Anne Oakley argues that we still live in a patriarchal (male dominated) society, and therefore women occupy a subordinate and dependant role within the family and wider society. Overall it could therefore be argued that rather than partners becoming more equal, women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’, whereby she is responsible for two jobs of unpaid or paid labour. Factors such as patriarchy and conforming to a gender script will lead to these divisions. It could be argued that the money management within a family has an effect on the
Functionalist Murdock suggested as children we are socialised into societies shared norms and values and he believed that males provide the economic roles and females provided the expressive role. Therefore it is natural for women to play the expressive role in the household looking after the family’s emotional needs. However, radical feminist Ann Oakley argues that the role of the housewife is a social construction and isn’t linked to the female role. The housewife role makes sure that women stay inferior to men making it difficult for them have careers. Women carry out the triple burden in the household; the domestic labour, emotional labour, and paid labour.
Alternatively, there are Marxists, such as Karl Marx, that believe that institutions are creating by the ruling class in order to control the working class. Marxists believe that the functions of the family are performed purely for the benefit of the ruling class. This view contrasts sharply with the functionalist view that the family benefits both society as a whole and the individual members of the family. Some Functionalists, such as Murdock, argue that there are 4 functions of the family that only the nuclear family can teach. Teaching of sexuality and gender roles, Murdock says that the nuclear family teaches people to express sexuality in a socially approved context, it teaches that heterosexuality is the norm and that other types of relationships are 'abnormal' eg.
Mexican and Mexican American women have been overlooked in society, even though the reproduction and maintenance of the laboring classes is dependent upon women. The combined effects of gender and race also contribute to the masking of women’s roles; women of color are doubly subordinated by gender and race. Who is given the right to determine someone else’s future? And who could so grossly under represent the involvement and contributions Mexican women have made to society? The concealing of women’s roles in social production is part of the general tendency to deny working class people’s roles in the building of society.
This leads them to the working life where you work under capitalists and accept orders from superior employers. Therefore they prepare for your working life which benefits the capitalists, however Functionalists view is that the family teaches us the shared norms and values of the society, but not just the norms and values of the ruling class. Although Marxists further argue the family does this through punishments and rewards and being role models. Also Feminists believe that Marxists do not give more attention to the exploitation of women within the family for example, the family produces labour at low cost to the capitalist system as
This results in the man having more power over the woman as he is the individual working and bringing an income, enabling him to make the decisions whereas the woman would have no power for this to happen. In relation to having an income, feminists see the workplace as another place in which inequalities occur. ‘The Glass Ceiling’ is a phrase commonly used by feminists. It is related to women and their careers and how they are able to see promotion but are not going to be considered as they are women. This is highlighted in the report ‘Sex and authority in the workplace: the causes of sexual inequality’, Wendy C. Wolf
A criticism of Murdock’s theory is that other institutions can for fill some of the functions that the family performs for example the education system or the media. Marxist and feminist have also opposed his claims saying that functionalists don’t take conflict or exploitation into consideration. Feminists say that the family teach the needs of men and oppressing women so they believe that the functions the family perform all contribute to male dominance and ruling over women. Marxist says that this meets the needs of capitalism but not the family members or society all together. They suggest that the functions that the family perform all help capitalism for example the function of the next generation Marxist see it as reproducing the next generation of workers.
Weber believed it was linked to the type of job people could get, Weber thought differently to Marx about this, as marx believed it was due to owning factories or other resources, and weber thought it was due to skills and qualifications. Weber’s idea of class influenced the ideas of other sociologists, such as goldthorpe (1980). Goldthorpe derived a stratification scale which includes the Weberian concept of market position. This was felt by sociologists to be a more accurate technique of studying stratification, as a pose to just studying peoples jobs. Weber was skeptical about the possibility of the working class bonding together for revolutionary purposes, for example becoming class-conscious because of differences in status would always undermine any common cause.
According to de Beauvoir, religion acts very similar to women as Marxists see it acting on oppressed classes. She says; there must be a religion for women as there must be one for the common people, and for exactly the same reasons.’ She notes that men have exercised control over religious beliefs, however in modern societies, ‘religion seems much less an instrument of constraint than an instrument of deception.’ She notes that women are deceived by religion into thinking of themselves as equal to men, despite their evident inequality. Simone de Beauvoir compares religion to how Marx’s proletariat, in that it gives women the false belief that they will be compensated for their sufferings on earth by equality in heaven. She
Radical feminists argue that its the wives and not the husbands who are looked to in times of distress or when problems occur, Radical feminists would describe women as more likely to listen, to agree, to understand, to excuse and to flatter. Marxist feminists (who believe capitalism to be the root cause of female oppression) would agree and say women would be the ones to give the emotional support when men are frustrated from the stresses produced by working for capitalism. Being a slave to unpaid domestic labour, married women are usually financially dependant on their husbands, although women may be able to pick up a part time job, the responsibilities of looking after the family usually