What functions does the family perform and how is it changing in Australia?
Explain and evaluate the role of the family as a social institution in contemporary Australia
The family as a social institution: functions, family diversity, the changing Australian family, and functionalist, Marxist, feminist and interactionist perspectives, with ABS and Australian examples, for TCE Sociology.
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What this dot point is asking
Module 2 examines social institutions in contemporary Australia, and the family is the first and most personal of them. You need to explain what functions the family performs for individuals and society, describe how family forms are changing, and evaluate competing perspectives on whether the family is beneficial or oppressive.
Defining the family and its diversity
A family is a group connected by kinship, marriage or choice who usually share a household and care for one another. Sociologists distinguish the nuclear family (two generations: parents and children) from the extended family (three or more generations or wider kin). Contemporary Australia shows enormous family diversity: according to Australian Bureau of Statistics census data, single parent families, blended and step families, same sex couple families and people living alone have all grown, while the married couple with dependent children household is now a minority of households.
The functionalist view
Functionalists stress the positive functions the family performs. George Murdock claimed the family meets four universal functions: sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. Talcott Parsons argued that in modern industrial society the family has lost some functions to other institutions but specialises in two irreducible functions: the primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities, the so called warm bath that relieves the stresses of work. The strength of this view is that it explains why the family is universal; its weakness is that it ignores conflict and the dark side of family life.
The Marxist view
Marxists argue the family serves capitalism, not its members. It reproduces the next generation of workers at no cost to employers, socialises children to accept hierarchy and authority, and acts as a unit of consumption that buys goods. Friedrich Engels linked the monogamous family to the inheritance of private property. The strength of this view is that it connects the family to the wider economy; its weakness is that it downplays the genuine love and support families provide.
Feminist and interactionist views
Feminists highlight inequality within the family. Ann Oakley showed that women still perform the majority of unpaid domestic labour and childcare, the dual burden, even when in paid work. Radical feminists see the family as a site of patriarchy and, at its worst, domestic violence. Interactionists step back from grand theory to study how family members negotiate roles and meanings in daily life, reminding us that families are lived relationships, not just structures.
Because Module 2 asks you to discuss interrelationships between institutions, remember that the family does not operate alone: it works alongside education and the economy in socialising and supporting individuals, a link explored in the next dot point.