Assess The Sociological Functions Of The Family

Marxism is a conflict perspective as they believe that there will always be conflict between the working class and the capitalist class, it is also a structural perspective as they look at all of society’s structures such as the education system, the family, the media, religion and the state and see them as helping to maintain class inequality and capitalism. The Marxists have identified several functions that allow the family to contribute to capitalism and only see how each of the functions of the family are solely performed for the benefit of the capitalist system.
Marxists believe that in earlier classless society given the name primitive communism there was no private property and instead everyone owned the means of production communally. There was also no family as such, instead there was a ‘promiscuous horde’ as there were no restrictions on sexual relationships and they didn’t have permanent partners as described by Engels. However they started to own property which caused problems as women became possessions so men could pass on their property …show more content…
One of the ways that this is done is by socialising children into the idea that hierarchy and inequality is inevitable. Parental control over children is another way that accustoms them to the idea that there will always being someone in charge, this prepares them for later life where they will work and will have to accept orders from their capitalist employers. This connects to the Marxist psychiatrist Cooper who claims that family acts in the interests of capitalism and also to Zaretsky who says that the family also performs an ideological function of providing a ‘haven’ from the harsh pressure and alienation of the