Preview

Marxist Perspective About the Family

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
536 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marxist Perspective About the Family
Discuss the Marxist Perspective on the Family

The Marxist feminists use Marxist concepts to explain their belief that the family is actually leading to the exploitation of women. Women have certain roles in the family which aren’t being paid by the government and the Marxist feminists see this as women are getting abused. Such roles are the caring of their children, attending needs of the husband and serve as an emotional safety-valve for the husband from the frustration of work.
Friedrich Engels (1884) traces the origins of the family and the evolution of the family through time. He argues that as the mode of production change, so does the family. The early stages of human evaluation states that the means of production where communally owned, such the family, did not exists. Individuals lived in groups which were characterized by promiscuity. There were no rules limiting sexual relationships and therefore the community was like a 1 big whole family.
Another Marxist who argues that the family is instrumental to the capitalist economy is Eli Zaretsky (1976). He believed that that the family was unable to provide physiological and personal needs which allow the proletariat (workers) to cope with the pressures of capitalism. The family aerates the illusion that private life of the family is separate from the economy but in actual fact, the family is supporting capitalism by producing future workers for the capitalists, consuming the products of the capitalists. Consequently this allows the capitalists to keep the profits up. For Zaretsky the family is a major problem to the capitalist economy.
The socialization in the Marxist view is that the family socializes children into accepting values of capitalism, which to be clear with the status/level within hierarchy. The bourgeois nuclear family emerged with capitalism, this leads to the patriarchal power of male to be dominating the inheritance property. Women, on the opposite side, would be powerless for any

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Each group in society has a different idea on what the main role of the family is. As Item 2B says, “Marxists see all social institutions as serving the interests of capitalism.” This includes the family, and they say that it serves the interests of capitalism by maintaining and justifying class inequality and exploitation by the rich. Other groups, however, have different opinions, such as Functionalists who think that the family performs essential needs of society. Marxists and Functionalists opinions are completely contrasted, as Marxists think that we live in a Capitalist society based on unequal conflict between the classes, whilst Functionalists see society as based on “value consensus”, where everyone agrees.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the Marxism theory, the proletariat are being exploited by the bourgeoisie as they own the means of production which indicates that they are the basis of the whole society and they control everything in it including the family. This kind of system could be seen as a capitalist society which means it makes the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another type of feminist is Marxism, these argue that the main cause of oppression of women in the family is capitalism and not men as suggested by other feminists. Women’s oppression have several functions for capitalism, these include: Women reproduce…

    • 880 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marxist and Feminist sociologists have criticised Murdoch’s theory. They say that Functionalism ignores conflict and exploitation within society. Feminists see the family as being patriarchal and serving the needs of men and Marxists see the family as meeting the needs of capitalism and not the needs of the family members.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ‘family’ is generally regarded as a major social institution social unit created by blood, marriage or adoption giving us a sense of belonging (The Vanier Institute of the Family, 1994 pg. 6). The family is an institution that has evolved and changed over time from a social unit that was formed for mainly economic reasons to one that mainly provides for emotional needs of its members. This can be seen after observing the past and present of survival, children, and marriage of families throughout history.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marxist feminists argue that the nuclear family functions to benefit the capitalist’s ideology and the patriarchal ideology. Marxists feminists argue that the focus on women as mothers puts considerable pressure on women to have children and to take time out of the labour market to bring them up. This pressure can make women feel oppressed which can be beneficial to capitalists and men as it stops women from rising up against them and trying to break the model of the stereotypical ‘housewife’ role.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociology 24 marks

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Marxists theory is a conflict theory; they believe that we live in a capitalist society and that the family is all about serving the interests of capitalism.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marxists believe that the nuclear family is dominant in Society. They see the family in the classic way and they all perform essential functions and do a lot of things for each other and stick to the classic roles of the man is the breadwinner where he goes out and makes all the money to supply for the family, the mother does the house work but still earns money to supply for the family and looks after the children etc, the traditional family sort of lifestyle. Marxists believe that the family all just go out to earn money and this money is supplied in to the family to keep them going with things like food and drink, utilities and other things like that, a quote from Zaretesky was that when the man returns home after work he is the ‘king of the castle’ basically saying that the main is in charge and makes the most money, again backing up the view that Marxists believe the family should be traditional and the man is the breadwinner with his partner caring and cooking for him etc but more gives the man satisfaction as some views believe that the mother runs the household as she does all of the work and runs the house because she does all of the work like cook the family tea and tidy up, general house chores to keep it intact. Another point the Marxists believe in is that the children accept capitalism and levels of hierarchy in society so there are lots of different roles and things like management so the parents are in charge and have the authority in the house hold and they teach them this is how life works and this is how the work place works, there is always going to be someone in authority and there is always going to be someone higher up than you and they have to accept this and follow the rules. This again links back to and backs up the original point that Marxists believe in a traditional family. According to Marxists families also believe in status inheritance. This theory was backed up in 1884 by Engel…

    • 653 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marxism is a worldview and method of societal analysis that focuses on class relations and societal conflict. Marxist sociologists believe that economics are what determines society. These include things like: politics, religion, law and culture. Basically they think that the way goods are made and distributed determines the ways…

    • 601 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    unit 7 p1

    • 1140 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Marxism was introduced and studied by Karl Marx during 1818 and 1883. The Marxist view is based on the conflicts and interests of the society, it also strongly highlights on the importance of conflict in societies and communities. They also believe that economics are the bases of progressing and social life this can be achieved by struggling through social classes. The two classes that Marx discussed about were the Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie class is a small powerful group who may have owned factories or own companies whereas the Proletariat is a poorer group of workers. The way a Marxists thinks is based on the financial structures and systems as well as social class meaning that these factors are vital in the Marxist view.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marxists are all in agreement that there are several functions of the family that are fulfilling for capitalism. Marxism is a believer in the separation of classes and the oppression of the lower working class. Marxists would argue that capitalist society is separated in to two social classes.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As Sociology

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages

    (e) Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. (24 marks)…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marxist feminists, such as Benston, argue that the typical nuclear family provides the basic commodity required by capitalism, such as reproducing in order to maintain a workforce, and also maintaining the present workforce’s health and wellbeing. She therefore argues, that both men and women play an important role, whilst conforming to a New Right perspective on the matter.…

    • 712 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Functionalists regard society as a system made up of different parts that depend on each other such as a family. They see family as an important “organ” in the “body” of society. This is because they tend to look at the family in terms of the functions it performs for the benefit of society and the individual. They see the nuclear family of 2 parents with 2 children as the “ideal”.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The role of the children in family life was another convention that was changed drastically by the Soviets. The children, under the Soviet Union belonged to the country and the government, not their parents. In order for this to be successful, the government had to take on the full responsibilities of educating the children and providing care facilities to decrease the responsibilities of the parents. The term “social education” was created under this new belief. The reasoning behind this was in order to not only produce hundreds of thousands of productive workers, but to also free mothers who were constrained by their children, forced to stay home and take care of them. This would allow these mothers…

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays