Unit 1 SCLY1 - Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
Institution
AQA
AQA A-Level Sociology Families & Households Notes - summarised using all the relevant information, with key points and names in bold. Evaluations are clearly marked as + / - which allows for these notes too easily be converted into essay plans.
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Unit 1 SCLY1 - Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
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CN Sociology Families & Households - Theories Of The Family
Family = the term family refers to a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption. They usually live in
the same house, but this may not always be the case.
Household = the term household refers to a group of individuals who live together but are not necessarily
related. Ex. University students who flat share. These 0eople may often share things such as bills or household
responsibilities.
Types of families
-Nuclear family = ‘cereal packet family’. This is considered the most desirable and traditional family. It typically
consists of a married heterosexual couple with 2 children.
-Symmetrical family = this is a family whereby the roles are equal between the husband and wife.
-Extended family = refers to a situation whereby two or more generations live together or nearby. This can
include grandparents, and great grandparents, or even horizontal connections such as aunts, uncles and
cousins.
-Lone-parent family = this refers to a family headed by a lone parent, usually a mother and her child, but it can
be a father and his child.
-Reconstituted family = step family, this refers to a type of family that is born out of divorce and remarriage it
often consists of step parents or children from a previous partner's marriage/relationship. Ex. Step-siblings.
-Beanpole family = this is a type of family which is described as being vertically extended with close connections
to immediate family members such as parents, grandparents and great grandparents but it has weak connections
to horizontal ties such as aunts, uncles and cousins. It is becoming more common in today’s society due to new
trends.
-Boomerang family = this refers to a family that is created when an individual leaves the family home and then
returns later. Ex. Children returning from university.
-Empty nest = this is a family whereby a couple has no children or has had children who have grown up and
moved out - ‘flown the next’.
-Cohabiting = this is where couples may live together but are not married, often described as a trial run of
marriage. This has become more popular today.
Theories & Functions of the Family
Functionalist perspective on the family
-Consensus theory.
-The family meets society’s essential needs.
-They see the family as a particularly important sub-system or ‘building block’.
-Just like the lungs in the human body help us to breathe properly, functionalists see the family as performing
vital roles for societies nes - such as socialising children. (Organic analogy)
Murdock (1949)
-He argues that the family performs 4 essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members:
1. Stable satisfaction of the sex drve = same partner, reducing the social disruption of promiscuity -
monogamous relationship (faithful to one partner only).
2. Reproduction = without this, society could not continue
3. Socialisation = familiarising children with society's norms and values
4. Economic = providing food and shelter
Parsons (1955) - ‘Functional Fit’
-There are 2 basic types of society:
-Pre-industrial = extended family (3 generations under 1 roof)
-Modern-industrial = nuclear family (parents and children)
-Modern industrial society had different needs to pre-industrial society so the nature of the family had to
change.
Industrial society’s needs
1.A geographically mobile workforce
-In pre-industrial society, people often lived and worked in the same village. However, in modern industrial
society, people often have to move to where jobs are.
-Parsons argues it is easier for the smaller, nuclear family to move than the extended family of more than 3
generations.
,2.A socially mobile workforce
-Modern industrial society is constantly upskilling and evolving. As such, it is important that people are able to
win promotions and take on new roles.
-Because status is achieved rather than ascribed, the nuclear family is better equipped for allowing sons
daughters to move out of the home and adopt new roles. They will then go on to start their own nuclear
families and become ‘socially mobile’.
Loss of function?
-Parson argues that as the family moves into modern industrial society and becomes nuclear, it loses some of its
key functions - this is called structural differentiation.
-As a result, other social institutions take over their role, ex. Education, NHS.
-So it all boils down to their responsibility to socialise children and stabilise adult personalities (the two
irreducible functions).
-Parents may then socialise grandchildren.
Evaluation
Whilst Murdock claims that the nuclear family is the best way of meeting the 4 needs, other sociologists
state that they can be met equally as well via other social institutions.
Marxists and feminists would reject his ‘rose tinted’ view of the family. They argue that functionalists
forgets about conflict and exploitation.
Laslett (1972) = most pre-industrial families were in fact nuclear. Short life expectancy meant that
families were hardly ever extended.
Ignores family diversity and the fact other forms of family can carry out all of the functions, ie. it is not
necessarily universal.
CAGE analysis = class, age, gender, ethnicity. Murdock’s economic function ignores the idea of class;
not all nuclear families can perform this economic function, w/c families may struggle and we must
consider Murdock’s comments as being narrow minded.
Marxism & The Family
-Structural conflict theory.
-Marxists say that the functions of the family are performed for the benefit of the capitalist system
-Marxists identify a series of specific functions that the family fulfills:
1.Inheritence of property
-The mode of production (who owns machinery, raw materials, land etc) determines the shape of social
institutions.
-Marx called the earliest, classless society ‘primitive communism’. In this society, there was no private property.
-However, as production developed, so did society. Suddenly there was greater wealth and private property.
Friedrich Engles (1891)
-Engles states that this change brought about the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family (faithful to one
partner only).
-In Engles view, monogamy was essential to ensure that men could be certain of the paternity of their children -
this was so that their children could inherit private property.
-Believes that wealth should stay with the wealthy when the father dies.
-It turned women into mere ‘instruments’ for the production of children.
-Only the overthrow of capitalism will result in the liberation of women from patriarchal control.
-There would therefore no longer be the need for the nuclear family, as there would be no need to transfer private
property between generations.
2.Ideological functions
-Marxists argue that the family helps to socialise children into believing the hierarchy and inequality are
inevitable.
-Parental power gets children used to the idea that someone will always have power over them in society. This
is key for when they go to work.
-False class consciousness = unaware you are being oppressed.
Eli Zaretsky (1976)
-Zaretsly states that the family performs an ideological function as a ‘haven’ away from the harshness of a
capitalist society.
-He argues that this is all an illusion as the family cannot meet its members’ needs.
,-Ex. All women are treated as domestic servants.
-Functionalists and Marxists both agree the family has a socialisation role. Functionalists say it’s to teach
society’s norms and values, Marxists say it's to socialise them into the acceptance of hierarchy to become
passive obedience workers.
3.A unit of consumption
-The family is an important market for the sale of consumer goods. Therefore, Marxists say they generate profit.
-Through consuming advertisement ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.
-Children are targeted and persuade parents to purchase items - pester power.
Marxism Summary
-Marxists see the family as performing to meet the needs of capitalism, not its own members
1. Inheritance of private property
2. Socialisation into acceptance of inequality
3. Source of profit
Evaluation
Zaretsky has been criticised for ignoring the darker side to the family.
Some families socialise their children against capitalism.
Gender inequalities are underestimated through the emphasis on class.
Marxists tend to assume that the nuclear family is dominant in a capitalist society. This ignores the
variety of family structures in society today.
Functionalists would argue that Marxists ignore the very real benefits that the family provides its
members.
Feminism & The Family
-Like Marxists, feminists take a critical approach to the family.
-They argue that the family oppresses women.
-Gender inequality is not natural or inevitable - it is something created by society.
Liberal Feminism
-They campaign against sex discrimination and for equal rights / opportunities for women. Ex. equal pay.
-Oppression is gradually being overcome through changing people's attitudes and through changes in the
law. Ex. Sex Discrimination Act.
-We are moving towards greater equality but more needs to be done.
How have things changed?
-March of progress’ view.
-Some studies suggest men are doing more domestic labour now.
-They way parents socialise their children is changing. Son and daughters are encouraged to have the same
aspirations.
Other feminists argue that liberal feminists fail to identify the root cause of women's oppression.
They are ‘deluded’ by the idea that changes in the law have made any real differences to achieving
equality.
Marxists Feminism
-The main cause of women's oppression in the family is not men, but capitalism.
-Women reproduce the labour through:
1. Unpaid domestic work
2. Through socialising the next generation of workers
3. Through maintaining and servicing the current one
-Anger at capitalism
-Fran Ansley (1972) = described women as ‘takers of shit’ who soak up their husbands frustration / alienation at
work.
, -For marxists, this explains domestic violence against women.
Reserve Army of Labour
-Marxists feminists argue that women are a reserve army of workers who can be taken on and dropped when
needed.
-They see oppression of women in the family as linked to the exploitation of the working class. The family
must be abolished along with the idea of a revolution that will create a ‘classless’ society.
Radical Feminism
-Patriarchy is the problem.
-The key division is between men and women.
-Men are the enemy, they are the source of women’s exploitation and oppression.
-The family and marriage are the key institutions in a patriarchal society.
-Radical feminists state that men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and their sexual services.
-They dominate women through domestic and sexual violence, or the threat of it.
What needs to change?
-The patriarchal system needs to be overturned.
-The family must be abolished.
-Separatism = women must live independently of men.
-Heterosexual relationships are oppressive because they involve sleeping with the enemy.
-Germaine Greer (2000) = argues for ‘matrilocal’ households = aka all-female households as an alternative.
-Criticism: Somerville (2000) = argues that separatism is unlikely to work. Heterosexual attraction is too strong.
Difference Feminism
-Difference feminism states that we cannot generalise about women's experiences in the family. They don't all
live in nuclear families.
-We should not generalise.
-White / black / lesbian / heterosexual / working-class / middle-class all experience the family differently.
The Personal Life Perspective On The Family - Micro Approach
-A bottom up theory, strongly influenced by interactionists.
Beyond the ties of blood and marriage
-The major structural theories are too deterministic. They focus too much on the nuclear family and the idea
that the structure of society impacts the family.
-The personal life perspective is strongly influenced by interactionists.
-It is concerned with the meaning that we give to relationships beyond the normal blood and marriage ties.
This is the view that people have different relationships with people based on their interactions.
Donor-conceived families
-Smart et al = for some people the social relationships built within a person was more important than genes.
-For example, Erin, the mother of a child through egg donation, noted that being a mother was more than a
bunch of cells. It was about the time and effort put into raising a child.
-However, problems arose when comments were made about the child's appearance, which led to questions
being raised about the donor. Did the child have genetic siblings, and if so, should they be counted as family?
-Even more questions were raised when they knew the donor. Should the donor's parents count as
grandparents? Is the donor child a half sibling to the donor’s other children?
-For lesbian couples this raised further questions about the equality between the two mothers. Would the donor
mother be treated as the ‘real’ parent?
Examples
-Relationships with friends = they may even be like a sibling.
-Gay and lesbian ‘chosen family’ = a supportive network of friends etc.
-relationships with dead relatives = these live on in people's memory and continue to shape people's identity.
-Fictive king-close family friends = significant friends in the family can even be referred to as ‘auntie’.
-Even relationships with pets = Becky Tipper (2011) argues that children frequently saw pets as part of their
family.
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