Assess The Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism The Marxist perspective comes from Frederick Engel, which it stressed on the patriarchal structure of families. Basically the Marxism suggested males are the dominant of the whole family. For instance, it’s essential to solve the problem of the inheritance of the private property in order to pass them to their children/heirs; in another words, it’s unlikely for women to be a part of the responsibilities because they’ve been designed to be controlled by the family in the Marxist view.This is of course, a similar approach to the functionalist view, but it differs because Marxists start from the assumption that modern societies (with a very few exceptions) are capitalist. A typical Marxist views the family as a work force for the rich; they feel like they are breeding a new army of workers that the rich will exploit. They believe that the nuclear family ensures that generation after generation remains lodged into a routine of capitalism.
Marxists would say that the nuclear family is an ideological conditioning device, which reproduces the ideologies which follow and make capitalism stable. Meaning that children are trained to copy the values, norms and behaviors of their parents and so unsurprisingly often follow them into the same sorts of work due to being almost trained to copy their parent’s choices. Feminists have a similar view to Marxists except they feel that males exploit females rather than the rich exploiting the poor. Feminists also believe in a similar concept to the safety valve, except they believe that instead of men using the family as an emotional punching bag, they would take their authority and show their superiority to their wives or the women in their lives. Sociologists Dobash and Dobash stated this information and I feel that it is very similar to Althusser’s idea of the safety valve.
The Essay on The Functionalist and Marxist views on the Family
... the bourgeoisie. Marxists view the family in a very disparaging light and regard the family as a tool of capitalism and the bourgeoisie. Marxists believe that ... the family cushions the main provider. This is similar to the functionalist “warm bath theory”. After a hard day of being exploited by ...
