In 1940s and 1950s the dominant perspective was functionalism
Functionalist argue there was a fit between the needs of industrial societies like the UK and institution of the nuclear family such as American sociologists William Goode (1963) argued that as societies went through a process of individualisation as they tended to adopt the nuclear family
Functionalist portrayed nuclear family in favourable terms, much more critical approaches are Marxism and feminism so began to influence the way sociologists looked as the nuclear family from 1970s
Since 1990s, many sociologists have criticised all these approaches for focusing too much on nuclear family so increasing family diversity
Theorists of late modernity and postmodernists argue that such approaches fail to take account of the extent to which family life and personal relationships so moved beyond nuclear family in late 20th and early 21st
Functionalism
Analyse the family in two ways:
- Interested in family structured so individuals are linked to one another in particular roles and relationships so nuclear family is basic building block of society
- Examine families in terms of their functions by which families in terms of their functions which families provide things that are needed by their members as well as society
Murdock – Universal Functions of the Family (1949)
Social anthropologists George Murdock (1949) carried out a survey of 250 societies from he concluded that some kind of family was found in every human society
Argued that it was based on 2 opposite sex parents and their own or adopted children – nuclear family
He acknowledged that in many societies’ family units including other kin so vertically extended families and horizontally extended families
Suggested the universal nature of the nuclear family was for good reasons
Argued that the family performs 4 essential functions in all societies and the nuclear family is best
His 4 functions:
- Sexual – encourage people to channel their sex drives into socially acceptable relationships such as marriage and helps society by minimising conflict but provides individuals with opportunities for satisfying long term
- Economic – Family acts as a unit of production as those whole family may work together to provide themselves with food and other requirements and in western societies such as Britain as most families are a unit of consumption
- Reproduction – Family is main unit within which children are reproduced as without this society would not exist
- Education – going beyond formal schooling so individuals benefit from growing up to be well-balanced individuals who can fit into society so helps to insure a society where there is consensus about social norms, creating stable social system
Specialisation of Family Functions – Parsons (1951)
Industrial societies the nuclear family only has two essential functions to perform:
- Socialisation of children so remain essential for children to receive their primary socialisation from parents
So, parsons link the family to a personality factory where children are moulded by their parents so learn to adapt to the norms and values of society
He argues that children need to internalise their society’s culture, so norms and values agreed
- stabilisation of adult personalities
Argues that without the support of wider kin, married couples in industrial societies increasingly rely on one another for emotional support
Parents benefits from relationships with their children so nuclear family provides a safe haven for adults and children in wider society
Popenoe: A Neo-functionalists View of the Family
American sociologists David Popenoe’s (1996) is a neo-functionalist
Argues that there are biological imperatives that underlie the way families are organised such as suggests that men and woman are biologically different, so woman are better suited for nurturing children
Argues that we need a new cultural script, a set of guidelines for what families should be like based on what he called ‘biosocial reality’
Implies that some types of family are less functional than others as not based on biological abilities
Children brought up in some kinds of alternative families are more likely to be damaged by their early childhood experiences
Evaluation of Functionalists
Functionalism is what they would call a grand theory it makes broad generalisation about the family in all societies
Helped identify broad trends on how families and kinship system develop as societies industrialise
Functionalists try to answer important questions about why most people tend to live in families and how families help to ensure a smooth-running society
Functionalist views of the family have received extensive critics
Functionalism presents a largely positive and optimistic view of nuclear family so ignores dark side or negative aspects of families
Focuses on functions of the family ignores that many families are dysfunctional such as psychologist Oliver James in the Fuck You Up: How to Survive Family Life (2003) which argues that many of the problems we face in adult life can be traced back to early childhood
Ignore diversity of family in modern society
In 1950s, lone parent families and reconstituted families existed, and growth of other types show functionalist are outdated
Parsons seems to assume that only the nuclear family effectively, while critics argue that individuals are increasingly inventing a whole variety
Feminist, parsons view of the family is sexists
He assumes that men and woman will naturally perform sperate roles and have equal status
Feminists argue that in reality traditional nuclear family are based on male power and dominance such as responsibilities for emotional support entailed in the stabilisation of adult personalities largely fall on woman but receive no recognition or social status
Parsons largely dismisses the idea of woman playing a significant instrumental role such as arguing that in US in 1950s, most woman were only part time jobs or full-time housewives
Now a days 47% of UK workforce and make a significant economic contribution to most families
Interactionist sociologists, parsons view of socialisation can be seen a top-down process whereby parents install norms and values of society
In reality, socialisation can be seen as a two-way process where children socialise their parents
Parsons seems to see the nuclear family as an ideal institution that modern industrial societies require
Theorists of late modernity and postmodernity so it ignores the degree of choice available in contemporary societies about family structures and relationships
One dominant family form the nuclear family as seeing increasingly diverse and fluid families and households which provides for the diverse needs of different individuals
The New Right
Nuclear family is essential to a healthy society comes from a group of writers usually referred to as new right
Most of them are political, journalists, religious leaders or political scientists rather than sociologists
Views stirred up considerable controversy among sociologists from 1980 onwards
New right thinkers see traditional marriage and family life as breaking down so argue that a consequence of this has been poorly socialised children who under achieve in school and rise in crime and more lone parents
Call for a return to what they refer to as traditional family values including couples waiting to marry before children and fathers especially have responsibility for economically supporting their wives and children through paid employment
Woman focusing on traditional role of raising children
More recently some supporters of the new right have attacked the government’s decision to legalised same sex marriage arguing children need a parent of each sex an allowing gay marriage undermines the traditional basis of marriage as a union
The Underclass and the Disintegration of family life – Murray (2001)
Charles Murray is one leading new right thinker
Argues lone parent families form a significant section of this underclass and children mainly boys
Families without Fatherhood – Dennis and Erdos (2000)
Some support their approach was offered by sociologists Norman Dennis and George Erdos so ethical socialists and reflected label
Argued that children raised by single parents on average have lower educational attainment and poor health
Boys mainly grow up without learning that adulthood involves taking responsibility for wife and children
Evaluation of New right
Reflects the concerns of more conservative groups in British society about changes in family life
Few sociologists would dispute the evidence that fewer people are living in nuclear families
Are accused of looking back to a ‘golden age’ of family life from mid 19th century to mid 20th century so marriage was respected, and nuclear family was the norm
Lone parent, cohabitation and sexual relationships outside marriage have always existed but concealed in past
People who did not fit into conventional families such as lone mothers and gay people, often received harsh treatment which most people find unacceptable today
Make value judgement about different types of families, making no secret of the fact tht nuclear family is based on marriage
Critics argued that individuals should be free to choose what kind of family works best for them
Jon Bernardes (1997) reflects the view when he argues the governments need to recogonise the diversity of families and governments policy should be equal
Place blame for alleged decline in family life on government policies which in their view have given insufficient support to married 2 parent families
Also portray lone parents and poor families in a very negative light
Deborah Chambers (2001) argues that many of the fears about lone-parent families and the decline of marriage and family life so creates moral panic
Marxism
Functionalist theories analyse the family in terms of a consensus view of society as the assume that society is based as shared values
New right also assumes that society works best which based a consensus
However, Marxist reject this consensus view by arguing that capitalist societies like UK based on conflict due to class division
Dispute the idea that the way families are organised benefits everyone equally but argue that the family services to maintain the power of those with wealth and preserve the existing economic system
Engels (1972) argued nuclear family was deliberately created by capitalism to snsure that private property ad wealth in wealthy families could be efficiently handed down the male line to keep wealth and property in family
He claimed that the nuclear family oppressed woman
Zaretsky (1976) claimed that nuclear family socialised its children into bourgeois values and norms such as obedience so bourgeoisies dominance of culture was rarely challenged
Cooper (1968) sees nuclear family as ‘ideological conditioning device’ which functions to ensure that children are socialised or brainwashed into being obedient and passively accepting low status
Evaluation
Helped sociologists to explore how the kind of economic system we live in such as capitalism so shapes out families and personal lives
A strength is that it recognises that the nuclear family is ideally suited for capitalism
Increasingly a consumer society and personal lives around consuming the products of capitalism
Nuclear family is ideal
Tends to suggest that individuals’ personal lives are largely shaped or even determined by economic forces such as the need for capitalism
Social action theories argue that this ignores the extent to which we have the capacity to make choices about our own lives such as some increasingly choose to reflect the traditional nuclear family model in favour of a diverse range of alternatives
Also be outdated as functionalism as it tends to focus on nuclear family rather than it’s alternative, so Marxists are more critical of the nature of family life such as have little say on diversity
Highlights the extent of class inequalities in family life but fails to consider he importance of other social divisions
Mainly focus on family life in western capitalist societies and little say about other family’s nature
Feminism
Offer a conflict perspective on society
They focus on gender divisions and conflicts, arguing that society is patriarchal, and this reflects pattern of family life
Basis for social and political movements that seek to change society such as woman liberation movement in 1970s
Delphy and Leonard – Radical Feminism
Argue that traditional forms of the family – nuclear family so woman’s opportunities are limited by restricted roles such as wives
Men rather than the capitalist system who are main beneficiaries of woman’s performing unpaid domestic labour
Delphy and Leonard (1992)
They point to the way in which men are still usually regarded as the heads of households
Men tend to control the finances and property in families
Woman are expected to perform unpaid domestic work and undertake reproductive and sexual work
Woman contribute far more to families both practical tasks and looking after others emotional needs
They argue they receive less in return as men often control the finances, have more leisure time
Origins of the Family, Private Property and State – Engels (1972)
Argued that the family had developed in an evolutionary way
Earliest societies, he suggested there had no restrictions on sexual behaviour
Societies became more complex more restrictions were placed on sexuality first in the form of polygyny until societies reached their most advanced stage of development monogamy
Linked the evolution of monogamy with the development of the idea of private property
Argued that in earliest societies, woman had power, but all humans learned to herd animals, men took control of their livestock and became first property owners
Result of this was to make woman more chatters of their husbands so another form of private property
Woman’s role mainly in wealthy bourgeois families was simply to provide their husbands with heirs and raise those children to adulthood
Ideas of the evolution of families have been criticised for being based on very weak evidence such as many simple hunting and gathering societies that attain little importance to private property still practise monogamous relationships
Engels was one of the first writers to elaborate the Marxists view that families are shaped by economic system
Provided a starting point for feminist theories
Capitalism, Family and Personal Life – Zaretsky (1976)
Argues with the rise of capitalist industrial production in the 19th century, work and family become separate
Work become an alternative experience meaning the workers had little control over work and unable to achieve real satisfaction from it
Family life came to be seen as important as a refuge from the pressure of work and workers could have control over their lives
Argues that this is only an illusion, as the family is unable to overcome the alienating and brutalising effects of capitalism
Individuals can only achieve really satisfying family relationships when capitalism is abolished so families are organised around the needs of their members rather than the needs of economic system
Argues that the family supports the capitalist system in two ways:
- Woman in the family reproduce and bring up children such as capitalist employees benefit labour us the next generation of workers
- Family fits as a unit of consumption, buying products of capitalism and all owning them to continue to make profits from their business
Death of the Family – Cooper (1972)
Argues that family relationship reflects the property relationship of capitalism in that individuals develop a sense that they own their partners and children so view restricts the ability of people to develop individuals
Sees the family as an ideological conditioning device
We live in a hierarchical and unequal society
The family is a miniature version and this first situation where children learn to submit to capitalism ideology
While for functionalist the process of socialisation is a beneficial process so allowing children to fit into society
Children are simply socialised to accept their place
Reflected Rosemary Crompton arguments on how families ensure a process of class reproduction
Benston – Marxist Feminism
Tend to ignore gender inequality, radical feminists have been accused of ignoring the links between capitalism and gender inequalities
Attempt to combine these 2 approaches
Margaret Benston (1972) such as analyse the way in which the unpaid domestic work of woman so helps the reproduce labour power for capitalism;
- On a daily basis woman renew men’s ability to go out to work
- Generational basis, they socialise and care children
See woman’s being particularly exploited in family life, not simply for the benefit of men so profitability of the whole capitalist system depends on their unpaid work
Somerville: Liberal Feminism
Argue that a process of gradual reform of society is more effective such as working within established institutions such as parliament, schools, business and media to change
Extent to which their approach has achieved a range of legal rights for woman so equal pay, law against sex discrimination
Jennifer Somerville (2000) has been labelled by some as a liberal feminist due to her sympathy
Argues that the picture of the family painted by some feminists of woman being exploited by men in families is outdated and process woman have made in achieving equality in family life such as woman have much more choice today about whether to marry or cohabit
Acknowledges that many women remain dissatisfied with many men’s refusal to take on a full share of family responsibilities
Unlike the new right who call for a traditional family value
Government needs to give more support to working parents so encouraging flexible working hours enabling both parents to participate in paid work to contribute to childcare
Evaluation of Feminist View
Feminism has played a valuable role in challenging many of the dominant assumptions about families made by more traditional sociologist theories
Highlight the dark side of family life such as domestic violence, child abuse
Feminism has gone from an outsider position on sociology attacking ‘mainstream’ sociology to becoming part of an established assumptions
Feminist have tended to emphasise the negative aspects of the traditional nuclear family so ignored positive aspects of family life
Woman gain real satisfaction from performing traditional roles in family
Feminists approaches can be seen as outdated since they seem to portray families as they 50 years ago as they ignore very real changes in the role of woman and men in families and wider society
Catherine Hakim (2000) argues that woman can make few and rational choices about their lives such as woman choose to work part time
Accused of focusing exclusively on gender inequalities and patriarchy
Marxist feminists to some extent overcome this problem by capitalism and inequalities of class
However black feminism such as Bell Hooks (1981) and Patrica Hill (1990) would argue white woman experience and ignore the experiences of family life of woman from ethnic minorities
Difference feminists who are influenced by postmodernism takes it even further
Argue that feminists have tended to put all woman together as a single category of people who are equally oppressed by patriarchy in nuclear families and in reality, woman are extremely diverse
Individualisation in Late Modernity
Emphasis the way the family serves to needs offer to wider society
More recently, sociologists questioned these approaches arguing that the diversity of families and personal relationship
Focus more on what families and intimate relationships offer to individuals and now those are worked out and structured so based on needs of industrial society or capitalism
Family Practices and Family Displays
David Morgan (1996) argues that we should focus on family practices rather than the family
Individual create families and other networks of intimate relationships by their daily activities such as talking to one another
From this we should be less concerned about what the family is or what it is
Janet Finch (2007) had developed this further with the concept of family display
States that display is the process by which individuals and groups of audiences that certain of their actions do constitute doing family things
She sees rituals such as family means as examples that reinforce people’s sense of togetherness and family identity
Reflective Modernisation – Giddens (1991-1992)
Modern world brought into being by the rise of industrialisation has not come to an end but developed since late 20th century
Era of late modernity where traditional norms and structural that constrained individuals to fit into certain structures and roles have started to dissolve
Traditional norms that limited woman’s opportunities
Argued that life in late modernity is characterised by reflexivity by which he means people constantly question what they are doing in life
Create own life scripts such as laid by society based on gender, social class or other characteristic
Individuals have much greater choice about their life so how to construct own domestic arrangements
Nuclear family has become simply another option rather than the social norm
Intimate relationships are more fluid and open to change as people pass through their life
Idea of romantic love, emphasised finding a special person falling in love and spending the rest of life as replaced with confluent love
Confluent love is based on a deep emotional intimacy in which partners reveal their needs and concerns
Couples today seek what he calls a pure relationship so pursed for its own sake mainly for emotional fulfilment it often
Confluent love is more fragile as individuals only stay in relationships while emotional needs are being fulfilled so find love of no longer satisfied
Arguments certainly help to explain the high rates of separation and divorce
Help to explain the growth of family diversity as reflexive individuals choose to have confluent love
Beck and Beck-Gernsheim – Risk Society and Individuals
Beck (1992) sees contemporary social world as an extension of modernity known as high modernity
Earlier stages of modernity there is more confidence that humans could make the world a better place such as scientific discoveries
Reflected the belief in a particular type of family – nuclear family – by serving needs of modern society
High modernity there is a less confidence as much more aware of risk posed by science and technology such as global warming
We now live in a risk society where social life is based on the avoidance of risks
Reflected in personal relationships
Some people commitment of marriage is too much of a risk
Long term relationships also offer a way of avoiding risk such as loneliness
Argued that in society today we have to constantly make choices
Normal chaos of love (1995) argued that a process of individualisation is occurring in high modernity
Individuals are no longer tied to fixed roles or identities as they were in the past such as woman no longer expected to be married
Helps to explain diversity of families and relationship
Explains the fluid nature of contemporary life as individuals rather than following traditional patterns laid down by society
Freedom and choice acknowledged offered by high modernity are becoming fragmented and atomised as self-absorbed individuals seek their own fulfilment
Postmodernism
See society as in a later stage of modernity, some sociologists have argued that society now live in is so different from the modern world in late 19th and early 20th century
Reflected in the work of French writer Jean-Frangois Lyotard (1984) who argues that today we are living under the postmodern condition
Knowledge has become relative is no longer being certain what is true and what is false
Modernity, there was greater certainty such as science provides us with answer and solutions and politicians could create a better society for all
Applied this family life by pointing out that traditional forms of family life such as nuclear family and lifelong marriage was seen by experts as the ideal way of bringing children up
Argued there is less certainty about how we should live our lives
Jon Bernardes (1997) argues that contemporary postmodern families have a number of characteristics:
- Choice – choose personal relationships
- Freedom – no longer constrained by traditional norms
- Diversity – no longer conform to a single type
- Ambivalence – no longer certainty about what is normal
- Fluidity – families and relationship are not fixed but rather constantly changing
Post-modernists largely optimistic about family life in postmodernity
Judith Stacey (1996) sees diversity and fluidity of postmodern families as allowing individuals to develop lifestyles to suit their change in circumstances
Zygmunti Bauman in liquid love (2003) sees many of these changes as negative
Argues that contemporary family bonds have been weakened and there is a lack of certainty about roles and responsibilities in families so jeopardising family as an institution
Evaluation of Individualisation and Postmodern
Valuable in explaining many changes occurring in family life in UK since 1970s
Greater social acceptance of diverse families, cohabitation, etc… seems to fit
Led sociologists to re-evaluate how they look at families with far less focus on the nuclear family
Far more cautious than conventional sociologists about making generalisations about family life
Critics say:
- Continuities of family life as emphasising changes in family life – neglected the extent to which they are still continues in family so problematic as it suggests a radical break with modernity and the kind of families people lived in for recent years
- Neglecting social structure so a number of sociologists have argued that class, gender and ethnicity continue to structure of lives so Yvette Taylor (2007) in a study of working-class lesbians found that not only sexuality but all class affected the lives
- Ethnicity idea of choice and individualism also seems more applicable to certain groups in the where population than to some ethnic minorities.
Tony Chapman (2004) observed that south Asian families still tend to hold traditional values concerning marriage and some alternative family practices found south Asian societies are not accepted in UK
- Gender – Giddens argues that these have been a democratisation of family life as woman can now choose to leave so feminists have criticised him for ignoring patriarchal aspects of family life