am today. Two sociological themes that emerged when writing section one are family and culture. Family creates and shapes everyone’s life whether it is positive or negative. Family is defined as “It finds its origin in marriage; it consists of husband, wife, and children born in their wedlock, though other relatives may find their place close to this nuclear group, an the group is united by moral, legal, economic, religious and social rights and obligations” (Ravelli and Webber 283). There are two main family forms, nuclear family and extended family; these families are the most commonly found forms of a family structure. A nuclear family is an adult male and female and their offspring. An extended family is multiple generations of adults …show more content…
(Ravelli and Webber 288) The functionalist approach is “based on the assumption that families exist to perform certain functions for their members” (Bappert 1) and to not only support one another but also the larger social structures. In families, certain social functions are given like love, emotional and economic support and sexual expression. Families are the major support system of these social functions and help a person to grow into a healthy adult. Children learn the values and norms of the society and also learn what their social status is through wealth and inheritance of the family. (Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p. 289) Talcott Parsons argues that ever since industrialization there is no longer produced goods and food needed, now there is specific roles developed for men, women and children. (Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p. 289) Parsons suggests that women should take on an “expressive role” and men should fill the “instrumental role” in the family structure. The expressive role is “responsible for the emotional wellbeing of family members and the socialization of children” and the instrumental role is “responsible for engaging in paid labour outside the home” (Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p. 289). Basically, this means men do all the hard work and earn the money and the women take care of the children and the emotional problems within the home. …show more content…
(Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p. 294) feminist theory suggests all families are based on conception and childbirth and are specific based on time and space. (Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p.294) In addition, feminists reject the idea that men and women’s roles in the family are natural and biologically different because of gender. They suggest everything is gendered in everyday life; basically everything is based of off gender and only certain ideas or tasks can be accomplished through certain gender. Post-structuralist theory examines the idea of the “good mother” and the “good father” and they argue that these divisions of gender are immersed in power relations. (Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p. 296) The impression of good mothers and good fathers act as normalizing discourses, which are boundaries of what is acceptable and appropriate and work to control people’s behaviour. Dependent on gender and position in the family the relations of power develop in different family roles. Queer theory is the last sociological approach within family. The queer theory is influenced by the post-structualist theory. Queer theorist may question the expectation of heterosexual relationships and the assumptions of “heterorelationality” (Ravelli and Webber, 2013, p.197). These theories question why those relationships are considered normal and investigate
It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults” (p.1). Parents are the main influence in a child’s life and have the responsibility to be affectionate and nurturing towards their children. Conversely, dysfunctional parents with destructive influences tend to have troubled kids. Depending on the child’s social environment, there are some children in this world whom are not as fortunate enough to have a loving mother and father. The functionalist perspective focuses on keeping the family functioning regardless of the dysfunctions that can occur. (Bereska 10) A dysfunctional family is a threat to the stability of the greater society. However, from this functionalist perspective other structures come in by filling in the gaps that are missing in order to restore normality/ the
The American family can be defined in as many ways as there are families. For a single person, he or she may define his or her family as his or her pet. Others may define family as his or her friends, but for most people, family is traditionally defined as including his or her biological parents, siblings and immediate blood relations. The traditional American family, despite being depicted in television shows, such as Leave It To Beaver or buzzwords for marked political agendas, is a falsehood that truly never existed for the vast majority of Americans. The birth of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s is often held responsible for the breakdown of the “traditional” family consisting of the working father, stay-at-home
Parsons and Bales believed sincerely that the modern family and the male-breadwinner family was the ideal family structure for society and would continue to be as time went on. However, their lack of consideration for societal change and adjustments within the American economy, made them ignorant of the burdens placed on mothers because of the patriarchal social norms they heavily supported. Thankfully their work did lead to the further development of studying the family lifestyle by not only Coontz and Hochschild but other sociologists as well. However, the gender norms they constructed must be recognized as public issues society must improve as a whole in order to ease the adjustment of both fathers and mothers earning jobs while maintaining a family.
By the 1980s, Marxism, the economics forces define the political and cultural realities in society, mixed with feminism claimed “that gender is not class but a driving force of history.” This created the notion that “when women are subordinate men benefit” and that women had a disadvantage to men in the workforce (Conley 2013). Marxist feminist would called this gender conflict. The nuclear family has gender roles which are “set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female.Gender roles is more general term,but Parson’s sex roles is more of an ambiguous term. Sex roles theory states that men are work oriented, while women are domestic oriented to form the ideal nuclear family. “Sex roles created by society was formed for structuralism functionalism, which is the theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions(2013). Even though functionalist supported this theory in the 1960s, it was flawed. Sex role theory only provided one way of how a family could function. Essentialist would describe Parson’s theory as the social phenomena of the nuclear family based on the biological factor of sex. R.W. Connell described the condition in which men are dominant and privileged and that it is invisible, which is Hegemonic masculinity. Even though hegemonic masculinity is what some theorist impose, it clarifies
As century pass by generation also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men was the breadwinner. during this century those perspective have changed argued Stephanie Coontz the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believe women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality. Robert Kuttner, the author of “The Politics of Family” also believe that women should not be only the caretaker but whatever they want as a career. Robert Kuttner 's text does support Stephanie Coontz’ arguments about the issues related to traditional
This theory focuses on stability rather than, change. There are many disadvantages of this theory. This theory fails to analyze inequalities, and is very broad. This theory has also been criticized for enforcing a male-dominated society. Structural functionalists thought that breadwinner-homemaker families “provided the basis for stability and cooperation”, which lead to successful families (Cohen, 17). In transnational families and other families, the function of family members is shaped by their gender, which can lead to unrealistic expectations. When fathers, or mothers are absent for a period of a child’s life, it drastically impacts the dynamic of a
During World War II, a lot of America women became Rosy the Riveter. When the war ended and the men returned home, they wanted to return to the traditional ways but many women did not want to give up their jobs and the supply of money they were making. This created a huge shift in the role of women in society that is still taking effect today (Griffiths et al., 2015). The traditional gender roles are still believed to work by some functionalists (Shepard, 1993). Famed sociologists Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales believed that “Families… require one adult in an ‘instrumental’ role and another adult in an ‘expressive’ role. The husband-father, who usually assumes the instrumental role, is responsible for family in the occupational, political, and economic situations. In preforming the expressive role, the wife-mother is concerned with maintaining relationships within the family, taking care of children, and providing emotional security for all family members”(pg. 300). Even though this may have worked at one time, many sociologists do not believe with Parsons and Bales; they think that modern society treats people not based on their role, but their abilities. Many sociologists believe that the functionalist perspective is outdated and only explains how gender roles came to be, not what they
A family might include anyone related by blood or by adoption such as: step parents, grandparents acting as parents, and even brothers and sisters sharing the same household. However, worldwide “the family is regarded as the most ba...
Some functionalists explain that the family is beneficial to individuals and is tantamount to keeping society running while Marxists argue that the family helps private property be handed down and it keeps wealth in the hands of individuals. (Phillip Jones) Frederick Engels noted in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State that “inheritance is central to the family” and that before the family was created we were more caring about each other and shared more, in theory the family has divided us. On the other hand Functionalists think that the family helps emotionally and psychologically, Talcott Parsons and Emile Durkheim, two key figures in Functionalist theory believed in the consensus theory. CT is an analogy of the human body which represents the Functionalist view of the nuclear family. (Giddens) While the husband is out earning money and putting food on the table for the family, his wife/children/home act as a 'warm bath ' purging his stress with things like sex so that he is reinvigorated and ready for the next day at work where he is able to contribute to society. A key point highlighted by Marxists is that the family absorbs the frustrations of workers, they tend to agree that socialisation is more about ideology and conditioning the working class to except set ways of conformity. While a worker could be out protesting about his exploitation, Ruling Class ideology and Capitalism distracts workers with a false conciseness, promoting certain values, forms of media such as TV Programmes and consumerism. Marx in his own words stated that “The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.” (Communist Manifesto) Ideological state apparatuses such as family, religion, media and
The family unit is as diverse as the societies they each represent. This sometimes can manifest traditional roles of doting mothers and providing fathers into a home with two sets of parents (Kurrien & Dawn Vo, 2004). Therefore, the involvement and importance of the extended family: grandparents and other family members such as aunts and uncles play a significant role in both its economic and social function.
Sociologists look at society from either a macro or micro view and the theories that define their work are based on those perspectives. There are several family theories that we learned about this semester. Briefly, Structural-Functionalism and Conflict Theory are “macro” theories in sociology. Structural-Functionalism sees society as a living machine made up of different parts which work together for the good of society. Individuals, as well as Institutions work together, and the family is the key to the well-functioning machine. Emile Durkheim, considered the Father of Sociology argues social solidarity, where people do the right thing, create harmony and have shared values. According to Durkheim the nuclear family is the only type of institution that can achieve that. Conflict Theory sees society as a pyramid with those at the top having more power and influence than those at the bottom. Males in society have more power than females. There is a power imbalance, which could lead to oppression o...
The unit of a family is the most prominent essential for all of us. As social human beings, we seek social support in order to thrive, and that is where family comes into play. A family is where you receive love, support, encouragement, and many other social benefits. The total number of households in the United States increased from 63 million in 1970 to 113 million in 2008 (Weeks, 2012). The family has influenced multitudes of people in many ways. The traditional family in the United States consists two-married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring also know as the nuclear family. However, the term of a true family has ultimately changed over the last 50 years especially for African Americans.
Ø Feminists also criticise functionalists for ignoring male dominance that often is present in society. Furthermore, the sexual division of labour it describes is not universal, with the relative roles of women and men in modern families can be seen to be gradually changing. Ø Many functionalists concentrate primarily on the universal nuclear family in modern societies, with the growing diversity of family types is not considered. Ø Functionalists have a problem explaining social change.
Functionalists emphasise the harmonious nature of the nuclear family, believing it provides a more stable environment for the family and its individual members but also for society as a whole. It draws attention to the positive aspects of family life, fitting in with many people’s experience and expectation of the family as somewhere they are safe and cared for. Functionalists see the father taking an instrumental role, supporting the family by earning a wage with the mother taking the expressive role, caring, nurturing and taking main responsibility for the home and childcare. New Right agrees segregated conjugal roles are human nature and are reinforced by society’s norms and values.
Everyone is born into some form of family, with the family taking the responsibility of nurturing, teaching the norms or accepted behaviors within the family structure and within society. There are many types of families, which can be described as a set of relationships including parents and children and can include anyone related by blood or adoption. Family is the most important, “for it is within the family that the child is first socialized to serve the needs of the society and not only its own needs” (Goode, 1982).