Sociology A

Concepts of the Family

Introduction

Concepts are the basic building blocks of theories. Each of the social sciences has its own specialised range of concepts. A large part of learning the subject lies in becoming fluent in its concepts by being able to talk & think using these concepts, I want to present these concepts using the spectrum of political sociology that is characterise them as being from a left centre or right wing perspective in order to achieve some clarity.

The Family: Right Wing View

Describes the family as playing a major role in holding society together. for the right, the family means two married parents & their children living together as a single household. It holds a traditional view of family relationships with a clear division of labour & authority between husband and wife.

The traditional family had evolved as a successful social institution because of what it offered to each of its members & the benefits it yielded for society. In it, the father offered the ‘instrumental role model’ introducing children to the public world of work. The mother offered the ‘affective role model’ introducing children to the private world of feelings and emotions.

The family is viewed as a microcosm of society:

· It is seen as the model for paternalism in which the authority takes the form of the firm but benevolent rule of the father.

· It is the means by which the values of society are passed from one generation to another.

· It offers the new generation a model of how life should be lived.

The ‘breakdown of the family’ is viewed as a serious threat to social order. The widespread adoption of alternative household arrangements is seen as a cause of numerous social problems such as delinquency, crime and drug abuse. Single parent families have been seen as part of the ‘underclass’ & the cause of major social problems. The underclass has been described as the ‘new rabble’

Characteristics of the New Rabble

1. low-skilled working class, poorly educated.

2. Single-parent families are the norm.

3. Largely dependant on welfare and the ‘informal’ economy.

4. High levels of criminality, child neglect and drug use.

5. Impervious to social welfare policies that seek to change their behaviour.

( Murray, 1994).

The right also emphasises the ‘responsibilities’ of the family for looking after its members. Historically Poor Law was partly based on the idea of ‘liable relatives’ who had a legal obligation to look after their family. Policies designed to encourage ‘community care’ often, in effect, require families to take back part or all of the responsibility for caring for dependent members.

Theoretically underpinned this approach is the work of prominent sociologists such as:

Among the occupational statuses of members of a family if there is more than one, much the most important is that of the husband & father, not only because it is usually the primary source of family income, but also because it is the most important single basis of the status of the family in the community at large. To be the main ‘breadwinner’ of his family is a primary role of the normal adult man in our society. The corollary of this role is his far smaller participation than that of his wife in the internal affairs of the household. Consequently, ‘housekeeping’ and the care of children is still the primary functional content of the adult feminine role in the middle classes, in the great majority of cases not one in which status not one in which status or remuneration competes closely with those held by men of her own class.

Hence there is typically a asymmetrical relation of the marriage pair to the occupational structure.

This has exceedingly important positive functional significance..( Parsons, 1954)
The Family Centrist (reformist) View

Reformists generally see support for the family as one of the central purposes of social policy. State support for the family is seen to date for the early period of industrialisation. The establishment of factory production separated work from the home & families not longer operated as a unit of production. Subsequently, the state began to play a role in child care and socialisation through state schooling and medical care.

In the twentieth century the state took on further responsibility for child care through family allowances. These were instituted in Britain in 1944

after a long campaign. Other areas of social policy such as social work have been largely organised around the principle of supporting the family

The family does not function in a social vacuum. How it functions today is ....profoundly affected by the forces of industrialisation. It is simultaneously benefited & damaged by those forces. The rapidity of change in highly industrialised societies during the last one hundred years has put the family on the defensive. Its responsibilities have grown; it has been placed in more situations of divided loyalty & conflicting values; it has been forced to choose between kinship & economic progress; & it has been constantly subjected to the gales of creative instability..... we need the social services in a variety of stabilising, preventative & protective roles. Interpreted in this way , the social services become an ally not an enemy of industrial & technological progress. ( Titmuss, 1964: 117-18) In the past reformist support for the family has often assumed a traditional family structure. the post war social security system in Britain was set up along the lines proposed in the Beveridge Report. Most women paid lower contributions & received lower benefits than men. The assumption was that married women should be largely supported by their husbands,. reformists now tend to accept the fact of the current diversity of household types & have campaigned for help for single parent families. However, they support the idea of encouraging traditional two parent families.

The Family: Left (Radical) view

Classical Marxism saw the ‘bourgeois family’ as having its origins in the need to provide a secure basis for the hereditary transmission of property. Family law & sexual exclusivity ensured that the legitimate heirs would receive their inheritance. the bourgeois family & rules of behaviour associated with it were seen as products of the unequal system of property ownership. Marxists believed that the end of capitalism would lead to the relaxation of rules governing sexual behaviour.

Modern Marxists have been interested in how the nuclear family has contributed to the functioning of the capitalist economy.

The family is the main institution through which the function of ‘reproduction’ takes place. Daily reproduction involves the labour force being fed, clothed & sheltered & made ready for the next days work. Generational reproduction involves rearing the new generation of workers.

Theses reproductive activities are mainly undertaken within the family as the result of domestic labour. The inequalities within the family have meant that women have performed most of this reproductive work .

The overthrow of mother right was the world-historic defeat of the female sex. The man seized the reins in the house also, the woman was degraded, enthralled, the slave of man’s lust, a mere instrument for the breeding of children (Engels, 1884:757)

These inequalities may have existed before capitalism but capitalise policy has reinforced them by increasing women’s dependency on men. This line of analysis also argues that women are disadvantaged as members of the labour force they face discrimination, exclusion & segregation & they form part of the reserve army of labour. They may find work during periods of labour shortage but are likely to lose their jobs during periods of recession.

Marxism & radical Feminism differ in their interpretation of the allocation of the bulk of domestic labour to women

...there is controversy on the general question... as to whose interests are served by women’s labour in the household. On the one side Marxists argue that it serves capital, by reproducing labour power at very low cost; on the other side feminists argue that it serves men’s interests by providing personal services & reliving them of family obligations. ( Barratt, 1980: 210)

Formative Work: in small Groups Hold a discussion in which your agree key elements on the major sociological perspectives account of the family in society.

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Report back to the class as a whole: