Family & Households

Functionalism
1. Parsons
  1. 2 basic and irreducible functions
    1. Primary socialisation
    2. Stabilisation of adult personalities
  2. Structural differentiation
    1. Isolated nuclear family
      1. Geographical and social mobility
      2. Achieved status
2. Murdock
  1. Sexual
  2. Economic
  3. Educational
  4. Reproductive
Marxism
1. Engels
  1. Economic function
    1. Inheritance of property
2. Zaretsky
  1. Ideological funtion
3. Unit of consumption
4. Cultural capital
5. Housewife role
Feminism
1. Radical
  1. Firestone
    1. Oppression due to biological and physical dominance
  2. Family & marriage are key institutions
    1. Benefit from sex
    2. Dominate through the threat and use of sexual/domestic violence
2. Marxist
  1. Oppressed by capitalism and patriarchy
    1. Benston
      1. Socialisation of workers for profit
      2. Unpaid female work
    2. Reserve army of cheap labour
  2. Ansley
    1. Cushions workers
      1. Women are a safety valve
3. Liberal
  1. Sexism is in mainstream culture
  2. Jenny Somerville
    1. Move towards equality
  3. Law
    1. Sex discrimination act
4. Difference
  1. Ethnicities and classes have different experiences so they can't be compared
Demography
1. Births
  1. Reasons for decline
    1. Changes in women's positions
    2. Decline in infant mortality
    3. Children are an economic liability
    4. Child centredness
  2. Effects of fertility changes
    1. The family
    2. The dependency ratio
    3. Public services and policies
  3. Future trends
2. Deaths
  1. Reasons for decline
    1. Medical improvements
    2. Public health and environmental improvements
    3. Improved nutrition
    4. Other social changes
      1. Decline of dangerous manual jobs
      2. Greater illness knowledge
      3. Smaller families reduce transmission rate of infection
      4. Higher income = healthier lifestyle
  2. The ageing population
    1. Declining fertility
    2. Declining infant mortality rate
    3. Increasing life expectancy
  3. The effects of the ageing population
    1. The dependency ratio
    2. One person pensioner households
    3. Public services
    4. Social construct of ageing as a problem
    5. Policy implications
3. Migration
  1. Immigration
  2. Net migration
  3. Emigration
  4. Recent and future patterns
Childhood
1. Social contruct
  1. Western ideas
    1. Jane Pilcher
      1. Seperateness
  2. Cultural differences
    1. Ruth Benedict
      1. Differences between the West and elsewhere
        Responsibility
        Samantha Punch
        Rural bolivia age 5 they work
        Lowell Holmes
        Samoan village, child takes on what they can handle
        Obedience
        Raymond Firth
        Tikopia doing as your told by an adult is a concession
        Sexual behaviour
        Bronislaw Malinowski
        Trobriand "tolerance & amused interest"
  3. Historical differences
    1. Philippe Ariès
      1. Middle ages it didn't exist "mini adults"
      2. Childhood emerged in 13th century
        Schools
        Clothing
        Childrearing books
    2. Edward Shorter
      1. Parental attitudes
  4. Reasons for the change
    1. Law stopping labour
    2. Compulsory school
    3. Child protection and welfare legislation
    4. Children rights
    5. Declining family size & infant mortality
    6. Better medical knowledge of health and development
    7. Laws that apply to children
2. Has the position of childhood improved?
  1. March of progress
    1. Lloyd de Mause
      1. History is dark
    2. Laws protect them
    3. Better healthcare
    4. Smaller families
    5. Higher living standards
      1. Child centredness
  2. Conflict
    1. Inequalities among children
      1. Mayer Hillman
        Boys go out more after hours
      2. Jens Bonke
        Girls do more domestic labour
      3. Julia Brannen
        Asians are stricter with 15-16 year old daughters
      4. Ghazala Bhatti
        Izzat restricts girl behaviour
      5. Caroline Woodroffe
        Unskilled manual workers children
        3x likely to suffer from hyperactivity
        4x more likely to have conduct disorders
      6. Marilyn Howard
        Children in poor families are more likely to
        Die in infancy
        Suffer chronic illness
        Be short
        Fall behind in school
        Be on child protection register
    2. Inequalities between adults and children
      1. Neglect and abuse
        2006 - 31,400 on child protection register
        ChildLine 20,000 annual calls
      2. Control over space
        Hugh Cunningham
        Travel alone distance for 8 year olds is 1/9 of what it was 25 years ago
        Shop signs "no schoolchildren"
        Close surveillance
        Cindi Katz
        Rural Sudanese children roam freely
      3. Control over time
        Routines
        Too old or too young for certain things
      4. Control over their bodies
        What they can and can't do with their appearance
        How they touch themselves
      5. Control over resource access
        Limited money earning opportunities
      6. Age patriarchy
        Diana Gittins
        Cathy Humphreys & Ravi Thiara
        1/4 of 200 women left abuse for fear of their children
        Jennifer Hockey & Allison James
        Acting up or acting down
3. The future of childhood
  1. The disappearance of childhood
    1. Neil Postman
      1. Fall of print culture and the rise of the television culture
  2. Separate childhood culture
    1. Iona Opie
      1. Children create independent culture away from adults
  3. Globalization of western childhood
  4. Sue Palmer
    1. Toxic childhood
      1. Rapid cultural & technological changes damage all development
      2. Julia Margo & Mike Dixon
        Near/top of international league tables
        Obesity
        Self harm
        Drug/alcohol abuse
        Violence
        Early sex experiences
        Teenage pregnancies
Policy
1. Historically
  1. Soviet union (1920s) made divorce and abortion easier. Gender equality. Communal nurseries
    1. Reversed it during industrialisation and war
  2. China's 1 child policy
  3. Nazi family policy
2. Functionalist
  1. Ronald Fletcher
    1. Health,education, housing since the industrial revolution
      1. Welfare state to supports family functions
3. The new right
  1. Welfare benefits offer perverse incentives
  2. Dependency culture
    1. Married to the state
  3. Advocate policies that support traditional family
    1. Taxes favouring married couples
    2. Child support agency
4. Labour
  1. Supporting families 1998
    1. New deal
      1. Off benefits into work
    2. Working family tax credit
      1. More wages for the move from benefits to low paid job
    3. Sure start
      1. Take all children out of poverty
    4. Every child matters 2005
5. Feminism
  1. Hilary Land
    1. Assumes the ideal family is the cereal packet norm
  2. Tax & benefits assume men are breadwinners so hard for women to claim social security benefits
  3. Courts normally give women custody "natural carers"
  4. Diana Leonard
    1. Maternity leave enforces patriarchy
  5. Eileen Drew
    1. Gender regimes
      1. Familstic
        Assumption husband is breadwinner
        Women in Greece are heavily dependent on extended kin as there is little welfare or publicly funded childcare
      2. Individualistic
        Husband and wife treated equally
        In Sweden, both are responsible for breadwinning and domestic tasks, equal opportunities, state provision of childcare
6. Marxism
  1. State and policies serve capitalism
    1. Low state pensions show old workers are maintained at the minimum
    2. Conscription in WW2
      1. 1450 nurseries for working Mums shut down after war
  2. Working class improvements won through class struggle
    1. Pensions
    2. Free healthcare
7. Conservative
  1. Thatcher in 1988 stopped cohabiting couples claiming more tax allowance than married couples
  2. Back to basics campaign 1993
    1. Child support agency 1993
    2. Family law act 1996
      1. 1 year before divorce ( never implemented )
8. Coalition
  1. Promote couples by creating tax benefits for marriage
  2. Increase health visitors
  3. Sure start intervene earlier for needy families
9. Jacques Donzelot
  1. The policing of families
    1. Social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change
    2. Poor families more likely to be watched
      1. "Problem familes" need "improvement"
    3. Rachel Condry
      1. Imposing compulsory parenting classes
        Young offenders, truants etc
        The "correct" way to bring children up
  2. Used Michel Foucault's idea of surveillence
Marriage
1. Changing marriage patterns
  1. Low marriage rates
  2. More remarriages
  3. People are marrying later
  4. Couples are less likely to marry in church
2. Reasons for changing marriage patterns
  1. Changing attitudes
  2. Secularisation
  3. Declining stigma of alternatives
  4. Changes in women's positions
  5. Fear of divorce
3. Reasons for the increase in cohabitation
  1. Sex outside marriage is socially acceptable
  2. Acceptance from the young
  3. Women need less security
  4. Secularisation
  5. The relationship between cohabitation and marriage
    1. Trial marriage
    2. Permenent alterantive
4. Same sex relationships
  1. Social acceptance
  2. Social policy
5. One person households
  1. In a divorce men are more likely to leave without children
  2. More are single
  3. Deliberate choice
  4. Living apart together
Divorce
1. Reasons for the increase in divorce
  1. Changes in the law
    1. Legal aid 1949 for those who couldn't afford it
    2. Divorce reform act 1969 (effect 1971) "irretrievable breakdown of marriage"
    3. Waiting a year for divorce 1984
  2. Declining stigma and changing attitudes
  3. Secularisation
  4. Rising expectations of marriage
  5. Changes in women's positions
2. The meaning of high divorce rates
  1. Feminism
  2. Postmodernists
  3. Functionalists
  4. Interactionists
Conjugal Roles
1. Domestic division of labour
  1. Parsons
    1. Instrumental and expressive roles
  2. Elizabeth Bott
    1. Joint and segregated roles
  3. Young & Wilmott
    1. Symmetrical nuclear family
      1. Changes in women's positions
      2. Geographical mobility
      3. New technology
      4. Higher living standards
  4. Ann Oakley
    1. Housewife role is dominant for married women
  5. Mary Boulton
    1. Less than 20% of men have a major childcare role
  6. Alan Warde & Kevin Hetherington
    1. Sex typing of domestics is strong
2. The impact of paid work
  1. Jonathan Gershuny
    1. Wives who work do less domestic work
  2. Hilary Silver & Juliet Schor
    1. Housework is commercialised
    2. Women working
  3. Dual burden
    1. Elsa Ferri & Kate Smith
      1. Women still do as much work in and out of the house
      2. 4% of men are main carers
  4. Triple shift
    1. Jean Duncombe & Dennis Marsden
  5. Gender scripts with lesbian couples
    1. Gillian Dunne
      1. Equality
  6. Oriel Sullivan
    1. Men do more domestic labour
3. Resources/decision making
  1. Jan Pahl& Carolyn Vogler
    1. Pooling
    2. Allowance system
  2. Stephen Edgell
    1. Very important decisions
      1. Husbands
    2. Important decisions
      1. Jointly
    3. Less important decisions
      1. Wives
4. Domestic violence
  1. Richard Wilkinson
    1. Due to stress on family members caused by social inequality
      1. Inequality = less resources than others
  2. Radical feminism
    1. Preserves the power of men over women
Diversity
1. The new right
  1. Conservative and anti-feminist view
    1. Lone parent families
      1. Delinquency = threat to social stability
      2. Benefits offer perverse incentives
    2. Stay at home Mums
      1. Patrick Jenkins
        Inequality due to biology
    3. Marriage is necessary for children
      1. Harry Benson
        Family breakdown is lower in marriage (6%)
2. The neo-conventional family
  1. Robert Chester
    1. Dual earner family where both spouses work
    2. Nuclear family is an aspiration
      1. Alternatives due to life cycle
        Statistics are misleading
        Most households have married couples
        Most marriages continue until death
        Cohabitation is normally temporary before marriage
3. The Rapoports
  1. Organisational
  2. Cultural
  3. Social class
  4. Life stage
  5. Generational
4. Postmodernism
  1. Life course analysis
  2. Anthony Giddens
    1. Equal relationships
    2. Greater choice *contraception*
  3. Ulrich Beck
    1. Risk society
      1. Negotiated family
  4. Judith Stacey
    1. Divorce extended family
  5. Jeffery Weeks
    1. Growing acceptance of diversity

Next up

Family & Households

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by caryscallan over 10 years ago