Murdock (1949): The nuclear family is universal. Four functions: sexual (regulates sexuality), reproductive (produces next generation), economic (provides for members), educational (socialises children).
Parsons (1955): Two "irreducible" functions in modern society: (1) primary socialisation of children, (2) stabilisation of adult personalities ("warm bath" theory). Nuclear family is best suited to industrial society.
Criticism: Ignores family diversity, dark side of family life (domestic violence), and assumes a male breadwinner/female homemaker model that is increasingly outdated.
Engels: The nuclear family emerged with private property — men needed to control women's reproduction to pass wealth to legitimate heirs. Zaretsky: The family provides a "haven" from alienating work, but this is an illusion — it socialises children to accept capitalist values (hierarchy, obedience) and women provide unpaid domestic labour that benefits capitalism.
Liberal feminists: Progress is being made through legislation (Equal Pay Act, shared parental leave). Radical feminists: The family is the primary site of patriarchal oppression — domestic violence, unpaid labour. Marxist feminists (Delphy & Leonard): Women perform unpaid domestic labour that benefits both capitalism and patriarchy. Intersectional (hooks): Family experience varies by class and ethnicity.
The traditional nuclear family (married heterosexual couple with children) is the ideal. Decline of this family type causes social problems: welfare dependency, crime, educational failure. Single-parent families and absent fathers create an "underclass." Government should promote marriage and traditional family values.
Criticism: Blames victims, ignores structural inequality, idealises a form of family that was never universal. Ethnocentric and heteronormative.
Rapoport & Rapoport (1982): Identified 5 types of family diversity in Britain — organisational, cultural, social class, life-course, and cohort diversity. The nuclear family was never as dominant as functionalists claimed.
Argued family roles were becoming more equal (symmetrical) — men doing more housework, women in paid work. Couples sharing leisure time. This was a march of progress view.
Criticism: Oakley challenged this — Y&W defined "helping with housework" as doing one task per week. Not genuinely symmetrical.
The housewife role is socially constructed, not natural. Women are socialised into domestic roles through canalisation (channelling interests), verbal appellations, and manipulation of activities. Despite women entering the labour market, they still perform the majority of domestic labour — the "dual burden" (paid work + housework).
Women perform THREE types of work: (1) paid employment, (2) domestic labour, (3) emotional labour ("emotion work" — managing the emotional well-being of the family). Men benefit from all three.