Challenges to Functionalist theory of the Family

Functionalist idea Challenge Nuclear families common before industrialisation. Laslett study Evolution from of parish registers 1564-1821. Made possible by computer tech. extended family Short life expectancy. Agricultural geographical mobility. Extended family common after industrialisation. Anderson study to isolated in Preston 1851 census. People moving into towns joined extended nuclear family as family households. a result of Extended families often close today. Litwak suggested ‘modified industrialisation extended family’ as the major family form. Amount of regular contact with extended family can be high. Criticised by Marxist Feminists. Family only acts as a warm bath for men. “When wives play their traditional role as takers of shit, they often absorb their husbands’ legitimate anger and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression. With every Warm bath worker provided with a sponge to soak up this possible theory revolutionary ire, the bosses rest more secure.” Fran Ansley. Wives are used by male wage slaves to relieve the tensions caused by their alienation under capitalism. Domestic violence against wives is sometimes the outcome. Criticised by Feminists. Ann Oakley argued “there was nothing expressive about dealing with nappy buckets.” Gender roles are Instrumental men socially constructed and there is nothing ‘natural’ about men being and expressive instrumental and women expressive. Saying that it is natural only women validates the domestic oppression of women. The theory also only applies to traditional families. It ignores single-parent families and women in paid work. Marxists, like Althusser, argue that the nuclear family is not good for society as a whole, but good for the economy, capitalism. The traditional family has a male breadwinner, who has to work hard to support his wife and family. It is difficult for him to go on strike . Isolated nuclear The family has a female homemaker who is unpaid. This saves family is good for capitalist profits. The family are encouraged to buy many society as a whole consumer goods, to be the ‘perfect’ family, and socialise their children into accepting these adult roles. Barrett and McIntosh say the family is bad for society because it destroys life outside the family. “Anti-social” family. Vogel and Bell argue that families may survive by scapegoating an individual member., eg: picking on a child rather than confronting marriage difficulties. It may be good for the family as a group, although it is bad for the child. Isolated nuclear R.D.Laing , psychiatrist, studied how families made people family is good for mentally ill. He associated schizophrenia in young people with the individuals dynamics in their families. He was significant in the development of family therapy. D. Cooper, psychiatrist, argues the family crushes the self and individual identity, subsuming them into the family.