Families & Households: AQA AS Sociology

Functionalist Views
1. Murdock: Four vital family functions
  1. Production of new generations
    1. couples living together produce children more regularly
  2. Regulation of sexual activity
    1. avoids the destructive competiton between potential partners found in the animal kingdom
  3. Provision of economic support and the neccessities of life through the division of labour
    1. men undertake strenuous tasks, women undertake lighter tasks
  4. Socialisation of children into the culture of the community
    1. children learn norms and values
2. Parsons
  1. the socialisation of children into their societys culture
  2. the stabilisation of adult personalities
    1. female role is expressive, male role is instrumental
Marxist views
1. Engels
  1. Marriage begins with early capitalism
  2. Women should be allowed to work in public industry where all workers would share profits of labour
  3. Children could be socialised by the Communist state
2. Zaretsky
  1. care of children should be carried out by neighbourhood services
    1. would enable women to work in a Communist collective, reducing their isolation
    2. family relationships and the value of love would still be respected
Feminist views
1. Liberal feminists
  1. Betty Friedan 'The Feminine Mystique'
    1. women had been socialised into the notion that looking after children was fulfilling
2. Radical feminists
  1. Firestone
    1. abolition of marriage and the family
    2. freedom of sexual expression between people of any age or either sex
  2. Millett
    1. men dominate women just as politicians rule the country
    2. family socialises children into diiferent behaviour and roles so both sexes accept the ideologies of male domination

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Families & Households: AQA AS Sociology

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