Functions of Families (AQA GCSE Sociology): Flashcards

Parsons argues that other institutions, such as schools, have taken over roles the family once played.

Parsons focuses on American middle-class families, ignoring class, religious and ethnic diversity and alternatives such as lone-parent or same-sex families.

False.

Parsons is accused of idealisation, as he ignores family dysfunction such as child abuse and domestic abuse.

Marxists argue that the nuclear family is functional for capitalist society, as it socialises children into accepting capitalist values.

False.

Marxists are critical of the nuclear family, arguing that it socialises children into accepting the values of capitalism.

Marxists argue that the bourgeoisie pass on their wealth and educational advantages, such as private schooling, to their children.

Marxists argue that, through socialisation, working-class people may learn to accept their subordinate position in capitalist society.

According to Zaretsky, before the early 19th century the family was a unit of production, where every member produced goods such as cloth at home.

Zaretsky argues that work and family life separated with the rise of industrial capitalism and factory-based production.

Zaretsky identified the private sphere of the family and the public sphere of the economy.

False.

Zaretsky believed the family could only act as a buffer against the negative effects of capitalism, not as a real source of emotional support.

Women's unpaid childrearing and housework keep workers fed and clothed for free, which benefits the capitalist system.

The proletarian family reproduces labour by producing future generations of exploited workers.

A unit of consumption is where families buy and consume the products of capitalism, allowing the bourgeoisie to make profits.

Zaretsky believed that only socialism could end this separation and allow people to be personally fulfilled.

Feminists argue that Marxists ignore family diversity, as they work with the traditional nuclear family of a male breadwinner and female housewife.

Marxists ignore that many people are satisfied with family life, and the education system and mass media may serve capitalism more than the family does.

False.

As a conflict approach, feminists see families as having a negative impact on the lives of women.

Examples of canalisation include dressing girls in pink and boys in blue and giving girls dolls and boys toy cars.

Families prepare children for gender roles in a patriarchal society; for example, children who see their mother cooking and cleaning may assume this is a woman's role.

Delphy and Leonard used unstructured interviews, non-participant observation and existing research on families.

Delphy and Leonard view the family as a patriarchal institution that men benefit from.

Women's unpaid work includes cooking, cleaning, shopping and less obvious tasks such as booking medical appointments and sending birthday cards.

Wives' work is undervalued, their husbands profit from their labour and they remain financially dependent on them.

The husband is at the top of the family hierarchy, with other family members occupying lower positions.

The dual burden is where women in paid employment still do most of the domestic work and childcare.

Delphy and Leonard do not consider egalitarian families, and Marxists argue family inequality is linked to capitalism rather than patriarchy.

Functionalists argue that these changes undermine the functions of the family and threaten the stability of society.

The isolation of the nuclear family is its loss of contact with wider kinship networks.

Families have lost traditional functions such as education and economic production, which have been transferred to other agencies.

False.

Functionalists are criticised for an unrealistic idealisation of the nuclear family, ignoring dysfunctional families where domestic violence and abuse occur.