Family: A Pillar of Society and Driver of Inequality

Families have long been the backbone of our society. There are many important things families provide for society. Although the family is important there are other institution that could provide at least some of their functions. Even though there are many benefits to the family the family system perpetuates social inequality such as, class, gender, and racial and ethnic stratification. Families hold society together and discourage a pure meritocracy. Some even believe that there is a form of the family that would not play a part in social inequality.
The family is a social institution found in all societies that unite people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including any children. Family ties also reflect kinship, a social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption. All societies contain

Societies need reproduction to continue the species and families provide the environment to care and raise offspring (although families are not needed for this) children are the most well-adjusted brought up with a mother and father.. Every culture regulates sexual activity in the interest of maintaining kinship organization and property rights. The incest taboo is a norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives. Although the incest taboos exist in every society, exactly which relatives cannot marry varies from one culture to another.
The third is social placement. Families are not needed for people to reproduce, but families do help maintain social organization. Parents pass on their social identity- in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, and social class to their children at birth. The family provides us with our initial social placement such as being born white or black or what religion is taught in the home or what the status of our parents are. These initial social placements will affect almost every area of our lives and shape who we are and what we will