Wednesday 16 December 2009

Domestic Violence within the family

Domestic violence within the family- Domestic violence is all about power and control within the family and it is not just physical abuse. It can be mental, psycological, emotional and can also the implied threat of violence.

Many sociologists have highlighted that all is not well within the family due to the fact that statistics have revealed that domestic violence is on the increase within the family.
Sociologists also think that the family have become more privatised or shut away from larger society, this means that there has been given more of an opportunity for this to happen due to the fact that no one is looking in their family life,so no one is able to see behind closed doors.

Domestic and child abbuse are all based upon the fact that unequal distribution of power within the family unit which many marxist, feminist and radical psychiatrists believe to be the source of many of these problems.

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Domestic Labour and Gender roles within the family

Ann Oakley who is a radical feminist went on a research and interviewed housewives in south east England and discovered that the majority of household tasks were performed by women rather then men a number of interesting aspects were revealed it appeared that in terms of classes that the middle class was more symmetrical then working class family's, however in both classes men seem to do less in child care and house work. Many women in the interview comment on how boring and unfair they felt about the housework.

some felt that there gender identity was being sacrificed along with their husband with some of the men believing that they should not be doing the house work.

Decision making and power within the household!
Power is to get what you want even though others around you may not want it. On occasions we do things because we either think it is the right thing to do or we have to obey those that are in power.

The family is the key place where power is exercised so sociologists will see inequalities within the family differently based on their on their perspectives on how power is distribute.

functionalists take a traditional approach to the family and they will suggest that their is a natural division of labor based on biological differences.


Talcott Parsons believes that women are better suited to be caring because there expressive roles as carers and they naturally care for children and provide emotional support for the family.

Marxist Feminist believed that men are the main reasons for the inequality's by reproducing the workforce and the inequality within the family.

Radical feminists, they believed that the family and the roles within the family are created by men for the benefit of men to enable them to go to work without the burden of child care or domestic work which is completed by the partners i.e the women.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Diversity of the Family.

Diversity in the family is changing within the society. This can be a result of a rise in the divorce rates, this consequently leads to more lone parent family which has created a situation in which there are one parent families who are lead by women because the law awards custody to women over the men as the women in known to be the priory career, also it leads to reconstituted family and various divers family units within the society, another reason for why diversity in the family is changing is because people are cohabiting more which is when people live together and not have to be married. There are also multicultural influences that give impact on the shape and form of the family like many different culture have settled in the UK but have bought with them there culture traditions associated in their families.

Cultural Diversity

different ethnic groups tend to have different forms of family structure it is under latest research it is said that black groups have higher abortion of one parent families then other one parent families.
This is partly due to higher divorce rate amongst black communities there appears to be a long term trend by which black women would rather want to live without the children's partner, it is also revealed that other cultural groups such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi house holds had only a 9% chance of having a lone-parent family however one of the lowest rates of lone-parent family was found amongst white households.
Culture is an important factor in the family diversity, with black families most likely to live with one parent families due to issues mainly around the support of the male partner, on the other hand Pakistani and Bangladeshi families are more likely to live in a traditional nuclear family structures.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

The New Right View of the Family

The new right believe that the ideal family type consists a mother,father and children, this type of family may involve a specialised division of labour that the traditional family should be declined also that the homo sexuality, abortion, Female liberation and morals .
the new right argue that welfare policy encourage policy that favour those who don't want to e married with general benefits offered to mothers and children then born outside of wedlock.

Symbolic Interactionn

Symbolic interaction is the idea that people interact with each other in terms of symbol one of which is language.

PRESENTATION OF SELF:
in the presentation of self by Ervin Goffman he talks about the techniques that we use to influence how other people see us that are facial movements and body language, speech content etc, is an attempt to create a particular impression that we want other people to see us. We create and use the appropriate props to reinforce an impression.

Wednesday 30 September 2009

Feminism and The Family


Feminism is political discourse aimed at equal rights and legal protection for women, this connects the oppression of women to Marxists ideas about exploitations, oppression and labour. this will mean inequalities within the family and all that the society does is strengthen these inequality as the women goes through there life journey.
There are three types of Feminists: Marxists , Radical and Liberal Feminists.

Marxists feminists believe that marriage gives men property rights over women that wives make husbands more constructive workers by acting as a safety valve to handle the tension and frustrations generated at work. they also believe that women provide free domestic labour with out being payed, the criticism of this approach is that many women like the domestic role in family life and this is not false conciseness. However the positiveness of this approach it is identify that the exploitation of women is the key feature of family life and shows that the family is ideologically and socially constructed.

Radical Feminist have the idea that women are handicapped and therefore have to depend on the men and believe that division of labour allows men to be in control in the household, and that being a housewife is a low status and is unpaid position.
We can argue that radical feminists ignores the real satisfaction that the family can give to many women in the society. it ignores the dimension of class and ethnicity and just assumes that gender unites women. in contrast we can see the positive views of radical feminist, which is that it shows that housework is in fact is hard work. it reveals the extent of martial violence. it also introduces issues of power to family, relationships, class and race and assumes gender unites women from all backgrounds.

Liberal Feminists' view is that men benefit more from marriage than woman, and that father should have rights to a close relationship with their children. they also have the idea that women are more unsatisfied with their marriage and therefore demand for more divorces.
the disadvantage of the views of liberal feminist is that it tries to bring about more equality without changing social structures; they are too soft in thinking will be put right in time and do not recognise that men also need to be more free. in contrast they do however, help us to understand the process of sex role socialisation in the family, and recognises that men also need to be more free.

Marxist Approach To The Family

Marxist approach to the family views family as a crucial aspect to the society.

Marxists present the idea that the family is the centre of class struggle and oppression, that within it the women and the children are constantly being put down and talked to be submissive.

Marxists argue that the family helped the capitalists feel less frustrated about there oppression and exploitation. they believe that the private life of a family provides the opportunities for satisfaction that's not available.

The criticism of the Marxist approach is that they only concentrate on the effects of capitalism and excludes other factors within the society.he also ignores the positive sides of the family and is totally obsessed with economic forces. However Marxist approach does show the relationship between capitalism and the family.