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Component 1: Socialisation and Culture (Section B, Families and households)

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

Has the domestic division of labour become equal, and who holds power in the family?

Component 1 Section B (Families and households): conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour, the symmetrical family debate, the dual burden and triple shift, decision-making and money management, and domestic violence as evidence of power.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Families and households guide to conjugal roles and power. Covers segregated and joint conjugal roles, Young and Willmott's symmetrical family, Oakley's critique, the dual burden and triple shift, decision-making and money management, and domestic violence as evidence of patriarchal power.
15 min answer →

How diverse have family and household forms become, and what explains the changing patterns of marriage, divorce and cohabitation?

Component 1 Section B (Families and households): family diversity (the Rapoports' five types), changing patterns of marriage, divorce, cohabitation and lone-parent and reconstituted families, and the debate between the New Right and postmodernists over diversity.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Families and households guide to diversity and change. Covers the Rapoports' five types of diversity, changing patterns of marriage, divorce, cohabitation, lone-parent and reconstituted families, the reasons behind them, and the New Right versus postmodernist debate over family diversity.
15 min answer →

What functions does the family perform for society and the individual, according to functionalists and the New Right?

Component 1 Section B (Families and households): functionalist perspectives on the family, including Murdock's four functions, Parsons's functional fit and the irreducible functions, and New Right views of the family, with their criticisms.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Families and households guide to functionalist and New Right perspectives. Covers Murdock's four functions, Parsons's functional fit and two irreducible functions, the warm bath theory, the New Right view of the traditional nuclear family, and the criticisms from Marxists and feminists.
14 min answer →

Whose interests does the family really serve, according to Marxists and feminists?

Component 1 Section B (Families and households): Marxist perspectives on the family (Engels, ideological functions, the unit of consumption) and feminist perspectives (liberal, Marxist, radical and difference feminism), as conflict critiques of the family.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Families and households guide to the conflict perspectives. Covers Marxist views (Engels on private property, the family as a unit of consumption, ideological functions) and the four feminist perspectives (liberal, Marxist, radical and difference), as critiques of the functionalist consensus view.
15 min answer →

Is childhood a natural stage or a social construction, and how has the position of children changed?

Component 1 Section B (Families and households): childhood as a social construction (Aries), the changing position of children, the march of progress versus conflict views (Palmer's toxic childhood, the child liberationist critique), and cross-cultural and historical differences.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Families and households guide to childhood. Covers childhood as a social construction (Aries), cross-cultural and historical differences, the march of progress view, conflict and child liberationist critiques (the toxic childhood thesis, age patriarchy), and the debate over whether childhood is disappearing.
15 min answer →