What's covered
Key facts
Changing family patterns — Willmott and Young
Willmott and Young predicted a fourth, asymmetrical stage (men's leisure moving outside the home), but conceded it had not really happened.
Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour — Oakley
Elizabeth Bott (1957) distinguished two types of conjugal role relationship: segregated and joint.
Criticisms of the family — Marxism and feminism
Delphy and Leonard (Familiar Exploitation, 1992) argued the family is an economic system in which men benefit most from women's unpaid labour.
Family forms and diversity — the Rapoports
The beanpole family shape is driven by demographic change: falling birth rates mean fewer children per generation, while longer life expectancy means more generations are alive at once.
Functions of the family — Murdock and Parsons
Ronald Fletcher, a functionalist, argued the family has NOT lost its functions: the welfare state (education, health, housing) helps the family perform them more effectively, not replaces them.
Marriage, divorce and cohabitation
Cohabitation (an unmarried couple living together) has risen sharply and carries little stigma, where it was once condemned as "living in sin".
Changing family patterns — Willmott and Young
Willmott and Young identified four stages of the family: pre-industrial, early industrial, symmetrical, and a predicted asymmetrical stage.
Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour — Oakley
Boulton (1983) argued surveys exaggerate men's childcare: fathers may "help", but mothers keep the main responsibility for children's wellbeing, restricting the mother's own life.
Criticisms of the family — Marxism and feminism
Friedrich Engels (1884) argued the monogamous nuclear family developed alongside private property: men needed legitimate heirs to inherit their wealth, so women's sexuality had to be controlled.
Family forms and diversity — the Rapoports
A beanpole family is a multi-generational extended family that is long and thin: several generations but few members in each (few aunts, uncles or siblings), linked to lower fertility.
Sample questions
A taste of the 91 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What is meant by the symmetrical family?
- •A family run jointly by grandparents and parents
- ✓A family where husband and wife have similar, shared roles
- •A family where the wife does all the housework and childcare
- •A family with no children living in the household
Which best describes segregated conjugal roles?
- •Roles decided entirely by the extended family network
- •Roles where both partners do equal amounts of paid work
- ✓Separate, traditional roles: male breadwinner, female homemaker
- •Shared roles where partners do housework and leisure together
What did Zaretsky argue the family does for capitalism?
- ✓Cushions workers from the effects of capitalism so they do not rebel
- •Encourages workers to organise and overthrow the ruling class
- •Replaces the welfare state and provides healthcare for workers
- •Trains workers in the skills capitalists need for new jobs
What overall view did the Rapoports take towards family diversity?
- •They argued one family type was ideal
- •They believed it harmed children
- •They thought it was a temporary trend
- ✓They welcomed and celebrated it
Which of these is one of Murdock's four functions of the family?
- ✓The economic function
- •The political function
- •The recreational function
- •The religious function
Which factor best explains why women are now more able to leave unhappy marriages?
- •A legal duty to remain married for life
- ✓Greater financial independence through paid work
- •Stronger religious pressure to divorce
- •The rising cost of holding a wedding
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