Examine Marxist views of the role of the family (24 marks) Marxists believe that the nuclear family is dominant in capitalist society. Marxists say that the family serves capitalism in four ways. Firstly the family socialises their children, they reproduce labour power and have an acceptance of capitalism. Secondly women’s domestic work is unpaid which benefits capitalism. Thirdly the family acts as a comfort for the stresses and frustrations of working class men they are there to ‘Cushion the main provider’.
Examine the Marxist contribution to our understanding of the family Unlike functionalist sociologists, Marxists do not agree with value consensus (agreement) and the promise of meritocracy. Marxist sociologists argue that institutions; such as the family helps to maintain the system of class inequality and exploitation. This is known as capitalism. By this, the Marxists mean that the family solely operates for the benefit of the bourgeoisie (the ruling class) and this allows for the exploitation of the proletariat to take place. This view sharply contrasts the view of functionalists as they argue that the family benefits both the society as a whole and all the individual members.
Assess the extent to which Marxist and Feminist theories help our understanding of religion in society today (33marks) The Marxist perspective of society is a structural conflict theory based on the conflict between the ruling/capitalist class and the working class. The ruling class also known as the bourgeoisie; who own most of society’s wealth and the means of production. The Working class is also commonly known as the proletariat who are, according to Marxist theorists, being exploited in the working industry by the bourgeoisie to gain profit. They use the Economic Determinism model to show how the economic base, which shows the means of production being owned by the ruling classes, determines the ISAs and argue that we are being controlled by the ruling class through the use of the ISAs which teach the DVS to us. Through this we have learned that as working class, we expect and accept that we will be exploited by the ruling class in terms of our surplus value.
Marxist believe the conventional families are the foundations of capitalism it does this in many way; Private property inheritance, Marxists believe that all functions of the family are performed purely for the benefit of the capitalist system. One of the key factors determining how our society plays in to the hands of capitalism is was who inherits Private property. Engles, Marx friend and supporter, argues that a monogamous nuclear family has become essential in society as men had to be certain of the parentage of their offspring to guarantee that their legitimate heir inherit from them. In Engels eyes this made for a ‘historical defeat for the female sex’ suggesting that woman were now under men’s control and just mere of object to provide offspring to become a heir to the inheritance. Marxist altercate that woman will never receive liberation from patriarchal control with the means of capitalism and private ownership nearby.
The Division of Labour (DOL) was introduced into societies to help make it easier for workmen to distinguish themselves from other occupations and concentrate and master that part of their work. Although this seems to be a very good idea and can be seen as a bright future for the labour division, it has a very negative effect on the people and society. Smith’s argument of the DOL destroying intellectual and social virtues seems to be legitimate and strong in my opinion. Workers tend to focus more on their main occupation rather than broadening and expanding their knowledge on other skills that can be related to their own or of a completely different field. Every labouring worker should have a thorough education so that he/she can give to society their knowledge and produce, other than their professional experience in a certain occupational field.
Importantly functionalists see education based on meritocratic principles which is a big difference to the point of view that Marxists have. Marxists view the state as the means by which the capitalist ruling class maintains their dominant positions. Althusser believes that education justifies class inequalities by producing beliefs that teaches us that inequality is unavoidable and we deserve our subordinate positions so we are less likely to threaten capitalism. Bowles and Gintis believe there is close links to school and the capitalist society through the ‘hidden curriculum’ this means lessons that are learnt in school without being directly taught it. Through this hidden curriculum pupils become familiar with accepting hierarchy for example in school we view teachers essentially as our bosses as pupils are taught by teachers to interact with others according to a set of rules that apply to everyone.
If paid family leave is extended to both partners it would help reduce gender differences. Bosses would stop penalizing their workers because both males and females would be taking the leave. If more workplaces would offer this to their employers it would hep society become accustomed to this new role fathers should have been playing in the first place. If men would take leave as well as women, they could both have the same achievements at work, such as how much income they recieve. Families are often influenced by the media portrayal of the way women should run their families.
Now a day the average family has both parents working just to survive in today’s society. With more workers being hired , that means hours are cut to shorter work hours and days. Big name companies don’t care if they have to cut employees hours, the employee is easily replicable in there eyes. By cutting the hours of middle and lower class citizens it’s affecting there life’s more and more by making it harder for them to get
In capitalist societies, workers are employed to produce goods which are sold by their employers at a profit. Only a bit of the profit ends up in the workers wage, most of its kept by the employer. Marx said that if workers were allowed to notice the unfairness of this, they’d revolt. So, to avoid revolution the capitalist system shapes the superstructure to make sure that the workers accept their lot in life. Institutions like the family, education and religion lead individuals into accepting the inequalities or capitalism.
They believe that the political system is democratic therefore education is needed to prepare people for citizenship. They believe that through this people have a better understanding of the political system therefore they are more able to exercise their voting rights wisely at election time. 4) How would Marxist explain the purpose of education? Marxists believes that the purpose of education seems to have a beneficial role only for certain groups. The reason why they believe this is because the look at the society in terms of 2 groups (powerful and less powerful groups).