The Sociology of the family
Todays lesson (C 1.1)
Next lesson (C2.1, 2.2)
All about changes to
structure of the family !
Third lesson (3.1, 3.2)
All about the changing
roles within the family !
• Discussing the
• Discuss how the
changes that have
roles of the family
taken place in the
have changed
structure of the
since WW2
family since WW2
Should: outline the
• Evaluate two
two perspectives in • Analyse two
competing
relation to he
explanations for
sociological views
family’s role in the
these changes
on the
social structure
significance of
these changes for
Could: compare and
the family.
contrast these
perspectives
Must:
Identify two
perspectives of the
role of the family
Getting you thinking- 10 minutes
• In pairs create a mind map with the ‘thought
bubble’ being labelled as,
• ‘the family- what is it , and what does it give
us?
What is the role/ function of the
family?
• The family is a social group characterised by
common residence, economic cooperation
and reproduction . It includes adults of both
sexes, at least two of whom maintain social
approved sexual relationship, and one of more
children, own or adopted, of the sexually
cohabitating adults’ (Murdock 1949).
• We will analyse the structure later! (C2)
The role of the family: functionalist perspective
• First have a think on how functionalist would
see the role of the family?
• What benefits does the family offer on a
society level?
• Board mind map task
Functionalist: with supported handout
Emotional
support. Practical
support
Socialisation
Functionalist
Social Identity
Regulate sexual
activity and
reproduction:
biological
consequences
However
• Murdock's definition of the family is an
‘happy’ one, does not take into account that
not everyone has a positive experience of the
role of the family. ( children who are
neglected)
• Functionalism also forgets that other factors
have an impact on the role of the family. For
example, social class.
• What do you think to the above statement
Extreme example
• The Ik culture
•
Lastly
• However does not take into account the way
family may contribute to social inequality…
• Have a chat in pairs analysing the above
statement
• Reflect on board
Marxist perspective on the role of the
family
• Handout
• Group discussion- linking to assessment
However: Marxist
• There are some benefits to the family
• see Functionalism!
Lesson 2
12th May 2015
Structure and roles of the family
since WW2 till now
The role OF the family:
Functionalist
• Socialisation
• Emotional/physical support
• Parsons –personality
factories – children
committed to shared
norms, values and feelings
of belongingness to society
• Relieve the stress of
modern day living : Warm
bath theory (handout)
• Family provides a relaxing
place for the worker after a
hard day of work…
Marxist
• Socialisation is a tool used
by capitalist society
Other critiques:
• Functionalist explanation of
the family based on middle
class ideology
• Ignores divorce rates,
domestic abuse, and
childhood neglect- not all
rosy and happy family life.
The role OF the
Family
The Structure of the
family
The roles WITHIN the
family
C 1.1/1/2 Defining the
role
Compare and contrast
functionalist and
Marxist perspectives on
this
C2.1/2/2 Changes to the
structure since WW2
Analyse functionalist and
Marxist explanations for
these changes
C3.1/3.2 Changes to the
role within the family
since WW2 and evaluate
functionalist and Marxist
perspectives of the
importance of these
changes
The structure of the family today
• In order to appreciate the changes to the
structure and roles within the family that has
taken place since the industrial revolution and
WW2, we need to analyse what the structure
and roles of the family today…
• Task- mindmap
Structure of family today
• Heterosexual/Homosexual
• Single parent –mother or father
• Families with no children
• None, one or both parents working
• Divorced households
• Children not always biological
• Less children:
•There were 7.7 million families with dependent children in
the UK in 2012, 1 in 7 of which had three or more dependent
children.
•Married couples had a higher average number of dependent
children in their family than other family types, at 1.8 children
per family compared with 1.7 on average.
•Nearly 9 in 10 couple families with three or more dependent
children had either one or both parents working (ONS, 2012)
Roles within the family today: UK
based
• Role of the child:
• Role of the woman:
• Role of the man:
What you need to consider…
• How did the current structure of the
family become the way it is now.. How
was it before WW2 (industrial revolution)
• How was it before this period?
• Why does the structure of the family
change? (two perspectives)
•
What influences these changes in both
structure and the roles within the family
(two perspectives)?
Getting you thinking task (p40)
• Introduction to criteria 2
• Mind map refresher: what do we remember
about a pre industrial society?
The family Pre WW2 (Pre industrialisation
The roles and structure of the preindustrial family : Ascribed social class
• High death rate particularly of children, made it
necessary to raise up a dozen children
• Mothers taught daughters domestic activities
• Fathers would teach sons manual labour
• Families raised their children strictly to work
• Father was the head of the family
• Each individual family played an important role in society
• The men were raised to work and make money
• Women were raised to protect their family and territory
due to absence of proper law, women had to be able to
fight to protect their land whilst the man was working
• Any similarities to today’s family?
Phillippe Aries (1962): the role of
children
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Handout: p56
Childhood today is a recent social invention
Childhood in this time did not exist
Children were little adults
Economic asset
Rather then a symbol of love
Investing emotionally into children was difficult
as death rates were so high
• Unit of production
• Children expected to help in this.
Remember ‘Enlightenment’ happened
which led to industrialisation..
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/in
dustrial_era/the_industrial_revolution/video/
The industrial revolution!! (1790s
onwards) and now the achieved society (for
men)
Parsons (Functionalist)
(Parsons and Bales, 1956)
• Functionalists argue that family develop to
meet the basic needs of societies
• The family due to industrial revolution lost
most of it’s jobs which led the family change
its role to that of socialisation (to fit with
society's’ changes)
• Which had long lasting effects and seen even
today…
Parson’s continued
• Lets break his theory down:
• The industrial revolution brought about 3
important changes to the family
Lets analyse the structure of ‘The
Simpsons’.
1. The nuclear family
• The nuclear family: is a family structure that
consists of two parents living with their 2/3
children, also known as an immediate family
and married (values and morals)
• This was the ideal because easier to move for
job opportunities as society changed from an
ascribed to an achieved state
2. Introduction of specialised agencies
• These took over the many functions of the
family for example:
• Health, welfare and education (further
promoting, longer life, less child deaths, and
meritocracy- hence further changing the
structure of the family to nuclear!!)
• Children became centre of the family –
socialisation was promoted
3. Division of labour
• Division of labour
• Men: breadwinners- role is to provide
financially for the family, act as the disciplinary
role model for children
• Women: housewives and motherhoodnurturing roles, looking after the house,
having more children (housework)
The children's’ role changed too… but
slower from 1800s-early 1900s
• Not at first: children were still expected to work in
factories, mines and mills until late 1800s
• However attitudes from the new middle class (meritocratic
based) started to change: growth in love and especially as
the mortality rate lowered.
• Middle of 19th century: children excluded from mines and
factories where 1000s had been killed. However resistance
was from the working class, as children's’ wages were
needed- until laws were enacted to give a minimum wage.
• Other polices arose: education and sexual consent (early
1900s), children were no longer being sold for sex (SC 16)
• Children became protected
• They were recognised as important
• They were educated to fit into an meritocratic and
industrialised society…
An example: Education
• An 1880 Act made
education compulsory until
the age of ten, following
campaigning by the
National Education League.
Under the Elementary
Education (School
Attendance) Act 1893 it was
increased to 11 and the
right to education was
extended to deaf and blind
children. In 1899 the leaving
age was increased again to
13.
Parsons concluded:
• The nuclear family was the most effective in
providing achievement –orientated and
geographically mobile workforce required for
modern societies..
• As the most apt to meet the needs of societyto get their young socialised.
However: Parsons
However
• Is this our family now- nuclear?
• Or did something else happen to change the
roles and structure?
WW2 happened
• Things to consider:
• How did WW2 affect the family? (as it was
happening)
• Did the structure change again?
• Did the roles within the family change again?
WW2 and its affect on the family
• Handout:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_
wwtwo/women_at_war_01.shtml
• Class building mind-map task
The roles of children in WW2
• The Children: encouraged to leave their
homes
• Encouraged to play more even on bomb sites
The changes
• The roles within family:
•
• The structure of the
family:
After the war
• Women were encouraged to return to the
home to have babies to replenish the UK
population after WW2
• Led to the second baby boom of the 1950s
• Because women were made to stay at homepolicies were enacted – for example,
• No free childcare was needed for the mother
to work
• Women were dismissed from their posts
Lesson 3
THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY
Assignment brief
Recap: Roles of the family
•
•
•
•
•
•
The roles of the family is to provideEmotional support
Physical support
Socialisation- teaches us morals, role, values etc
Our understanding of Social class
The bath tub theory- family a place to relax after a hard
day’s work!
• However- Marxist – way to keep us under control, not
all families have the experience!
This we worked out on the board as a mindmap!
Recap-changing structure and roles
within the family
• Before industrialisation the family was extended with
each member having a role- IE children- ‘little adults’
• After industrialisation the family became Nuclearleading up to WW2- birth of institutions led to ‘love’ of
our children/ set roles within the family- The Simpsons
• WW2 changed family: single parents, co-habiting vs
marriage, working women- (Barrow (2010) 90 per-cent
of women were employed), conducting jobs that were
normally male dominated, single parent families etc
• Since WW2 other changes : Homosexuality legal,
divorce rates, families with no children, contraception,
women being the ‘breadwinner’ , mixed heritage
families – leading to how our family is today
• What is the impact of this?
Changing family roles and structure
since WW2
Since WW2 Women- breadwinners vs
housewives
• Change to the roles within
the family
• From 1940-1945, the
female labor force grew by
50% and female
employment in defense
industries grew by 462%”
(AllAboutHistory.org). This
also shifted cultural
attitudes, making it okay for
middle class women to
work, where previously it
had been taboo
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/bites
ize/standard/history/scotlan
d_britain_1880_now/emplo
yment_women/revision/4/
video
• Handout:
• Lots of women had to keep
working (husbands died)
• Demanded to keep working

• Skills leant were needed
• However they were paid
less then men
And Today?...
• Women in leadership
roles
• Rise of the contraceptive
pill: women can have
many partners thus
women are not the role
seen in the nuclear family.
• Women CHOSE to have
children
• To CHOSE their sexuality
maybe?
• Chose when to have
children
• Hence the role of the
woman is not always just
being a mother.
• Will have an impact on
the structure!
• As the change to a role
within the family will
change the structure of
the family
Since WW2: Birth of Contraception:
changes to roles within and structure
of the family
• Effects both structure: less children
• Roles: women can choose not to procreatethey are no longer the house wife/mother.
Since WW2 change to Marriage and
cohabiting
• Getting you thinking task: page 48
• Change to the structure (challenges nuclear)
• Because of the 1960s- people now chose if they want
to get married or not…
• About 15.2 per cent of families consist of a married
couple with children
• Is 300,000 fewer than a decade ago
• Handout:
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article2544972/Decline-marriage-Just-4million-homeshusband-wife-children.html#ixzz3aQsEI0qf
Divorce and the change to the
structure of the family
divorces have risen since 1960s
1969 divorce reform act
What was happening socially?- Didn’t help the
supposed king divorced!
This will change the structure of the family to a
broken one at first then to families with step
fathers/mothers.
Since WW2: Children even more
protected: roles within the family
Since WW2: Homosexuality legal:
effects on family?
• Change to structure of the family (change of
the nuclear family)
• And roles: male taking on a more female role…
•
•
•
•
•
Explanations for the change to the
structure post industrialisation- The
nuclear
family
Functionalist: We have
• Marxist:
already discussed this!
Birth of the nuclear family
in response to a
meritocratic society
Warm bath theory
Small, mobile etc
Promotes social mobility:
caring, supportive etc
• Accept the nuclear family
BUT
• The nuclear family is an
ideological conditioning
device
• Children trained to copy
parents
• http://beta.tutor2u.net/soci
ology/blog/sociologyrevision-notes-familyperspectives
Explanations to the change of the
structure since WW2
The impact of the changing roles
1. New right perspective
conservative thinkers/traditionalists
• Role of the Family is in decline
• Once a golden age- love, children born from
this, specified roles, nuclear structure
• Divorce reform act- undermines family
commitment to marriage- implications are
children having less commitments when they
grow up
New rights: roles within the family
• 1960s 70s- sustained attack on ‘the family’
• Changing roles of women:
• Legislation of abortion and introduction of
contraception had an impact on the role of
the woman
• Lessened commitment to the idea of family
• Equal pay legislation : distracted women from
their natural role of being a mother and house
wife… keep cool…
Changing roles of men
• Homosexuality
• The decriminalisation of homosexuality as
been seen by the New right as an important
symbol of moral decline
• New right see this has unnatural and deviant…
Impact of this for the family and
society?
• More single parent families
• Kids brought up to have babies to obtain benefits… (I'm
not kidding)
• Underclass of criminals, unmarried mothers and idle
young men who are responsible for rising crime rates,
lack of morals, anti work and anti family.
• Which needs to be stopped Hence why conservative
media is always around the nuclear family
• Policies are also: favoured hedrosexual married couples
• Limited childcare provision- as women belong in the
home…
Nursery fees: under Cameron
• Link:
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/apr/1
4/david-cameron-conservatives-childcaremanifesto
• “At the moment, government funding does not
cover the cost of delivering 15 hours of childcare
for three- and four-year olds, and so it has been
left to providers and parents to make up the
shortfall….