Family and Household

Functionalist perspective: The Family

Functionalism: Domestic division of labour
     - Division of labour refers to the roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and
 paidwork. Sociologist are interested in whether men and women share domestic task equally.

Parsons traditional view of the nuclear family consist of a male the breadwinner (intrumental role) and women the housewife (expressive role). He claims that the roles between the two spouses are segregated.

Instrumental role: Geared towards achieving success at work and provising the family financially. He is the breadwinner.
Expressive role: Geared towards meeting the family emotional needs through primary socialisation for the children. She is the the homemaker/housewife rather than the wage earner.

Parsons argue that the domestic division of labour is biological that women are naturally suited to the nurturing role and men the provider. This benefits men at women expenses. Young and wilmott argue that men benefits from womens sole responsibilities where as, feminists argue that the domestic division of labour is natural in society.

Criticisms:

• Some societies don't have traditional families
• Ingores 'dark side' e.g. domestic violence, sexual abuse
• Feminists argue men benefit more than women
• Feminists view this as patriarchal and sexist
• Ingores evidence of non-dominance of extended family in the pre-industrial era and decline of nuclear family and increasing family diversity

Feminists theory of the family:

• There are several different types of feminist theory, but all of them share certain characteristics in common:
• There is a fundamental division in society between men and women
• That women are to some extent exploited by men
• That society is patriarchal which is used by feminists to indicate that men have more power than women and the interests of men largely shape how societies run 

Feminists sociologist say:

Radical Feminist: Radical feminists believe that the family plays a major role in maintaining the oppressions of women in patriarchal, male-dominating society.

Marxist Feminist: Marxists Feminists believe that the family benefits from capitalist system and in doing so to exploit women.

Marxist Perspective:

- A conflict perspective which sees society to have a social divide:the capitalist class and the working class.
- Marxist argue that the nuclear familyis concerned with teaching its members to submit to the capitalist class.
- They believe that when children are being primary socialised they are being taught what the capitalist teach, and this discriminatesagainst the working class.

Criticims:
- Marxists ignore other benefits to individuals and society.
- Marxism assumes that the worker is male and that women are housewives.

 

Changing Family

Changing family

View more presentations from jimmctavish.

Definition of family: A family is a social unit made of people related to each other by blood, birth, or marriage. They support each other in one of several ways (e.g. socially, economically, and psychologically).

Definition of a Household:  People living at the same address and sharing meals or sharing the same accommodation.

Most families live in a household but not all household are families, for example a group of students sharing a flat makes a household but not a family.

Types of families:

• Nuclear family- Consist of parents who are married and have their own biological children.

• Lone parent family- Consist of one parent (usually female) looking after a child

• Extended family- This family usually consist of grandparents, parents and children.

• Reconstituted family- This type family is know as a step family

Families and Households: Demography

Marxist Perspective of the Nuclear Family

Families

Family

Definition of family: A family is a social unit made of people related to each other by blood, birth, or marriage. They support each other in one of several ways (e.g. socially, economically, and psychologically).

Definition of a Household:  People living at the same address and sharing meals or sharing the same accommodation.

Most families live in a household but not all household are families, for example a group of students sharing a flat makes a household but not a family.

Types of families:

• Nuclear family- Consist of parents who are married and have their own biological children.

• Lone parent family- Consist of one parent (usually female) looking after a child

• Extended family- This family usually consist of grandparents, parents and children.

• Reconstituted family- This type family is know as a step family

Family and Households Unit: Couples

Marriage and Divorce

Key terms in this topic:

• Cohabitation – when a couple live together but are not married

• Illegitimate children – children whose parents were not married when they were born

• Monogamy – this means that a person can only be married to one person at a time

• Bigamy – is against the law. This is when a person is married to more than one person at the same time

• Divorce – is the legal end to a marriage

• Separation – when a couple live apart but are still legally married

• Empty shell marriages – when a couple are still married and live in the same house but lead separate lives

• Serial monogamy – when a person has a series of marriages, divorces and remarriages, e.g. Henry VIII and Jennifer Lopez.

• Polygamy – is when a person is married to more than one person at the same time. This is accepted in some countries but is against the law in Britain. There are two types of polygamy:
  
  • Polyandry – woman and husbands e.g. Tibet
  • Polygyny – man with wives e.g. Masai in Africa

Trends in marriage and divorce

• Increase in divorce rate (number of divorces per 1000 people per year)
• Decrease in first marriages (where the people had not been married before)
• Increase in re-marriage (where people were married before) This suggests perhaps that it is not necessarily marriage that is declining in popularity - just that some people choose the wrong person to marry.
• Increase in cohabitation
• Increase in illegitimate children

Reasons for the increase in the divorce rate

1. Changes in the law - several laws have been passed to make divorce easier to obtain.

2. Ease of divorce - the stigma of divorce is greatly reduced in society today, so people no longer feel ashamed to be divorced. Sociologists point to a decline in the influence of religion as another factor.

3. Change in attitudes - some sociologists argue that marriage is highly valued in society, partly due to the image the media present of marriage as based on romance and happiness. People now demand more from marriage and if it does not live up to the ideal they hold then they will get divorced and try again - this explains the growing number of remarriages.

4. The changing role of women - approx. 70% of divorces are initiated by women. Women today are more likely to be independent - with a good education, fewer children and a job. If they are unhappy in a marriage it is easier for them to leave and start again.

Check out http://sixthsense.osfc.ac.uk/sociology/research/marriage_divorce.asp

Family Diversity

                                                    Family diversity

•Rhona & Robert Rapoports (1982)-Diversity is central to understanding the modern family Believe we’ve moved away from the traditional nuclear family British families have adapted to a pluralistic society– this is one in which cultures & lifestyle are more diverse. They have identified five different types of family diversity in Britain today.

•1) Organisational –Diversity Refers to differences in the way family roles are organised. Examples: Some couples have joint conjugal roles and are joint- wage-earners. Segregated conjugal roles and one wage earner.

•2) Cultural Diversity-Different cultural, religious and ethnic groups have different family  structures. Example: There is a higher proportion of female-headed families among Afro-Caribbean households. Can you think of an example based on the above?

•3) Social Class –Diversity Differences in family structure are partly the result of income differences between households of different classes. This also affects child-rearing practices. In relation to the 2 points above, discuss the following with the person sat next to you: Royal family Income support families Hollywood actors and actresses Poorly educated adults with children

•4) Life-Stage Diversity-Family structure depends on the point at which you find yourself in your life-cycle. Examples: Newly weds Couples with children Retired couples whose children have left home Widows/widowers who live alone

•5) Generational Diversity-Defined as older and younger generations having different attitudes and experiences that reflect the historical periods in which they have lived. Example: Morality about divorce, cohabitation, children born outside of marriage & homosexuality might be very controversial to one generation and a non-issue to another

Functions of the family

                                                         The Functionalist view of the family

Feminism

Feminist sociologisty explains society from the position of women, they highlights gender inequalities that are based upon power relations. Feminists argue that gender roles are socially constructed. Inequalities are social and not based on biology.

Many feminists are very negative about the society we live in and always see the bad in everything. Most feminists believe that society is male dominated( patriarchy).They look at society on a macro scale this means that they look at society on a large scale. They want to generalise their ideas about males and females to the whole of society.

Feminists also believe that society is based on conflict, this means disagreement. The conflict is between the sexes,males and females. They believe that women have been disadvantaged in society and that men have more power than women and that this is not right.

There are lots of different feminist theories not just one. They all share one thing in common they look at the differences in society between men and women and try to see how these problems could be solved.

• Liberal feminism: they believe that women and men are becoming more equal in society. They see that the problem was caused by the law being sexist and also the differences in socialisation (way we are brought up e.g Gender scripts) between males and females.

•  Marxist Feminist:they believe that men and women are still unequal in society. Women are there to benefit capitalist society by being unpaid housewives and having low paid part time jobs.

• Radical Feminism: they also believe that men and women are still unequal in society, they Argues that society is patriarchal, society is male dominated, oppressive and exploitative towards women.

Unit 1: Family and Households

Unit 1: Family and Households

Specifcation of Families and Households:

• The relationship of the family to the social structure and social change, with particular reference to the economy and to state policies.

• Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, child‑bearing and the lifecourse, and the diversity of contemporary family and household structures.

• The nature and extent of changes within the family, with reference to gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships.

• The nature of childhood, and changes in the status of children in the family and society.

• Demographic trends in the UK since 1900; reasons for changes in birth rates, death rates and

family size.

Past year exam paper: http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-SCLY1-W-QP-JUN10.PDF

Mark scheme: http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-SCLY1-W-MS-JUN10.PDF

Report of examination: http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/pdf/AQA-SCLY1-W-WRE-JUN10.PDF

Helpful sites: http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/sociology