FAMILY
Traditional Families
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Heterosexual relationship between 2 parents
Married (preferably first marriage)
Children (2.4)
Live together
Father head of the family
Wife and Children take father’s name
Division of labor by sex
• Father = breadwinner
• Mother = homemaker
 More than merely a social unit. It is given almost
“holy” status. Any questioning of this unit is
rejected
The family is a social group characterised by
common residence, economic co-operation and
reproduction. It includes 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’
Murdoch 1949
A Family is a social unit characterized by
economic cooperation, the management of
reproduction and child rearing, and common
residence. It includes both male and female
adults who maintain a socially approved
sexual relationship. Family members, both
adults and children, recognize certain rights
and obligations toward one another”
Ferraro 2003
Is the family dead (or dying)?
The family is not “dying,” but it is changing
2001 census showed a continuation in the decline of
what used to be called the traditional family - mom, dad
and the kids,“
Households consisting of four or more people - typically
mom, dad and their two kids - accounted for only a
quarter of all Canadian households in 2001.
Two decades earlier, they accounted for a third
The decrease would be even steeper if only married
moms and dads with kids considered
According to Statistics Canada's Census (1996)
THERE ARE 7.8 MILLION FAMILIES IN CANADA
•45% are married couples with children
•29% are married couples without children
•5% are common-law couples with children
•6% are common-law couples without children
•15% are lone-parent
•(83% of lone-parents are female)
A Brief History of the Family
4th Century AD Christian church prohibited close
marriages, discouraged adoption, condemned
polygyny, concubinage, divorce, and remarriage
this strengthened the conjugal tie between a man
and a woman at the expense of blood ties.
also ensured many people would be left with no
male heirs, since many families have only female
children and others have no children at all.
By eliminating polygyny, concubinage, divorce and
remarriage and by discouraging adoption, the
church removed the means by which people
overcame these odds and made sure that they would
have male heirs.
result was to facilitate the transfer of property from families to the
church.
Economic Primacy in the PreIndustrial Family
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Marriage was a contract that revolved around
economic concerns.
Having children was an economic decision
based on need (for labor) or old age support.
All family members had an economic
importance to the family’s survival.
• everyone worked
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Family represented the main mode of
production—mostly farming—and it used what
it produced.
Who Had Power in the Preindustrial Family
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Patriarch of family—oldest male—controlled land, the
most valuable resource
This power commanded veneration—profound
respect—but not necessarily love
Power of patriarch was based on resources that would
flow to younger generations.
Sons could only marry when father turned over some
land to them
Relations between parents and children were
autocratic and based on control of this valued resource
Children were viewed more in instrumental than in
sentimental terms (as “little adults”)
Types of Family Structures
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Conjugal family: mother, children,and
usually father
Extended family: conjugal family plus other
relatives such as grandparents, aunts/uncles
Stem family: parents and one adult child
who remains at home
Extended Family: Over-idealized?
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Three-generation household were common,
but less common than you would think
• Children waited until they could be independent
before marrying
• Parents didn’t live long enough to live with
grandchildren
• Unmarried child was usually living with parents
• Only about 20% of households in pre-industrial
North America were extended
Family and the Industrial
Revolution; The Force of Change
“The single most significant event to affect the family is
the industrial revolution.” (Henslin 2003:362).
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1. Fathers now worked outside the home
2. Children became economic liabilities
3. Demand for education
• makes children more dependent on parents for a longer
period of time
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4. Lower birth rate
• vulcanized rubber
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5. Settlement patterns
6. Loss of traditional functions
7. Traditional role of women changed
8. Greater Equality emerges between men
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and women
Increase in divorce
10. Increased health and decline in mortality rates
11. Women join the work force
Postmodern Family
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No form of family is best
No pattern of gender division of labor
No one person is left to parent the children
– parenting is among many caring others
• Greater acceptance of daycare/fathers at home
• Both parents may want to have careers
‘The nuclear family is a universal human social
grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of
the family or as the basic unit from which more
complex forms compounded, it exists as a
distinct and strongly functional group in every
society’.
Murdoch 1949
Is the nuclear family Universal?
Kibbutz
 The early idealists felt that the nuclear family unit was
obsolete, and the entire kibbutz should be one big family unit.
 Children slept in communal children's houses with a
caretaker to tend to their night needs.
 Parents and children alike found it distressing.
 Today, children on every kibbutz live and sleep with their
parents, at least into their teen years
The children's houses have become day
care and activity centers. Most of their
waking hours are still spent with their
peers in facilities adapted specifically for
each age group.
Kibbutz children’s house
The Mundurucu
live in isolated communities in Brazil.
Men all live together in a single house
with all boys over the age of 13.
Women live together with their
children and younger boys in 2 or 3
houses grouped around that of the men
 When boys are 13 they move in with
the men of the village
 Because men and women do
not live together as members of
discrete residential units, it
cannot be said that families are
present in their society.
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What is meant by “family” is culturally, socially
and historically defined and therefore cannot be
universal all the time and in all places.
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functions of the nuclear family can be
equally performed in different family structures.
SO
1. What are the functions of the family
2. And what are the various family structures
Functions of the Family
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Sexual: the family provides environment
for regulating sexual desires.
 Reproduction: essential for survival of
human society
 Socialisation and education: learning the
norms and values of society.
 Economic: shelter, division of labour.
 To give emotional security
 Care of the sick and aged
 Recreation and companionship
 protection
Functionalist Perspective
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Focuses on stability and cooperation
Each partner performed certain functions
Husband worked outside the home
Wife did housework and childcare
Breadwinner-Homemaker Model
Functionalists believe that the traditional/nuclear family is
essential for performing these functions
Functionalists often seen as pessimists (the family is “in
decline”)
What functions of the family are now handled by other
institutions in our society?
From a functionalist perspective, such changes have weakened
the family unit.
The fewer functions that family members have in common, the
fewer are their ‘ties that bind.’ With these bonds removed, or
weakened, the family more fragile. Divorce, then, is
common—the inevitable consequence of eroded functions in a
context of great social strain” (Henslin 2002:376).
Marxism Theory of the Family
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Frederick Engels claimed the family only came into existence
with the invention of private property.
Without the family there could be no effective system of
private property because parentage and inheritance would
be impossible to determine.
The family is seen as a means of social control and
reproduces capitalist society.
The family is an exploitative institution.
families and especially women provide the domestic labour
for the capitalist system to be maintained – the family
reproduces labour power.
Engels: Capitalists exploit workers; reliance on family to
maintain labor force (via reproduction); thus, women
economically dependent on men
Conflict Theory Premise:
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In every social group/organization, participants
hold inequitable amounts of resources
Those with power/resources seek to maintain
While…
Those without seek to gain
=potential for conflict
Two statuses in family have more power and
resources: adults over children and men over
women
Symbolic Interaction Perspective
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Symbolic Interaction Theory
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Looks at internal family dynamics; interactions
within families (talk, gestures, actions)
• We interpret symbols of how people act
• Shared understandings of how people should act
creates the basis of social roles that people play
• Spouse, parent, breadwinner, homemaker, child, etc.
• does not identify a “natural” family structure
• Valuable in these times of more stepfamilies, dual
career marriages, and single parent families
Feminist Theories of the Family
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There are 3 main strand of feminist thought: all
emphasise the central importance of patriarchy (male
domination of society) to understanding the family.
 Liberal feminists assert the family serves the needs of
men, reinforces patriarchy and oppresses women. It is
however capable of being reformed.
 Radical feminists identify gender exploitation as the
most fundamental form of domination. The family is
seen as an economic system run for the benefit of all
men.
 Marxist Feminists empathise the “double exploitation”
of women by capitalism and men. The family is seen as a
“safety valve” within capitalism. Men take the
frustrations born of alienated labour under capitalism out
within the family sometimes in the form of physical
violence.
ALTERNATE FAMILY FORMS:
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SINGLE PARENT
BLENDED and RECONSTITUTED
EXTENDED
COHABITING COUPLES
POLYGAMY (GROUP MARRIAGE,
POLYANDRY, AND POLYGYNY)
Household: Consists of people who occupy the
same housing unit; Apartment, house, etc.
While most families live in households, not all
households correspond to a family unit
The Single Parent Family
Majority are female
headed households
Generally poorer than
other family types
for comparative
purposes the basic
domestic unit from
which others
constructed consists of
mother and her
children
Nuclear family
 adapted to a life that requires
high mobility.
 neolocal residence tends to isolate
husbands and wives from their kin.
kin unavailable to help look after
the children and so arrangements
must be made to have the children
looked after by non-kin.
 an independent unit that must
fend for itself; this creates a strong
dependence of individual members
on one another
Nuclear family
nuclear family is impermanent
- goes through a cycle.
nuclear family disintegrates
with the death of the senior
members
once children gone, who cares
for parents in their old age?
problem does not arise in
extended families where care is
from womb to tomb.
The Reconstituted Family
formed by adults
who have married
previously and who
bring children from
their previous
marriage to the new
marriage, forming a
new family unit
Extended family
 based on common descent
consists most commonly of a
married couple and one or more
married children
 all living in the same house or
household.
the constituent nuclear families
are linked through the parent-child
tie.
newlyweds are assimilated into
an existing family unit.
in-marrying spouses must
conform to the expectations of the
family in which they now live.
Extended family
extended perpetuates itself
family is always adding new
members who eventually become
the senior members of the
household.
extended families prevent the
ruinous division of property
especially land
found where the work a woman
must do makes it difficult to look
after the children and also other
household chores. i.e. it makes for
an effective division of labour.
Advantages:
•Companionship
•Economic stability
•Help with elder care
and child care
•Flexibility
•Capital accumulation
Disadvantages
•Loss of privacy
•Authority of elders
Complex Households
co-wives's economic
and political interests,
especially with regards
to their children, their
labour, and their
allegiances to their kin,
often conflict.
causes organizational
problems
Thomas Arthur Green, loving father and
husband to five women, was charged with four
counts of bigamy April 2000.
Complex Households
most common solution is for each wife to have her own
household
husband plays a secondary role in each.
households seldom fully independent economically
a principal motive for polygyny is to create a joint work
force and pool the productive efforts (as well as the
reproductive efforts) of several women.
Each household may be a partly separate unit in production
and consumption.
in many ways they are separate social units.
polygynous households represent a control by the
established senior men over both the labour and the fertility of
women and over junior men.
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Family is...
• a cross-culturally universal social institution
• cross-culturally variable in its constitution
• the basic unit of social organization in terms
of
• identity construction
• economic production
– distribution of goods
– labor demands
– inheritance
• reproduction
– biological
– cultural
Father Knows best19541958
Ozzie and Harriett
1952-1966