimistic view - offers hope for change through reform and social policy.
68
What are the strengths and limitations of Liberal Feminists?
+Men do not always benefit from patriarchy e.g. paternity 'rights'.
-Laws so not always produce a 'march of progress' e.g. unequal pay, dual burden, triple shift.
69
What is the cause of gender inequality according to Marxist Feminists?
Capitalist-patriarchy.
70
What is the solution to achieve gender equality according to Marxist Feminists?
Communism.
71
What is the contribution to an understanding of the family according to Marxist Feminists?
Family as unit of production (housewife role creates economic value/profit for capitalists).
72
What are the strengths and limitations of Marxist Feminists?
+Women have dual burden and triple shift.
| -Assumes monogamous, heterosexual nuclear family as norm.
73
What is the cause of gender inequality according to Radical Feminists?
Patriarchy.
74
What is the solution to achieve gender equality according to Radical Feminists?
Overthrow of patriarchy; removal of gender differences and divisions.
75
What is the contribution to an understanding of the family according to Radical Feminists?
Dark side of the family - systematic rape, violence, murder, and abuse of women and children carried out within family by men (usually).
76
What are the strengths and limitations of Radical Feminists?
+Crime statistics support dark side theory.
| -Ignores violence and abuse carried out by women against men and women; offers little hope for change/progress.
77
What is the cause of gender inequality according to Difference Feminists?
Racism, heterosexism.
78
What is the solution to achieve gender equality according to Difference Feminists?
Choice and diversity; human rights.
79
What is the contribution to an understanding of the family according to Difference Feminists?
More contemporary (influenced by postmodernism); cannot generalise about women's experiences in the family; other feminists are biased towards white, m/c western experience.
80
What are the strengths and limitations of Difference Feminists?
+Recognises important differences in women's experiences of the family.
-Emphasis on differences may overlook what women have in common.
81
Did it change
I don’t j is
