Component 1 Section B: the functions of the family in contemporary society, including the functionalist, Marxist, feminist and New Right perspectives on what the family does and whom it benefits.

What this dot point is asking

The Families and relationships option opens with the functions of the family: what it does and whom it benefits. OCR Section B wants you to compare the functionalist, Marxist, feminist and New Right perspectives, and to evaluate whether the family is the positive institution functionalists describe. This is the foundation for the whole option and a frequent essay topic.

The answer

The functionalist view

Murdock studied many societies and argued the nuclear family is universal because it meets four needs: the sexual (a stable sexual relationship), the reproductive (producing the next generation), the economic (providing for members) and the educational (socialising children into the culture).

Parsons argues that industrialisation made the isolated nuclear family the dominant form (the functional fit thesis), leaving it with two irreducible functions: the primary socialisation of children, which internalises the shared culture, and the stabilisation of adult personalities through emotional support, his warm bath image of the family relieving the stresses of work.

The Marxist view

Marxists reject the consensus picture. Engels argues the monogamous nuclear family developed to ensure the inheritance of private property down a legitimate male line, so the family is bound up with class and capitalism from the start. Zaretsky argues the family is a unit of consumption that props up capitalism by buying its products, and a "haven" that cushions workers from exploitation, reconciling them to the system rather than serving them.

Feminist and New Right views

Feminists argue the family serves men, not society. It exploits women's unpaid domestic and emotional labour (Marxist feminists such as Ansley) and reproduces patriarchy (radical feminists such as Greer). The family's "dark side", domestic abuse, is ignored by functionalists.

The New Right praises the traditional nuclear family as the best environment for raising children, but Murray argues that the growth of lone-parent families and welfare dependency has created an underclass lacking male role models and the work ethic, a view feminists reject as blaming women.

Examples in context

A top essay treats the functionalist view as a claim to be tested, then sets Marxist, feminist and New Right perspectives against it, with examples, before judging.

Try this

Q1. Outline two functions of the family identified by Murdock. [4 marks]

• What the marker wants. Two of the sexual, reproductive, economic or educational functions (AO1, two marks each), each with a brief explanation.

Q2. Outline and explain two ways in which Marxists argue the family benefits capitalism. [12 marks]

• Cue. Two developed points: Engels on the family securing the inheritance of private property, and Zaretsky on the family as a unit of consumption and a cushion that reconciles workers to capitalism, each applied to an example.