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Marxism explains the role of families in society today. This can be shown by the view that family is in the substructure of the base-superstructure. This means that the family contributes to the economical foundation of society.

A popular debate in Sociology concerns the idea that the family contributes to the unit of consumption, the family contributes to the ideological functions, feminist theories of the family, and finally, the functionalist theories of the family.

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The material demonstrates Marxist explanations for the role of families in society today. Marxism is a structural conflict theory which focuses on how capitalism shapes society. Some sociologists argue that the role of families are to have ideological functions and that they are a unit of consumption whereas other sociologists would disagree.

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1.      Introduce the topic

2.      Define any key terms

3.      Outline the main arguments

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1.      Make a judgement – how useful are Marxist explanations in helping us understand the family?

2.      Explain/justify your judgement - BRIEFLY refer to its strengths, or its criticisms from other explanations.

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One theory that criticize the Marxist view is the feminist theory. Radical feminists similarly to Marxists views on the family see it in a negative way. however they see it as oppressing to women through patriarchy in the home e.g. through domestic labour. This is different to Marxism as they see the oppression as coming from capitalism not patriarchy and believe the family performs functions for capitalism whereas radical feminists believe it performs functions for patriarchy. However they both agree on the fact that the solution to this is revolutionary action.

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One marxist explanation comes from ideological functions of the family. to demonstrate this point, it is useful to refer to Zaretsky's theory of the safe haven.

According to Zaretsky, the family performs an ideological function by socialising their children to accept capitalist values (such as hierarchy, inequality and authority). He also believes that family supports capitalism by preventing workers from questioning or challenging the system that exploits them. Zaretsky's theory of there being a safe haven in the family, it argues that the family provides emotional support and refuge from the stresses of the capitalist work place. While offering relief, the family distracts workers from the exploitation and inequalities they face in society. The family helps maintain capitalism by diverting attention away from exploitation and inequality, preventing workers from challenging the system.

Therefore, this shows that the ideological functions performed by the family benefits a capitalist society

However, it can be seen that Zalensky's theory may be criticised as he does not consider free will. He ignores that people can resist sociolisation and ideology. Children do not have to accept capitalist values and ideas they are taught as a child.

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One Marxist explanation comes from families buying and consuming items from large businesses. To demonstrate this point, it is useful to refer to Zaretsky's unit of consumption theory. This is where families spend money on goods and services from private businesses where individuals can profit. This leads to capitalism being maintained through family. Therefore this shows how families play a key role in being beneficial to capitalism. This can be criticised by functionalists who disagree and say that 'Marxists place too much importance on the role of families supporting capitalism'.

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One Marxist explanation of the roles of family in society today is ideological functions. To demonstrate this point, it is useful to two ways in which the family does this, by offering a ‘safe haven’ and by socialising the inevitable. The family performs the function by socialising their children to accept capitalist values, such as hierarchy, inequality and authority. In this way, the family supports capitalism by preventing workers from questioning or challenging the system that exploits them - because they have been taught from a young age to accept it. In addition, Zaretsky argues that the family provides emotional support and a refuge from the stress of the capitalist workplace. He argues that, while offering relief, the family distracts workers from the exploitation and inequalities they face in society. Therefore, the family has a role in transmitting ideology to support the capitalist system. This idea is criticised by interactionists, who believe that children do not have to accept capitalist values and ideas they are taught as a child so it ignores resistance to ideology.

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The topic is Marxist arguments and theories on families and ow it supports capitalism. Capitalism is a society where people can have privately owned businesses and property, they can also socially mobilise. The main arguments include Unit of consumption, Ideological functions and Feminist theories of the family as well as funtionalist views of the family.

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Another theory that criticizes Marxist view of the family is Functionalism. To demonstrate this criticism, it's useful to refer to Murdok's theory of the family. Murdok argues that nuclear family exists in all  societies and always performed 4 essential functions: stable satisfaction of sex drive, reproduction of the next generation, socialisation of the young and satisfaction of members’ economic needs. He would criticise Marxist theories because they only see the family negatively and emphasise how it maintains capitalism, whereas Murdok sees family positively.

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One Marxist explanation of the role of families in society today is the Unit of consumption theory by the sociologist Zaretsky. This is the theory that the consumers of goods and services help the capitalist economy. This view argues that capitalism uses the family to generate its' profits. It does this by targeting the advertising of products to children. Zaretsky argues that children use their 'pester power' (irritating their parents) to get the goods which are bought by their parents. These advertisements urge families to keep up with all the latest products and keep on spending. This therefore means that families are benefiting the bourgeoisie by feeding them money. However, feminists would disagree with Zaretsky's theory because they argue that it ignores other conflict in society like gender inequality and that the family only supports men.

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In conclusion, Marxist explanations are a fairly useful way to help us understand family and how it negatively effects society. However it can be criticised due to it ignoring any good ways that the family benefits society such as functionalist theories on the family.

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The topic is Marxism, Marxism is a structural conflict theory. It focus on the conflict between the proletariat (who only have their labour to sell) and the bourgeoise (who exploit the proletariat for their labour and own the means of production). This class divide is driven by capitalism. Marxist believe that the nuclear family performs functions for capitalism such as passing wealth down through generations and socializing the young in a way that means they will accept capitalism when their older, however other theories disagree.

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Marxist explanations of the role of families in society today argue that families performs ideological functions to support capitalism. Capitalist societies have class conflict between the proletariat and bourgeoisie, leading to exploitation. They used the exploitation of the proletariat workforce to make sure their wealth stayed within the family. The main arguments include ideological functions, the unit of consumption, and femininist and functionalist views.

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To conclude this Marxism is useful in helping to understand the family because it mentions the parents influence on children which benefits the capitalist society.