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Examine the Ways in Which Feminist Sociologist Have Contributed to Our Understanding of Family Roles and Relationships.

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Examine the Ways in Which Feminist Sociologist Have Contributed to Our Understanding of Family Roles and Relationships.
Examine the ways in which feminist sociologist have contributed to our understanding of family roles and relationships.

Feminist believe that women in society are oppressed and exploited by men, they are not seen as equal purely based on their gender. Women are therefore are expected to be subordinate to men resulting in women being disadvantaged in life.
Radical feminists believe the family oppress women by patriarchal structures and the family itself. They believe the family benefits men as marriage acts as a prison, men do little in the family compared to women the sexual division in the family exploits women , since their responsibilities for domestic labour and childcare are unpaid, undermines their position in paid employment and increases dependency on men. It thereby maintains an unequal patriarchal society. Therefore radical feminist support divorce as it allows women to escape from marriage, they also support family diversity e.g., single parent families and same sex relationships. Liberal feminism view the family as optimistic they see a gradual change, through persuasion women are getting men to become more involved in sharing the household and child rearing tasks and society has become fairer through its laws such laws as the sex discrimination act (1970) equal pay act (1970) the symmetrical family is becoming a reality women are getting more jobs and men are getting more involved around at home. D.H.J Morgan point out that not all families fit the model of the nuclear family with a married couple with children, where the husband is the breadwinner and the wife the housewife alone in fact, this is becoming less common and more women now work (1975). However liberal feminist don’t support family diversity and different family structures. Liberal feminists want to raise families in a heterosexual partnership; they don’t see means the enemy unlike radical feminist. They still, by think more can be achieved, by socialised to view the genders as

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