The Contribution of the New Right to Our Understanding of the Role of the Family in Society

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The Contribution of the New Right to Our Understanding of the Role of the Family in Society

The New right are very much like factionalists in their views of the

family. Both see the nuclear family as the 'normal' family, therefore

other families like lone-parent or reconstituted families are

'abnormal.' They refer to the family as the "cornerstone of society"

so they do emphasise the importance of the family but do say its

important in society and do not comment on how important the family is

to family members. They do want these traditional values to return as

they think it will help solve problems in modern day society, but they

don't see the reason how these different types of families have been

created. For example, lone-parent families can also be produced

because of the mother/father has passed away or can be due to

separation of a family for various reasons. The New Right blame the

welfare state for encouraging lone-parent families, as they provide a

sense of security for the family, however people take advantage of the

system and spoil this extra support for people who really need it.

They also believe that the family is declining and 'under threat' and

the changes in society have changed people attitude on the traditional

norms of family life. These changes in views and attitudes have lead

to more sexual permissiveness, which has automatically leaded to

couples living outside the wedlock. The meaning for marriage has

changed for people and so have the reasons for getting married. Now

there is an alternative of getting married (cohabitation) people

prefer this to the traditional wedding. I feel this has been

increasing becau...

... middle of paper ...

...de effects such as

illegitimacy and under-achieving children.

Charles Murray did a study on illegitimacy (children born out of

wedlock) and discovered that there was a relationship between them and

many social problems like underachieving children at school, crime,

drugs and unemployment.

Dennis & Halsey agree with Murray too.

Although functionalists express similar views to the New Right,

feminists disagree with them.

· Marxist-feminists suggest that the family is an obstacle to women's

freedom and the family as an institution in keep the capital system

going. They see this as a patriarchal institute where women are a

vital part of reproducing labour power. They suffer in many ways

because of the family, one being because they have responsibilities

towards the domestic and childcare side of the family.

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