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.

Marxist Approach To he Family

The Functionalism and The Family

This approach sees family as a positive place and where norms, values and beliefs. they believe that family is universal and that its like relaxing when you go home as in the 'Warm Bath' theory which was discovered by Tolcott Parsons.

Talcott Parson and George Murdock are the main thinkers when we talk about family and functionalism. George Murdock he believed that the family was universal feature of society, he believed that there were certain functions/ features that most family's fulfill these features may be sexual in most societies.

In many families males and females have different working style, so this is where division of labour takes place, which is an officiant way of organising family life.
Functionalists only see the positive aspects of family and believe that in a marriage in order for it to be successful it should have a loving relationship which should provide love, security, emotional support and fulfillment for adults.

When we look at functionalist we can evaluate their views on family. We see the positive and the negatives in the views that they believe.

Positive :
Functionalist show how important family is to social life, it also emphasises the continuity of the generation and also how family has a strong ideological hold on many individuals however in comparison we can argue that the functionalist, although they look at family in a positive way it ignores and does not recognise the diversities that occur within the family and they also assume that the family benefits everyone when in fact there are many downsides to the family.

Family

In sociology researchers have looked at the different types of families that are present in today's society and have been around in the past.

The family is a group of people who are blood related or who maybe linked by ties of kin. there are different types of family and they are:

Nuclear families- these are the stereotypical family where there are two parents, a child or two and maybe even a pet, all living under the same roof.

Extended family- this is a family that exists where the parents are living with the children and within the same house there are aunts, uncles and even grandparents.

Re- constituted- this is when the parents remarry another partner and the children are brought into the new family.

Lone parents- this is where there is only one parent either a mum or a dad who bring up the children.

Same Sex marriage/partnership- this is where two men or two women live together in a family environment in a or a form of marriage.