Name _____________________________________

Class_______________________________________

E Atkinson 2020
 Delphy and Leonard (1992) Familiar Exploitation,

Writing from a radical feminist perspective Delphy

and Leonard emphasise the importance of work. In
their view it is men, rather than capitalists who benefit
most from the exploitation of women’s labour. They
believe that the family has a central role in
maintaining patriarchy; the family is an economic
system involving a particular set of labour relations in
which men benefit from and exploit the work of
women. Women are oppressed because their work is
taken for granted within the family eg: when wives
have paid employment outside the home they still
have to carry out household tasks which are not equally shared
with their male partners.

Name the perspective Pick out 3 key terms related to this study, highlight them and define each key
term.

What is the term used to describe how Evaluate this study:

working women still have to carry out the
domestic work as well?

E Atkinson 2020
 1. Name the perspective of Delphy
and Leonard. (8)
2. They believe it is men that benefit
more from the exploitation of
women’s labour, not
___________________ (11)
3. The family has a central role in
maintaining _____________________
(10)
4. The family is viewed as an
___________________ system. (8)
5. The term used to describe how
working women still have to carry
out the domestic work as well. (4-6)

Item A
The family is a patriarchal organisation where the men benefit from the free
labour provided by their wives. Housework and childcare is provided by the
female of the house. The man’s position in the family is a dominant one whilst
the women and children have a subordinate position. Even when women have
paid employment outside the home, they still have to undertake household
tasks and care for the children.

From Item A, identify and describe the family structure referred to by Delphy and Leonard,
including what you know of their perspective on the family. (4 marks)

E Atkinson 2020
 Discuss how far sociologists agree that the family maintains patriarchal society.
(12 marks)

The family DOES maintain patriarchal The family DOES NOT maintain
society patriarchal society

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 Give a subtitle to reach Summarise the paragraphs
paragraph Talcott Parsons, ‘The social structure of the family’ into bullet points

Talcott Parsons is one of the best known functionalist

sociologists. In his work on the family Parsons suggests
that the family has two irreducible functions: 1) primary
socialisation and 2) the stabilisation of adult
personalities.

1) For functionalists, socialisation is the process through

which people learn how to behave in society - what is
normal and what is important. This is an essential process
for society to work: there needs to be broad agreement
about these things to prevent people behaving in an
antisocial way. Parsons divides socialisation up
into primary and secondary socialisation: primary
socialisation takes place in the family, where we learn
the particular norms and values of our family and
community. Later, we learn universalistic values through
school, the media and other agents of socialisation.

So parents teach children the norms and values of

society. For Parsons this also strongly involves learning
our gender roles. Parsons argued that men had
the instrumental role while women were the expressive
role and that both were necessary. So men carried out
discipline and earned money, while women cared and
nurtured and raised children. Boys saw the example
from their fathers, and girls saw the example from their
mothers, and ensured they continued to behave in the
same way and give the same example to the next
generation.

Of course this idea is now seen as rather outdated. In

1950s America, married women were much more likely
to be housewives than to pursue their own careers, and
the idea of a clear gender division of labour (men and
women performing very different roles) was not
controversial.

2) Parsons argued that families performed an important

role for individuals and society in keeping people stable.
Life is difficult and challenging and frustrating: the family
can help to deal with this. Family members give each
other care and support and help each other through
difficult times. Parsons particularly described this in terms
of a man coming home from a difficult day at work and
relaxing into his family, like a warm bath.

However, It has been suggested that Parsons was really

describing middle-class families and ignored the
different experiences of families from different social
classes.

E Atkinson 2020
 Key term Definition Image to help you recall

Primary socialisation

Stabilisation of adult
personalities

Secondary
socialisation

Agents of socialisation

Universalistic values

Instrumental role

Expressive role

Gender division of
labour

Warm bath theory

E Atkinson 2020
 Discuss how far sociologists agree that families are the main agent of
socialisation. (12 marks)

Family IS the main agent of socialisation Family IS NOT the main agent of
socialisation

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E Atkinson 2020
 Rapoport and Rapoport (1982) ‘British families in transition’

The Rapoports carried out groundbreaking research into family life. They identified a
number of ways in which family life was diverse, in contrast to the idea that the nuclear
family was the clear norm. They identified 5 clear types of family diversity. The 5 types of
family diversity they identified were:
1) Organisational. This refers to the way a family might organise itself in terms of the roles
people perform (e.g. traditional male-dominated families and more symmetrical ones).
2) Cultural. Families differ in terms of their beliefs and values. One example of this is
between different ethnic groups, with some ethnicities placing a greater emphasis on
family than others, some preferring different gender roles, etc.
3) Social Class. Much writing about the family assumes that family life as experienced in
a middle-class family is the same for other social classes, but this is not the case.
Availability of resources, quality of housing, leisure opportunities, etc. all impact the
nature of families and family life.
4) Life course. Rapoport and Rapoport point out that we do not live in the same family
structure, family set-up or type of household for the whole of our lives. We might be born
into a traditional nuclear family. This might change later in our childhood (for example it
might become a lone parent family and then a reconstituted family). When we leave
home it might be to live on our own, or with flatmates. It might be to live with a partner
as a couple without children. A couple with or without children might live with their
parents in an extended family, or move away and form their own nuclear family.
5) Generational. There is also change over time and what is the norm, in terms of family
life, for one generation, is not for the next. As such, great grandparents and
grandparents may have had several siblings, and later generations have far fewer;
more recent generations are more likely than their parents and grandparents to divorce
or to be single parents.
Since Rapoport and Rapoport were writing family has arguably become more diverse,
e.g. same-sex parents.

E Atkinson 2020
 Summarise the 5 types of diversity: How can this Key Study be
evaluated?

E Atkinson 2020
 From Item B, identify and describe the research method used by the Rapoports including
what you know of their perspective on the family. (4 marks)

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E Atkinson 2020
 Oakley A, ‘Conventional families’

Feminist sociologist Ann Oakley is well known for her extensive research on housework using
unstructured interviews to gain deep, valid data about families and women. She
investigated the nuclear family, and its place as the "normal" or "conventional" family of the
time.

Ann Oakley defined the conventional family as "nuclear families composed of legally
married couples, voluntarily choosing parenthood of one or more children". This is otherwise
known as the cereal packet family: the image of a normal family that was portrayed in
television advertisements and soap operas at the time when she was writing. Oakley
critically examines this idea. She looks at the work of other sociologists and considers where
the idea that this was the "normal" way to live came from, and the influence it has over
society and individuals. She considered the way the conventional family worked as a form
of social control: people were expected to live in these families, and this controlled them by
making it harder to live alternative lives. As people got older - especially women - they
would be regularly asked when they were going to get married and have children, as
though alternatives to this life plan were unthinkable.

Oakley noted that, even in the early 1980s, the conventional family was being challenged.
People were exploring different ways of living and different arrangements that worked for
them and did not conform to convention. She noted that
people increasingly saw the conventional family as a stereotype
and an archaic one. Instead some groups understood that they
could organise their families differently and, indeed, that they
did not have to live in a family at all, but could choose some
other form of household or living arrangement.

Solve the puzzle

E Atkinson 2020
 Key Study: Ann Oakley

In your own words, write a summary of the study.

What are the key terms used in the What other words are connected to
study? these key terms?

Create 3 questions to test a friend about the Strengths of the study

study.
1.

2.

3.

Self assess your understanding of the key study:

Got it Almost Not yet

Weaknesses of the study

E Atkinson 2020
 Discuss how far sociologists agree that the conventional nuclear family is the
best family structure. (12 marks)
Using two highlighters, sort the following arguments into FOR and AGAINST.

Delphy and Leonard—the conventional nuclear family

simply reinforces patriarchal society and oppresses women.

Oakley—the nuclear family is a form of social

control. People are expected to live in this
family structure and this makes alternatives
difficult.

Your task:

Pick one argument and write a paragraph according to the instructions below.
Write at least 6 sentences
Use at least 2 sociological terms (highlight them)
Use at least one perspective (underline this)
Give an example to help explain a point.
Evaluate the key study (write this in a different colour)

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E Atkinson 2020
 Willmott and Young (1973) The Symmetrical Family

Writing from a functionalist perspective and based on a large scale social survey (nearly
2,000 people were interviewed in Greater London and surrounding areas).
Young and Willmott argued that in 1973, families had become symmetrical - that is, that
men and women performed similar roles. Rather than the traditional nuclear family
described by Parsons where men and women had very separate roles in the family
(segregated gender roles) Willmott and Young argued that in modern families men and
women both did paid work and both did work around the house, including childcare. They
did not find that men and women did exactly the same type of jobs - whether in the
workplace or at home - but (compared with earlier periods) family life was becoming more
shared and equal. Part of this was also that men and women and children spent more time
together in the home rather than separately outside the home (e.g. men going to the pub).
Another important concept for Willmott & Young was stratified diffusion. They argued that
changes in norms and values tend to start among the wealthier in society and then others
start to behave in the same way (the behaviour is "diffused" from one strata - class - to
another).
This led them to a perhaps surprising conclusion that they predicted that the next stage of
the family would be the asymmetric family. They found that richer families spend more time
apart and had more segregated roles, with wives not needing to work, and men spending
time on the golf course rather than at home. This prediction has clearly not turned out to be
accurate, with - if anything - family life becoming more symmetrical since 1973.
However, the research was quite widely criticised, particularly by feminist sociologists such
as Ann Oakley. She argued that the concept of the symmetrical family was flawed, as was
WIllmott and Young's data. For example, quite small contributions to housework by men was
deemed by the research to mean that housework was shared and therefore the family was
symmetrical. Instead Oakley argued that women had now had a dual burden. Yes, more
women were going out to work, but they were also doing the bulk of the housework and
childcare. As such, she argued that increased female employment had not made the
family more equal but just meant that women had to work two
jobs.
A further criticism is that, certainly in the 1970s and even today,
while both men and women went to work, men were paid more
than women and women experienced a glass ceiling and were
unable to gain promotions. It also presupposes a nuclear type of
family with a husband and wife, rather than other diverse
households that exist in contemporary society.

E Atkinson 2020
 1
2
3

Willmott
and Young
Evaluation of findings

Strengths of research method

6 ways of thinking
3
2
1

E Atkinson 2020
 The symmetrical family
According to Willmott and Young, the family has become more symmetrical,
with both partners contributing more equally to the home. The reason for the
move to the symmetrical family has been explained in a number of ways
including; the rise in feminism, more effective methods of contraception,
women's’ increased participation in paid work and the interest in home life
increasing resulting in leisure time being spent at home.

Identify and explain one reason for the move to a more symmetrical family structure according
to Willmott and Young, including what you know of their perspective. (4 marks)
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List the remaining reasons for the move towards a symmetrical family including an image
to represent each reason.

E Atkinson 2020
 Zaretsky (1976) Capitalism, the Family and Personal Life

Zaretsky is interested in understanding the family and family relationships in capitalist

society. He argues , from a Marxist perspective, that the family was a unit of production
before the early 19th Century. For example, during the early stages of the textile industry all
members of the family were involved in the production of cloth in the home.
The rise of industrial capitalism and production in factories led to a split between family life
and work. As a result the family and the economy are now seen as two separate spheres:
the private sphere and the public sphere.
With the separation of home and work, women became responsible for personal
relationships within the family and for family member’s emotional wellbeing. Women now
had to maintain the home as a private refuge from a brutal society. However, Zaretsky
believes that the family is not able to meet people’s emotional and social needs. It can do
no more than cushion them from the harsh effects of capitalism.
According to Zaretsky, the family serves the interests of capitalism in several ways.
1. The family has an economic function. Women as housewives and mothers carry out
unpaid labour within the home such as childrearing, cleaning and cooking. The system of
wage labour at work relies on this unpaid domest labour getting done. This is because
women’s labour within the home maintains daily life. However, it is devalued because it is
seen as separate from the public world of the economy.
2. Through the family, each social class reproduces itself over time. The bourgeoisie family
preserves its private property and transmits it from one generation to the next. The
proletariat family
reproduces the labour
force by producing future
generations of workers.
3. Zaretsky sees the family
as a vital unit of
consumption for
capitalism. Families buy
and consume the
products of the capitalist
system and in doing so
enable the bourgeoisie to
make their profits.

E Atkinson 2020
 True or False? Highlight the correct statements.
The family has an economic Men play a part in In capitalism the family is a
function maintaining the emotional vital unit of production.
wellbeing of the family
members.

Women’s unpaid labour is The women help to cushion Women’s unpaid labour in
highly valued. the blow of capitalism. the home ensure capitalist
society can function.

The family is able to fully meet In capitalism the family is a Through reproduction the
the emotional and social vital unit of consumption. wealth of the bourgeoisie is
needs of its members. passed from generation to
generation.

Through reproduction, the The family is the public sphere

proletariat produce the next
generation of workers.

Identify and explain one function of the nuclear family from a Marxist
perspective. (4 marks)
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E Atkinson 2020