Criticisms of the family, including the Marxist and feminist views, the dark side of family life, and the conflict perspective on family roles and inequality.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to evaluate the family by setting the positive functionalist view against the Marxist and feminist criticisms and the evidence of the dark side of family life. This is the critical, conflict counterpart to the functions of families, and it provides the "other side" for twelve-mark evaluation questions.

The Marxist criticism

Marxists see the family through the lens of conflict between social classes. They argue the family does not serve everyone equally but serves capitalism and the interests of the ruling class.

The Marxist argument inverts the functionalist one: where functionalists see the family meeting the needs of society, Marxists see it meeting the needs of capitalism. The same activities (socialisation, consumption, emotional support) are reinterpreted as serving the powerful.

The feminist criticism

Feminists argue the family is patriarchal, meaning it is dominated by men and organised to benefit men more than women.

Different feminists emphasise different points: liberal feminists note that roles are slowly becoming more equal, Marxist feminists link women's unpaid work to the needs of capitalism, and radical feminists see the patriarchal family as the central site of women's oppression. At GCSE the core point is that the family advantages men and disadvantages women.

The dark side of the family

Both Marxists and feminists, and indeed all critics of the functionalist view, point to the dark side of family life: domestic violence, child abuse and emotional harm. This evidence directly challenges the warm functionalist picture by showing that the family can be a place of conflict, control and danger, not only of support and love. The dark side is concrete evidence that the family does not benefit everyone in it, which is exactly what an evaluation question rewards.