Functions of Families (AQA GCSE Sociology): Exam Questions

Describe one example of patriarchy within families.

Item B

Writing in 1976, Eli Zaretsky argued that the nuclear family had an economic function that served the interests of capitalism. He believed the family to be a key unit of consumption; in other words families bought and consumed the products of the capitalist economy.

He also believed that it was through the family that each social class reproduced itself over time. Through inheritance, the bourgeois family transmitted its private property from one generation to the next, whilst the proletarian family reproduced the labour force by producing future generations of workers.

Source: Zaretsky, E, Capitalism, the Family and Personal Life

From Item B, identify and describe one way in which Zaretsky saw the family as benefiting capitalist society, including what you know of his perspective on the family.

Identify one function of the family and explain how you would investigate this function using a case study.

From Item B, identify and describe one way in which the family can be seen as important for society, including what you know of Parsons’ perspective on the family.

Item B

From their research on family life, Christine Delphy and Diana Leonard found that family life was not as symmetrical as Peter Willmott and Michael Young previously suggested. They view the family as a patriarchal institution that serves the interests of men.

Delphy and Leonard used data collected from previous studies. The studies suggested that women were exploited in the family. Women did the bulk of the domestic labour regardless of whether they did paid work outside the home too. Time at home for men was leisure time, whereas time at home for women was also work time. They argue that men benefit most from the family.

Source: Delphy, C, and Leonard, D, Familiar Exploitation, 1992.

From Item B, identify and describe one way in which Delphy and Leonard believed that women were exploited within the family, including what you know of their perspective on family life.

Item B

Writing in 1976, Eli Zaretsky argued that the nuclear family had an economic function that served the interests of capitalism. He believed the family to be a key unit of consumption; in other words families bought and consumed the products of the capitalist economy.

He also believed that it was through the family that each social class reproduced itself over time. Through inheritance, the bourgeois family transmitted its private property from one generation to the next, whilst the proletarian family reproduced the labour force by producing future generations of workers.

Source: Zaretsky, E, Capitalism, the Family and Personal Life

From Item B, identify and describe one way in which Zaretsky saw the family as benefiting capitalist society, including what you know of his perspective on the family.

Item B

This table appears in a paper by the sociologists Robert and Rhona Rapoport published in 1982, they have used a variety of sources to identify class based differences in relationships within marriage and child rearing.

Sources: Bott (1971), Goldthorpe (1969), Newson and Newson (1970).

Identify one function of the family and explain how you would investigate this function using questionnaires.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that the main function of the family is to serve the needs of capitalism.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that the nuclear family is still considered the norm in Britain today.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that the traditional nuclear family is the most appropriate family type in which to raise children in Britain today.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that gender inequalities continue to exist within the family in Britain today.

Discuss how far sociologists would agree that the nuclear family performs important functions for society.