Women carry out the triple burden in the household; the domestic labour, emotional labour, and paid labour. As shown in the item most of this work is ‘unpaid and hardly recognised work at all’. Oakley argues the only way women will gain independence and freedom in society is for the role of the housewife to be removed aswell as the present structure of the family. Wilmott and Young believed the family is symmetrical and that both husband and wife have joint conjugal roles making the family a functional institution and their research showed that men do help women with housework. Radical feminists such as Dobash and Dobash also disagree with Willmott and Young’s theory that the family is symmetrical.
Secondly, feminism is another reason that some people believe that nuclear families are no longer the norm. Within the 1940’s women were seen simple as housewives and mother, and education within their life wasn’t even thought about. Essentially they were expected to conform to the nuclear family model. Now women are just as likely to be in paid employment like men and therefore this gives them much more status and independence, which makes the nuclear family less likely. Yet others would argue that even the media still supports nuclear families and is socializing the next generation into thinking that it is right for example ‘The Simpsons’, so despite the increase in divorce and feminism the nuclear family will remain popular in British society.
Thirdly the family acts as a comfort for the stresses and frustrations of working class men they are there to ‘Cushion the main provider’. Lastly the family as a unit of consumption buys the goods and services provided by capitalism. These functions benefit the minority in power, the bourgeoisie, and the economy. The functions disadvantage the working class society, the proletariat. One way the family serves capitalism is the socialisation of the young into the ruling class ideology.
On the other side is Eric Bartels who, in his article “My Problem with Her Anger”, describes the hostile nature of the relationship that he has with his wife since the birth of their children However the authors may differ they do touch on similar topics throughout the articles. One common idea among the two viewpoints is that a family requires sacrifice from both partners in order to be successful, but just what that sacrifice entails seems to differ from one perspective to the next. Both authors refer to the feminist movement as an underlying cause for much of the disharmony in their relationships; both cite the notion of co-parenting and equal division of labor as a cause of embitterment and anger on the part of the wife when they realized that it was not the case. While the ideas expressed by the two authors may differ in many ways, there are some ideas that are shared by both parties. That is building and maintaining a family is no easy task and, no matter how hard you may try, you cannot please everyone all the time.
Assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm. (24 marks) In this essay I will be assessing the view of different sociologists concerning the question ‘is the nuclear family no longer the norm?’, from this essay I should be able to conclude if it is in fact still the norm or not. First of all, in 1969 the Divorce Reform Act was put into place which enabled people to get a divorce easily compared to before. With this law people could simply say that the marriage wasn’t working out and straight away they could get a divorce, this had an impact on both family structure and society. After this law there was an increase in lone parent families, cohabiting and even same sex couples, this was because it started to be more socially acceptable and married couples didn’t have to be forced into a relationship if they weren’t happy.
In my opinion Ranya only represents one in a thousand Muslims with such a liberal and open-minded opinion and viewpoint of Islam. In fact, I desperately wish that people would not use Islam to suppress women and use it as an excuse for horrible actions such as the 9/11 attacks. However, my experience and knowledge of Islam is not a positive one and therefore, I seceded from it at the early age of sixteen. In almost all Muslim families that I know women are being suppressed and treated unfairly by men. Women are considered second class citizens and have to serve their husbands and male children.
Throughout history men are seen as the “strong/tough ones”; the belief is that they should be paid more than women in order to support their families (Loney, 2005). Women often take time off from work to raise their children, which can interfere with their career path. Also, married women with children are more likely to leave their jobs, rather than women who are single and/or without
Feminists Feminism is a view that examines the world from the point of view from women, coupled with the belief that women are disadvantaged and undervalued in society. Feminists believe that the majority of societies and institutions are patriarchal and male dominated. Feminists believe society is characterised by gender conflict as men seek to protect their dominance and women strive for equal rights and opportunities. Feminist approaches to health The medicalization of child birth Ann Oakley examined the experiences of women during childbirth in her research and book ‘from here to maternity’. Oakley found that up until the 1980s pregnancy and childbirth were seen as natural processes and consequently there was less intervention from doctors.
They believe in patriarchy – men are dominating over women and think this isn’t fair. Delphy and Leonard argue that women provide 57 varieties of unpaid services for men, including sexual desires. They also feel that women contribute more to family life, by things like the birth of the children, but they get fewer material benefits of family life than men. Oakley found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework and only 25% had a participation in childcare. This shows the majority of families have segregated conjugal roles – men are primarily the breadwinners and the females are the housewife/ look after the
Men are socialised into exploitative relationships in relation to work and they carry this socialisation over into the home and their relationship to women. b. Patriarchy is an ideology (a set of related beliefs about the world - in this instance, male - female relationships) that stems from male attempts to justify the economic exploitation of women. c. The "family system" characteristic of modern societies benefits capitalism (and, by extension, the men who tend to dominate positions of power and influence) because women: - can be forced / socialised into unpaid domestic labour. - can be forced / socialised into responsibility for child-rearing. This benefits the Capitalist because they do not have to pay women to perform this role (the "reproduction of labour power" in society).