The family is a key part where power is exercised and exerted and sociologists will see inequalities within the family differently based upon their theoretical perspective on how power is distributed.
The functionalists will take a very traditional approach to the family and they will suggest that there is a natural division of labour based upon biological differences. Talcott Parsons believed that women are suited better for caring because of their expressive roles as carers and they naturally care for children and also provide emotional support for the family.
Marxist Feminists; they believe that men are the main cause of the inequalities by reproducing the workforce and the inequalities within the family. The family then acts like a filter by which the anger of oppression felt by men in the workplace comes out within the family and this creates inequalities in the distribution.
Radical Feminists; they believe that the family and the female role is created by men to enable them to go to work without the burden of childcare or domestic work, which is completed by their partners i.e the women.
Patriarchy; this is male power and dominance and this is why many women accept male power without question because they have been socialised into accepting male authority and into not questioning it. This means that women will accept responsibility for things like care, housework and childcare without question and this is also why some women are made to feel guilty for working outside of the home because they are made to believe that their absence somehow damages their children. Finally it could also be said that the state in many ways encourages women to be econominally dependent upon men and this also reinforces some of the inequalities in power distribution within the family. For example, in the case of maternity leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment