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Sociological Approaches: Beware the Boxes
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The Family: Marxist and Feminist Theories
In this course, Professor Michèle Barrett (Queen Mary University of London) explores Marxist and Feminist approaches to the family. In the first lecture, we caution against seeing different sociological approaches, particularly Functionalism, Marxism, and Feminism, as entirely separate “boxes”. In the second lecture, we outline the Marxist approach to the family, expressed most notably by Friedrich Engels. In the third lecture, we turn to the ideas of four key Feminist theorists – Shulamith Firestone, Kate Millett, Christine Delphy, and Ann Oakley. Next, we look at attempts to unify Marxist and Feminist analysis, particularly those of Eli Zaretsky and Margaret Benston. In the fifth and final lecture, we examine historical variations in how families have been organised and defined, asking whether it is useful to refer to “the family” as a universal concept.
Sociological Approaches: Beware the Boxes
In this lecture, we think about three key sociological approaches – Functionalism, Marxism, and Feminism – and the issues with seeing these as clearly defined, separate “boxes”, focusing in particular on: (i) how, while Functionalism and Marxism are often presented as entirely distinct traditions, Marxism is highly functionalist in its approach to the family; (ii) how many important Feminist authors such as Shulamith Firestone and Christine Delphy borrow many ideas from Marxist thought, meaning these two approaches cannot easily be separated; (iii) considering Talcott Parsons’ functional fit model of the family.
I'm Michel Barrette and retired professor from Queen Mary University of London.
00:00:05And I'm talking about, uh, sociological theories of the family,
00:00:10Marxist and feminist ones, particularly.
00:00:14So I'm going to start by way of an introduction by saying,
00:00:17Beware of the boxes on the A level syllabus because the A
00:00:21level syllabus in sociology divides theoretical
00:00:25approaches very neatly into boxes,
00:00:28and these are labelled
00:00:30functional ist Marxist feminist and so on.
00:00:32But this is actually a problem because it presents theories,
00:00:35which often have close connections to each other
00:00:39in ways that are difficult to understand if you've already
00:00:42set them up as very different from each other.
00:00:48And I'm just going to take two examples of why this is a problem,
00:00:51and the first one is
00:00:55that the bugbear of functional is, um,
00:00:56because although this functional ism is presented in the syllabus
00:00:59as the approach of an outdated 19 fifties American sociologist,
00:01:03talk at persons which I'll talk about his work in a minute.
00:01:08Many of the theorists in the Marxist camp
00:01:11are also highly functional list in their arguments.
00:01:13Frequently,
00:01:16they say that the family has a function which
00:01:17is to reproduce the conditions of production of capitalism,
00:01:20and I think it's worth stressing that function is, um, is not
00:01:24a label.
00:01:27It's a property or a characteristic of a theory.
00:01:29And lots of theories that are not called functional lists
00:01:32are actually highly functional ist in all their assumptions.
00:01:34This is particularly true of many of the Marxist theories.
00:01:39Second problem that we've got is the issue of terminology
00:01:43some of the writers, as you will see if you've already read them.
00:01:47Some of the writers in the feminist approaches books
00:01:52used terminology that comes straight out of Marxism.
00:01:55Socialism with Firestone.
00:01:58The dialectic of sex is one example
00:02:00dialectic she uses to mean
00:02:03the natural flux of action and reaction
00:02:06opposites which are inseparable and inter penetrating.
00:02:09But actually,
00:02:13this notion of dialectic has a very long history comes from the Hagel Ian bit of Marx
00:02:13and further back from that.
00:02:20So if you use the term dialectic, you're triggering that hinterland of meaning
00:02:22that history of connotations.
00:02:27So we must ask ourselves, Is it possible
00:02:29to simply move that term over to another subject matter
00:02:32sex and gender based inequality without
00:02:36bringing bringing those assumptions with it?
00:02:39So a second example would be
00:02:43Christine Delfay,
00:02:45who uses Marx's distinction between those who own the means of production
00:02:46and those who work for them.
00:02:51The two big opposing camps.
00:02:53But in Delphi's case,
00:02:56the camps are men
00:02:57are the owners and women who are exploited.
00:02:59So is it possible
00:03:02to take these terms, which have been forged in one big system of thought,
00:03:03and simply apply them or transpose them onto another area
00:03:08and the boxes or the labels
00:03:13of theoretical approaches? In the A level? Sociology syllabus
00:03:15inevitably trigger these kinds of questions, so be wary of them
00:03:19and look at what is actually in those boxes.
00:03:23So let's look at functional is, um,
00:03:27we'll have a quick look at what talk at Parsons actually said in 1956
00:03:29so that we can put it behind us.
00:03:33Parsons said that the family had two main functions.
00:03:36The first was to socialise Children in today's normative system of values
00:03:39and to inculcating appropriate status expectations.
00:03:44And secondly,
00:03:48it was to provide a stable emotional environment
00:03:49that were cushioned the male worker from
00:03:52the psychological damage of the alienating occupational world
00:03:55within the family.
00:03:59These functions are carried out by the wife and mother.
00:04:01She plays the effective, expressive role of nurturance and support,
00:04:04and the husband plays the instrumental role
00:04:08of earning the families keep and maintaining discipline
00:04:11well. This fits into a wider contrast in sociology between community
00:04:15and society
00:04:20and locates the role of women as outside
00:04:21the world of rational production and exchange.
00:04:23The Parson's model reads like a retro American film.
00:04:27Everyone is white. For starters. Everyone is heterosexual.
00:04:31There is no cultural variation in there at all.
00:04:35But this influential model located a
00:04:38functional fit between this stereotypical nuclear family
00:04:41and the needs of modern industrial society
00:04:45that was persuasive for quite a while.
00:04:48
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Barrett, M. (2022, February 17). The Family: Marxist and Feminist Theories - Sociological Approaches: Beware the Boxes [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/the-family-marxist-and-feminist-theories
MLA style
Barrett, M. "The Family: Marxist and Feminist Theories – Sociological Approaches: Beware the Boxes." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 17 Feb 2022, https://massolit.io/courses/the-family-marxist-and-feminist-theories
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