Sociology

Front 1

Different types of households:

Back 1

The Nayar:

- South west India

- before 19th century no nuclear family
- a woman could have sexual relations with any man she wished to
- among the Nayar no direct link between having sexual relations and chid rearing

Front 2

Different types of households:

Back 2

Communes:

- developed in Western Europe, Britain and US since 1960's
- alternative style of household often developed
- focus on collective living
- adults and children all live and work together
- children seen as the responsibilities of everyone

Front 3

Different types of households:

Back 3

The Kibbutz:

- childbearing separated as possible from marriage relations
-children kept apart from natural parents
- children would move through a series of childrens houses of children of the same age group until they reached adulthood.

Front 4

Different types of households:

Back 4

Lone Parent Families:
- increasingly common in western families

- usually headed by woman

- represent a clear alternative to the conventional nuclear family

Front 5

Different types of households:

Back 5

Gay and Lesbian Families:

- becoming more common
- most with children tend to be lesbian couples
- adopt
- Civil Partnership Act 2004 gave legal recognition to the relationships

Front 6

Different types of households:

Back 6

Foster Care and Children's Homes:

- 'looked after' by local authorities
- bought up by foster parents
- can happen that parents and children are separated.

Front 7

Functionalist Perspective on the Family:

Back 7

Murdock 1949: flour functions of the family-
- sexual; expressing sexuality in a socially approved context.
- reproduction; family providing some stability for the reproduction and rearing children. Primary socialization.

- economic; family provides food and shelter for family members.

Front 8

Functionalist Perspective on the Family:

Back 8

Parsons (1951): sees primary socialization as involving the learning and internalization of society's culture.
- society would cease to exist if the new generation were not socialized into accepting society's basic norms and values.
- people are moulded in terms of central values
- families are factories producing human personalities.

Front 9

Functionalist Perspective on the Family:

Back 9

Stabilization of human personalities:
- Parsons suggests the family helps stabilize personalities by the sexual division of labour.
- Expressive role; (women) providing warmth, security and emotional support to their children and male partner. Male partner carries out instrumental roles.

Front 10

Functionalist Perspective on the Family:

Back 10

Parsons, Young and Wilmott (1973)- suggest the classic extended family largely disappeared in modern family, main family is structurally isolated - privatised nuclear family or some form of modified extended family.

Front 11

Functionalist Perspective on the Family:

Back 11

1. Need for geographical mobility, contemporary society has a specialized division Labour.

2. The higher rate of social mobility in contemporary societies.

3. The growth in peoples wealth and income as society has got richer and the welfare state has developed.

4. The growth in meritocracy in contemporary societies.

5. The need to avoid the possibility of economic and status differences in an extended family unit causing conflict and family instability.

Front 12

The changing functions of the Family:

Back 12

Changing functions of Family:
- many functions have been removed from the family
- transferred to more specialized institutions
- Parsons- structural differentiation. Only 2 basic functions left; primary socialization of children and stabilization of adult personalities.

Front 13

Evaluation of Functions of the Family:

Back 13

1. Downplay conflict- Murdock and Parsons ignore the 'darker side' of family life, such as violence against women and child abuse.

2. Being out of date - 'instrumental' and 'expressive' roles of men and women is very old fashioned.
3. Ignoring exploitation of women - functionalists ignore the way women suffer from the sexual division of labour in the family, 'triple shift'.

Front 14

The New Right perspective of the Family:

Back 14

Nuclear family and kinship network as performing important and beneficial in securing social stability.
Like functionalists they see traditional hetero sexual nuclear as the best means of bringing up family
approve traditional gender roles.

Front 15

The New Right perspective of the Family:

Back 15

Traditional life under threat from social changes, like rising divorce rate etc
- undermine social stability.
- point to rising lack of respect and anti social behaviour among young people.
* Argue working mothers put the needs of their career before the needs of their children.

Front 16

The New Right perspective of the Family:

Back 16

Murray and Marsland: argue that the welfare state has undermined personal responsibilities, dislike welfare support as creates dependency culture and work shy underclass.

Front 17

Evaluation of New Right approach:

Back 17

Same as Functionalists.

Front 18

The Marxist Perspective on the Family:

Back 18

Family as an agency of social control:
- structural perspective
- family contribute to the maintenance of society's structure.
- within a framework of a capitalist society.
- Engels; monogamous nuclear family developed as a means of passing on private property to heirs.
- Monogamy; ideal mechanism provided proof of paternity.

Front 19

The Marxist Perspective on the Family:

Back 19

Zaretsky (1976)- Emphasizes this ideological role of the family in propping up capitalism. Escape route from oppression and exploitation at work- a private place where male workers can enjoy being valued as individuals.

Front 20

Criticisms of the Marxist Perspective:

Back 20

-Old fashioned
- ignores other reasons for forming families.
- now less of social necessity.

Front 21

The Family, social control and Surveillance:

Back 21

Foucault (1991)- developed the concept of surveillance, the state keeping an eye you.

Front 22

Feminist Perspectives on the Family:

Back 22

Emphasize the harmful effects of family life upon women, role of family in continuing oppression of women.
Family is a major source of continuing gender inequalities.

Front 23

Feminist Perspectives on the Family:

Back 23

The family is a place of work; housework is work- something which is rarely recognized. Men are often the ones who gain from this as they come home to clean houses and cooked meals. Oakley (1974) housework is hard, routine and unrewarding.

"myth of symmetrical family"- feminist attack idea of growing equality between partners in the family.

Front 24

Feminist Perspectives on the Family:

Back 24

Feminist argues that women still predominantly perform most housework and childcare tasks, ensure other family members are properly fed, are less likely to make important decisions in the family.
- greater dependence of women on men's earnings, average women's pay 85% of men's.
- Domestic violence, women are far more likely to be the victims of serious domestic violence.

Front 25

Liberal Feminist Perspective on the Family:

Back 25

They believe the best way to improve position of women in the family and society is through reform measures.
- changing stereotyping and parenting practices; avoid gender stereotyping which steers women into typically domestic roles.

- establishing and asserting the legal rights of women as individuals.

Front 26

Liberal Feminist Perspective on the Family:

Back 26

- Establishment of equality in maternity and paternity leave.
- Better and cheaper childcare to allow women and men to combine child care with successful careers.
- more sharing of housework and childcare tasks with men.

- stronger action against domestic violence.

Front 27

Radical Feminist Perspective on the Family:

Back 27

- focus on the problem of patriarchy in society and in the family are the main obstacles to women's equality.
- family allows men to exercise their patriarchal power over women, sometimes backed up with physical and sexual violence.
- solution is to reject the family and family life, and in many cases reject relationships with men altogether.

Front 28

Marxist Feminist Perspective on the Family:

Back 28

- focus on the way women are doubly exploited, in ways to benefit capitalism.
- social reproduction of labour power; provides a place where children are raised with security and a place where they can feel refreshed from capitalist drains, producing and maintaining free labour, socializing children into the dominant ideas of society.
- social control of the working class; family act as safety vale 'zaretsky'.

Front 29

Criticisms of the Marxist and Radical Feminist perspective on the Family:

Back 29

- women's roles are not the same in all families, many families now consist of dual-worker couples.
- This view assumes women's are passive victim sin society. Hakim (2011), inequality and what is treated as self decision is proof of widespread sex discrimination.
- more women are working and have independent incomes.

Front 30

Postmodernism and the Family:

Back 30

Lyotard and Baudrillard (2001)- society changing so rapidly that individuals constrained by social structures, and reject ideas about traditional family as a mainstay of social order.

- diversity and consumer choice, traditional family is being replaced by a wide variety of relationships.
- 'mix n match' confluent love.