AS TOPIC 1 FAMILY TOPIC
PARSONS
➔ Instrumental roles :Describes men who are
geared towards success in work and they
are defined as Breadwinners .
➔Expressive roles : Describes women who
are geared towards the primary socialisation
of the children and meeting the needs of the
family .They are defined as Homemakers.
➔ He argues that these roles were biologically suited
to us . These roles benefit the women,men,children
and wider society .
PARSONS AND ROLES
CRITICISM TO PARSON
➔Young and Willmott disagreed with PARSONS
and argued that women were becoming wage
earners and families were becoming
symmetrical families(more equal and
democratic).
➔Feminist also disagreed with PARSONS as they
believed that these roles were not biological
and patriarchal family caused the roles to
remain.
ELIZABETH BOTT
argues :
➔separate conjugal roles:where couples have
separate tasks and thats why they tend to
spend their leisure time differently.
➔ joint conjugal roles: where couples share
tasks and tend to spend leisure time equally
same e.g. childcare.
YOUNG AND WILLMOTT
➔Women are becoming wage earners
➔we are moving towards joint conjugal roles
which were defined by Elizabeth Bott.
➔she agrees with March of progress view by
Young and Willmott .
GERSHUNY -WOMEN FULL TIME
WORKERS ➔As women are becoming more full time
workers the more progress is made towards
equality.
➔He argues that women who work do less
work .
➔82%=not working
➔73%=working
MAN-YEE KAN PAID WORK
➔Found that Income from
employment,education,age and gender
affect how much housework you do.
➔ the younger better educated and better paid
to less work
➔every 10,000 increase in annual income
decreases weekly housework by 2 hours
SILVER AND JULIET SCHOR
➔Argues that COMMERCIALISATION and WOMEN
WORKING has reduced the burden of housework
as they could buy more expensive stuff and spend
less time making food .
➔But not all women have this option
➔This only proves their has been a decrease in
burden but nothing on men and women equality
DECISION MAKING Pahl,Vogler and Edgell:
➔The one that earns more generally makes
the decisions
➔Feminist argue that earning less is not the
only reason for decision making of men .Its
also PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY .
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
➔Mirrlees-black found that:
➔most victims are men
➔99% of all incidents against women
are committed by men
➔1 in 4 women have faced domestic
violence .
FEMINIST AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
➔Radical feminist argue that domestic
violence is maintained due to patriarchal
system
➔But Faith Robertson argues that not all men
are aggressive and she reject the idea that
men benefit from domestic violence
➔ Sees domestic violence as a result of stress on family
members caused by social inequality
➔ e.g. income and housing
➔ worries about money,job and housing .
➔ lack of money restricts their social circle to move away
from stress.
➔ Mirrillees and Wilkinson's founding show that not all
face domestic violence those with less power ,status
,wealth are in greater risk .
TOPIC 2 CHILDHOOD
Jane Pilcher
➔Argued that the most important feature of
modern idea of childhood is
SEPARATENESS .
➔Seen as clear and distinct stage .
➔She argued that this could be proved
through laws,dress code,books and
entertainments
➔golden age = happiness and innocence
➔ innocence =protection
NEIL POSTMAN
Childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed
He says that this is the cause of growing
similarity of adults and childrens clothing and
even the case of crimes such as murder .
CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
➔ Benedict argues that children in simpler and non-
industrial society are treated differently from modern
western fellows .
➔ In Three ways :
➔ Bolivia=Punch=at the age of 5 =children work
➔ Samoan village= Holmes= too young is not a reason
and children decide if they could do the work even if its
dangerous or heavy for them .
Historical Differences
➔children were seen as Economical assets.
➔children were worked in unsafe conditions .
Before:
HISTORICAL DIFFERENCES
➔Aries had argued that childhood did not exist
in the middle ages and that 20th century was
the ‘century of the child’.
➔But Palloc had disagreed and said that it
was more correct to say that the middle
ages had a different notion of childhood from
today.
CONFLICT VIEW
➔They criticise march of progress view.
➔They believe that there are still inequalities
between children and not all of them have
the same opportunities.
➔ JENS BONKE FOUND :found that girls do
more work than boys specially in lone parent
families .
DIFFERENCES
NEGLECT AND ABUSE
Adult control over children can take the extreme
form of physical neglect or physical ,sexual and
emotional abuse . In 2006 31,400 children were on
child protection list. Childline receives 20,000 calls
a year from children who say they are being
sexually or physically abused which shows the
darkside of family.
Controls over childrens play areas
E.g shop signs which say that no school
children and sometimes children are not
allowed to play in certain areas.stranger danger
idea has lead to people to drive their children to
school rather than letting them travel
independently. In 1971 80% children at the
age of 7 to 8 had went school independently
but this dropped to 9% in 1990.
TOPIC 3 FUNCTIONALIST
The functionalist perspective of family
➔society is based on value consensus(shared
value and norms). Basically agreement.
➔society is made of different parts and they
depend on each other like a body .If one
place stops working all other parts would
stop working.
➔ family meets the needs of the society
MURDOCK
➔ family performs four essential .
➔stable satisfaction of sex drive
➔ reproduction of new generation
➔socialisation of young
➔meeting members economical needs .
➔Nuclear family is the best family structure to
meet these four essentials.
CRITICISM OF MURDOCK
➔Other institutions could provide this without
having a nuclear family structure.
➔Feminist argue that family only meets the
needs of men and oppressing women.
➔Marxist argue that family meets the needs of
the capitalism
MARXISM
MARXIST
➔They argue that society is based on unequal
conflict between two social classes
➔capitalist class =owns means of production
➔Working class = whose labour the capitalist
exploit for profit .
➔They believe that family benefits the
capitalist system only .
CRITICISM OF MARXIST
➔ They emphasise that nuclear family is dominant in
capitalist society but they ignore increasing variety of
family structures which are found in todays society.
➔ Feminist only emphasise on social class and they that
they underestimate the importance of gender
inequalities within family and they argue that family
meets the need of men not capitalism .
➔ Functionalist argue that marxism does not see the real
benefit of family to its members
as friendship and mutual support.
FEMINISM AND FAMILIES
THEIR VIEWS ARE:
➔Family is unequal and there is gender
division.
➔They argue that these inequalities are not
natural and should not be regarded as
natural.
LIBERAL FEMINIST
➔ They argue that women oppression is being gradually
overcome through changing attitudes and laws .
➔ They believe that we are moving towards greater equality but
full equality will depend on reforms .
➔ They hold the of march of progress view .children are taught
about being equal .
➔ but other feminist criticise them for believing that these
changes would bring equality .
➔ Jenny Somerville argues that radical feminist fail to recognise
that women’s position has considerably improved . Due to
better access to divorce and jobs.
MARXIST FEMINISTS
➔ They believe that the main cause for oppression of
family is due to capitalism.Womens several functions
meet the needs of capitalism e.g.
➔ women reproduce the labour force.
➔ women absorb anger=Fran Ansley describes women as
‘shit takers’.
➔ women are reserve army as they do extra work when
needed ,when no longer needed they return back to
their primary roles as unpaid domestic labour .
RADICAL FEMINIST
All societies have been founded on men are the enemy as they
are the reason for this oppression
➔ patriarchy .
➔ family and marriage institutions are the key in patriarchal
society. men benefit from women unpaid domestic labour
and from their sexual services .
➔ women oppression must be abolished and the only way to
achieve this is separatism =women live independently.
➔ Jenny Somerville (liberal feminist ) argues that separatism is
unlikely to work.
SOCIOLOGIST CRITICISM TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF
FEMINIST
➔ They say there are two weakness of these different
feminist perspectives to family .
➔ 1.All feminist assume that the traditional nuclear
family is the dominant family type .meaning that they
ignore family diversity .
➔2. They are all structural theories meaning that
families members are manipulated by structure of
society to perform certain actions.
NEW RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF
FAMILY :
It's based on the idea that the traditional nuclear family and its values (mum, dad and kids, parents are married, dad in paid employment) are best for
society. The Simpsons is a nuclear family.
New Right theorists believe that social policies on the family, children, divorce and welfare have undermined the family.
Charles Murray is a New Right sociologist who says the traditional family is under threat. Murray says that welfare benefits are too high and create a
'culture of dependency' where an individual finds it easy and acceptable to take benefits rather than work. He also created 'underclass' which is the
idea of people who live or benefits and do not work.
New Right theorists are particularly concerned about giving lots of welfare benefits to single mothers. They also think that it's a very bad idea to have
children brought up in families where adults aren't working and in lone parent families or fatherless families. Moral panic and fear of breakdown in
social fabric due to lone parent families.
New Right sociologists believe that the increase in lone-parent and reconstituted families and the easier access to divorce have led to a breakdown in
traditional values. They say that this causes social problems such as crime increase.
divorce
Divorce secularisationFor example church attendance has decreased
CHANGES IN WOMEN'S POSITION : the proportion of
women working rose from 47% in 1959 to 70% in 2005
.feminist argue that women working and being Homemaker
has caused conflict between couples and thats why there is
an increase in divorce rates.They also argue that marriage
remains patriarchal with men benefiting from womens triple
shift .
Feminist Jessie Bernard this high rates of divorce = growing
acceptance of feminist ideas has caused them to release
oppression and became confident about rejecting it .
cohabitation :
Marriages
Since 1920s decline in marriages .
Average age for marriage has rose by seven
years between 1971 to 2005 32 for men and 30
for women .
In 1981 60% of marriages in church and in
2005 this fell to 35% .
jeffrey weeks=SAME SEX
argued that increase in social acceptance may explain a
trend in recent years towards same-sex relationships that
resemble those found among heterosexuals.
stonewell :argues that 5-7% of the adult population have
same sex relationships and that it is impossible to say
whether their is a increase because people before had to
hide this
MARRIAGES MINDMAPFOR FULL MINDMAP OF THE 3
TOPICS
https://www.examtime.com/en-
US/mind_maps/1690486/edit
There has been a decline in marriages since 1920 but since
2005 there is a increase as 4 /10 marriages are remarriages.
REASONS FOR THIS DECLINE:people are more free to make
decisions which makes decisions easier and quicker.
1) DECREASE IN SECURITISATIONS = People are less
influenced by their religion and in 2005 only 3% of young
people who had no religion married and 17% of people
who had religion married .
LESBIAN COUPLES
Lesbian couple and gender script /
Dunne argued that gender script is deeply in society and that Lesbian couples
are more equal as they share housework and childcare equally .
They give equal importance to each others careers .
This difference is because lesbian couples do not have gender scripts that they
are pressures to apply like heterosexual
one person household
PETER STEIN : A growing number of people are opting for
creative singlehood (the deliberate choice to live alone ).
this has also increased due to increase in divorce.
in 2006 3/10 households contained one person and this
was 3 times more in 1961.This increase was believed to be
because of high divorce rates of under 65 and children
tend to stay with their mothers.
childbearing
4 out 10 child are from outside marriage .Since
1971 to 2005 the average age for first child
rose by 3 years to 27.3.
the fertility rate : but why a decline :
1960=2.95 -decline stigma=religion infl.
2001=1.68 -increase in cohabitation
2006=1.84 - women want careers
STEPFAMILIES
- 86% of stepfamilies have a child from the
women from their previous marriages .
- stepfamilies face greater risk of poverty as
the family is generally big and they take care
of their partners children too.
ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN FAMILY
PATTERNSBlack families :black caribbean and black african people
have the higher proportion of lone parent households . In
2002 More than half of the black families with dependent
children were lone parent and mostly headed by female
black .
This was a evidence of family disorganisation that could be
related to slavery or recently the hight rates of black malds
unemployment
Slavery
When couples were sold separately to white owners they children of
couple slaves tend to stay with their mothers and it ia argued this
established a pattern of family life today . The unemployment of black
mens has caused them to be less able to provide for the family and
results in marital breakdown. But HEIDI SAFIA MIRA argued that the
high rate of lone parent families amongst black is not a result if
disorgation but a result of black womens high value in independence
.
Asian families
Bangladesh,pakistani and indian households
tend to be larger than those of other ethnic
groups.
EXTENDED FAMILY TODAY
NEW RIGHT FAMILY DIVERSITY
New right :
--> they are against family diversity
--> families with family division which they define as biological differences are
the "normal and correct families ".
--> increase in family diversity causes increase in crime and education failures.
-->lone parent families are harmful for children because they cannot discipline
their children and they put a burden on welfare state which causes
encouragement for dependent culture and makes irresponsibility easy.
--> harry barson found that 3000 of 15000 babies born 2000-01 have become
part of lone parent families .
--> criticism = feminist ann oakley says that these roles are not biological and
family oppresses women
PARSONS FUNCTIONAL FIT
➔Nuclear family = parents and dependent
children .
➔Extended family= three generations living
under one roof .
FAMILIES AND WHAT SOCIETY THEY SUIT
➔According to parson their are two types of
society and particular families meet the
needs of these two societies .
➔Modern industrial society and Traditional
pre-industrial society.
➔For parson NUCLEAR FAMILY meets the
needs of industrial society and EXTENDED
FAMILY meets the needs of Pre-industrial
society.
INDUSTRIALIZATION
➔BRITAIN =Started to industrialise from 18th
century .
➔ the extended family began to give a way to
nuclear families.
➔This change was due to new society
emerging through industrialisation and new
family type was needed to meet the need of
the new society .
Reasons to change to nuclear family
➔Geographically mobile workforce .As britain
became industrialised more jobs=easier for
nuclear families to move to find job in new
opened factories .
PARSON WHY NUCLEAR FAMILY IS SUITABLE
➔ A social mobile workforce: The modern industrial
society is based on constantly evolving science and
technology so it requires skilled workforce .This change
is important because the modern society ,a individuals
statues is achieved by their effort and ability not
ascribed (fixed at birth) by their social mobility possible
.e.g. the son of a labourer could become a
lawyer,doctor through ability and hard work. For this
reason parson argues that nuclear family is better
equipped than extended family .
CHESTER
-->there has been increase in family diversity.
--> moved away from conventional to neo conventional = from nuclear family to dual earner (both couples working).
--> most people have been part of a nuclear family or is going to thats why he criticised surveys for focusing on present
only.
--> cohabitation has increased but people eventually marry , birth outside marriage has increased but the child is
registered under both parents and finally this shows commitment to marriage and having children .
--> he argues that family diversity is over exaggerated and he is in favor of nuclear family like functionalist .
RAPPORT FAMILY DIVERSITY
Rapport argues :
-->that family diversity is central for us to
understand family today.
--> we have moved away from nuclear family to a
variety of different families.
--> britain has adopted pluralistic society meaning
that we accept different cultures and lifestyles.
--> family diversity shows greater freedom of choice
.
-->there is family diversity because its a response to
our wishes and needs .So people are creating families
that will meet their wishes not the societies .
--> argues that there are 5 different family diversity:
- organisational = differences in how roles are
shared out .
- cultural =different cultures,traditions and religions
- social class = difference in incomes of households .
- lifestage= newly married,couples with children or
retired couples .
- generational = older and younger people have
different
POSTMODERNITY AND LIFE COURSE
TOPIC 4 :DEMOGRAPHY
BIRTH RATES
➔ BIRTH RATE :Number of life births per 1000 of the population per year .
➔ since 1900 in UK there has been long term decline in birth rates .In 1900 birth rate
was 28.7 but in 2007 this had dropped to 10.7
➔ But there has been THREE main BABY BOOMS in 20th century :
➔ 1. WORLD WAR 1 AND 2 .(1914-1918 AND 1939-1945).
➔ 1960’s there was a baby boom but the birth rate dropped back down in 1970.
➔ FERTILITY RATE: is the average number of children women have during their
fertility years.
➔ UK’s fertility rate rise since 2001 but it was still low compared to pass.The TFR of
UK was 1.68 this increased to 1.84 in 2006 but in 1960s (BABY BOOM ) the TFR
was 2.95 .
➔ These show that women are remaining childless than in the past .
REASONS FOR DECLINE IN BIRTH RATES
1.Changes in the position of women :
➔ legal equality with men such as voting rights
➔ .Women had increasing education opportunities.
➔Women working and earning money.
➔Changes in attitudes towards family life and women’s
roles .
➔ easier to divorce (cheaper and quicker)
➔ access to abortion and contraception which gives more
control to their fertility
2.Decline in the infant mortality rate:
➔ This measures the number of infant who die before their
first birthday,per thousand babies born born alive per
year .
➔ Sociologist argue that increase in IMR leads to fall in
birth rates .This is because if many infants die parents
have more children to replace them so = increase in
birth rates but in contrast if infants survive parents
would have fewer of them.
➔ BRASS AND KABIR argued that the trend to smaller
families began in areas who had fallend infant mortality
rate .
IN 20TH CENTURY IMR BEGAN TO FALL:
BECAUSE:➔ improved housing and better sanitations such as clean
water .Which reduced infectious diseases .Infants are
much less susceptible to infections because their
immune system is less developed .
➔ Better nutritions
➔ better knowledge of hygiene=magazine published .
➔ improved services for mothers .
➔ since 1950s mass immunisations against child diseases .
3.CHILDREN BECOME AN ECONOMICAL LIABILITY
➔ Until 19th century =children were economical assets .They were
sent to work from early ages for extra income .
➔ late 19th century=children are becoming economical liability
.THROUGH:
➔ LAWS =banning child labour ,compulsory schooling which causes
= children to depend on their parents for longer now .
➔ CHANGING NORMS= children start to have the right to expect
from their parent in material terms =cost of bringing up children
=RAISED SIGNIFICANTLY .
4.CHILD CENTREDNESS:
➔Parents having less children and focuses
more on the ones they have .
➔children are more protected and valued .
➔A shift from quantity to quality .
5. DECREASE IN IMMIGRATION
➔ This is a factor for birth rates and fertility rate as
mothers outside UK have higher rate of fertility than
in UK .Babies who are to mothers who are from
outside UK made up the 22% of babies born in UK
in 2005 .
➔ OVERALL: All of these show that birth rates,fertility
rates and family sizes have fallen over the last
century but there has been slight increase in 2001.
EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN FERTILITY
Changes in number of babies being born affect several aspects these
include :1. Family =smaller families mean that women is likely to be free to go out to work.But better off
couples could have several children and could still afford childcare and still could work full time.
2. The dependency ratio= is the relationship between the size of working of the population and the
size on non working part of the population .The earning ,saving and taxes of the working
population must support the dependent population (don’t work).Children make up large part of
the dependent population as they don’t work so decrease in birth rates decreases dependency
ratio. But if this decrease in birth rates go for long this would cause huge decrease in people
working as there would not be people who are educated and ready to work .This would lead to
an increase in dependency ration again .
3. Public service and policies = If birth rates decrease new policies may be passed e.g. fewer
schools would be built or the number of students in each class would be decreased .Moreover
the types of houses that are built may change e.g if birth rates decrease smaller houses would
be made more .
DEATHS Death rate : Is the number of deaths per thousand of the population per year.
FLUCTUATIONS ON DEATH RATES :
OVERVIEW :
➔one fluctuation was The Two World Wars.
➔ Influenza epidemic of 1918.
➔But death rates have been fallen since 1900
BUT WHY WAS THERE A DECREASE IN
DEATH RATES?
➔ 1. According to N.L. Tranter =over ¾ of the decline in death rates
since 1850-1970 was due to fall in number of deaths from
infectious diseases such as measles and small box.These caused
most of infants and younger children to die .
GENERAL IDEA =
➔ 1950=emergency of ‘diseases for the affluence (wealth) such as
heart diseases and cancers replaced infectious diseases and this
diseases affected the middle ages mostly .
SOCIAL FACTORS:
Thomas McKeown argues that the improved
nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction
in death rates and was important in reducing
deaths from TB (a diseases).Better nutrition
increased resistance to infections and
increased survival chances to those who were
infected .
MEDICAL IMPROVEMENTS
- After 1950s improved medical knowledge,techniques
and organisations did help reduce death rates .
- By-pass surgery -reduced death rates from heart
disease by ⅓
- Introduction of Antibiotics,blood transfusion ,higher
standards of midwifery,maternity services and setting
up of National health services in 1949.
Environmental Improvements
- Improvements in housing less overcrowded
accommodations.Purer drinking water and improved sewage
disposal methods .
- clean air acts reduced pollution.
Other social changes:
- more decline in dangerous manual occupations like mining .
- smaller families = reduced the rate of transmission of
infection .
- greater public knowledge of the causes of illness
- higher incomes=healthier lifestyle .
LIFE EXPECTANCY
- refers to how long on average a person born
in a given year can expect to live .
- As death rates fall= life expectancy
increases.So there has been increase in life
expectancy of UK.
- In 1900 life expectancy was low because
15% of infants died before they were 1 years
old .
WOMEN LIVE LONGER THAN MEN
- But this has changes due to changes in
employments and lifestyle .Such as women
work and smoke too like men .
CAUSES OF AGEING POPULATION :
- increasing life expectancy =living longer
- declining infant mortality = hardly anyone
dies early in life
- declining fertility =less children are being
borned so old people make most of the
population .
EFFECTS OF AGEING POPULATION
- one person pensioners households= people living alone
has increased .They make 14% of the households .
- Most of these are females=because women live longer
so when their husbands die they live alone.
- the dependency ratio=as the amount of people who
retired increase the dependency ratio increase and the
the burden on working class .
- But some old people stop working at the age of 50 so it
varies whereas some need to wait till 65 to be entitled
for pensions .
AGEING CAUSING PROBLEMS
- society facing problems on meeting the
escalating cost of health and social care of
the growing numbers of old people
- concerns about how to pay the pensions of
the elderly .
SOCIOLOGIST VIEWS
DONALD HIRSCH:argues that social policies
and trends needs to be changed to tackle the
new problems caused by ageing population
.The main problem is how to finance a longer
period of old age .This could either be by
paying more taxes from our savings while
working or by continuing to work longer .or both
of these solutions together.
MIGRATION I would be missing some
parts of migration topic.
key words
Emigration=moving into an area or society
Immigration= moving in .
Net migration= differences between the number
immigrating and the numbers emigrating .This
is expressed as a net increase or net decrease
to migration .
If you can’t memorise these just
remember them as
EMIGRATION = E FOR EXIST
IMMIGRATION= I FOR IN
UK POPULATION
- For most of the 20th century UK’s population was
the result of natural increase(more births than
deaths ) rather than more people emigrating and
immigrating .
- People in UK moved out and less people
immigrated .
- world war has caused a lot of people moving into
Britain this has caused ethnically diverse society.
⇒ MIGRATION EFFECTS → dependency ratio
- migrants are mostly at the work work age this
causes decrease the dependency ratio.But due to
women immigrants having higher fertility rate they
tend to have more children and cause the
dependency ratio to increase as more children are
born that cannot work but ones these children grow
up and get job the dependency ratio decreases as
they can work woman immigrants having children
also increases the average age of population .
TOPIC 5 CHANGING FAMILY PATTERNS
lone parent families :-Make up 24% of families
-90% of lone parents are women
-This increase in lone parent families is due to increases in divorce rates and people who have not been
married having children .
Why mums:
-The expressive role ides influence
- Courts generally give the child custody to mums
-JEAN RENVOIZE found that professional women were able to support their children without fathers
involvement.
NEW RIGHT VIEW =MURRAY ARGUES THAT :
- there is a increase in lone parent families because of the state being over generous to them through
benefits which new right believes causes dependency ratio to increase .
- they believe that giving benefits to them causes perverse incentive= meaning that the state are reward
them for being irresponsible .
- Murray argues that the solution to this is stopping these benefits which would stop this dependency .
- NEW RIGHT were criticised as most lone parents leaders are women and they earn less than men so
they need these benefits and most are unemployed due to child care .
NEW RIGHT VIEW ON LONE
PARENT FAMILIES :
NEW RIGHT VIEW =MURRAY ARGUES THAT :
- there is a increase in lone parent families because of the state being over
generous to them through benefits which new right believes causes
dependency ratio to increase .
- they believe that giving benefits to them causes perverse incentive=
meaning that the state are reward them for being irresponsible .
- Murray argues that the solution to this is stopping these benefits which
would stop this dependency .
- NEW RIGHT were criticised as most lone parents leaders are women and
they earn less than men so they need these benefits and most are
unemployed due to child care .
SOCIAL POLICIES Topic social policies:
Functionalist:
--> they argue that these policies help family to function more effectively.
--> But for feminists not all members benefit only men and benefit cuts do nOt benefit the poor.
New right :
--> social policies can encourage a dependency culture which undermines the traditional nuclear family .
--> they believe that social policies causes nuclear family to lose its fUnction.
--> against the policy of giving house for unmarried couples.
SOCIAL POLICIES :
Feminist :Social policies helps to maintain subordination and reinforce patriarchal ideals .
● This could be proved through the laws such as child benefits which are given to the mum because it Is
assumed that women do not work and depend on the men or the state benefits .
● The policies meet the needs of men
● Feminist hilary land that social policies assume that the ideal family is nuclear family .edmund leah
calls this type of family as cereal packet norm .
● Diana leonard argues that some policies seem as beneficial but they are actually enforcing patriarchal
.E.g maternity leave which is designed for women show how children care should be take by the mum
only rather than men.
● But feminists are criticised as not all policies are patriarchal e.g equal pay act and sex discrimination
act helps women who are refugee or divorced or who are a victim of domestic violence .
SOCIAL POLICIES
New labour :
--> social policies could improve the lives of family members .
--> they believe that some reforms benefit the family not all.
● They favour nuclear families
● They think that marriage is important .
General idea :
->Eileen drew : concept of gender regimes to show how different countries have different policies which may encourage or discourage equality .
-->the two types were :
Traditional familistic gender regime = instrumental and expressive roles. E.g in greece there are no nurseries or child care centres . E.g courts favouring
mother in divorce cases regarding custody of their children.
-->Individualising gender regime = both couples need to be the equal.e.g equal pay act and sex discrimination act .
Marxism :
● Policies benefit the ruling class while suppressing working class
● They disagree with functionalist view that policies benefit the family .
● The working class struggled to get these act and it is really easy to take them away from them .
Donzelot :
● Teachers , doctors and social workers enforce social policies and he calls them police because they control us .
● Social workers tend to got to inspect lower classed people whicH they label as problem families .
● He disagrees with march of progress view .
● One strength : shows the importance of professionals knowledge as a form of power and control.
● Weakness : does not show the benefits of social policies .
Education : meritocratic:means
those who do well are reward and
those who do not do well are not .so
education is not ascribed
Functionalist :
- education is one of the many social institutions that help society to function
properly as education contributes to the economy.
- Functionalists believe that education brings people together and provides a
sense of solidarity and consensus.
- establishes certain skills needed for the future in the workplace and has a
positive impact on society.
However, Marxists and Feminists criticise this by saying education doesn’t bring
people together yet causes a divide due to unfairness of social class and society
being patriarchal.
They also say that the Functionalist view ignores the negative impacts that
education has on society and only focuses on the positives.
New right:.They argue that some people are naturally talented than others .functionalist
favour an education system with meritocratic principles (ability + talent) and
education should socialise children towards national pride.
- The current education system is failing because it is run by state .
- parents employers and students have no say in education system .
SOLUTION IS: more school diversity = would allow parents to have a variety of
choice and gives them as consumers more power
so the more school mean parents do not have to send their children to the nly
nearest school and this would cause competition between school so more effort will
be made by schools to make their education good .
new right
ROLE OF STATE IS:
- state creates league tables from ofsted
- reports and exam results
- national curriculum (science maths english
compulsory) = causes culture between students .
MARXISM Louis Althusser (a Marxist) (1971) argued that the main role of education in a capitalist society :
- the reproduction of an efficient and obedient workforce. This is achieved through schools.
. Marxists see the educational system as a mechanism for maintaining class inequalities, for example the
reproduction of the capitalist system.
The capitalist system is one whereby the rich (the bourgeoisie) stay rich and the poor (the proletariat) stay
poor.
they argue that education system is to reproduce and justify the existing class structure
Marxists do not believe in meritocracy, this is where the educational system gives equal opportunities to
everyone despite their background. They believe that education is designed to help and benefit the
bourgeoisie. They believe that schools and teachers reject working class pupils and so the working class
Bowles and Gintis were two Marxists who did not agree with
meritocracy. They believed that your social class determined how you
would end up in life
Bowles and Gintis were two Marxists who did
not agree with meritocracy. They believed that
your social class determined how you would
end up in life
CHUBB AND MOE :
VOUCHER SYSTEM :
They argue that ‘marketisation of schools’ is what will make education better
.because increasing school =compete=raising education standards to attract
consumers .
chubb and moe argue that greater consumer causes better standards of education
because parents are in control of their children education .
THIS IDEAS WOULD BENEFIT PEOPLE FROM DEPRIVED PLACES BUT RICH
PEOPLE WOULD NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY GOT THE HIGHEST
EDUCATION SYSTEM.
Durkheim :
education system help to create
social solidarity by transmitting the
norms and values of society . Norms
and value met eg they read the
national song .
parson:
argued that education is the bridge between
family and wider society.He sees family as
pluralist standards due to them having
ascribed e.g the bigger child is given more
rights.
but school is universalist because they are
judged with impersonal standards .
PARSON- parson also argues that school prepares us
to wider society through meritocratic
principles = equality achieved through own
ability and effort .parson also argues that
schools have a second function of helping
children to select their future work that they
are best suited to .
- Parson argued that education is the bridge
between family and wider society.
DAVIS AND MOORE Davis and Moore argued that education does select a
role allocation .school acts as a ‘miniature’=prepares
us for wider society interaction .
They also argued that inequalities are necessary in
education so that the most important jobs are filled
with the most talented people and not all people are
talented so there should be rewards for people who
are the talented ones and thats why this encourages
people to compete and select the most talented one .
THE MYTH OF CULTURAL
DEPRIVATION :
- NEIL KEDDIE Argued that a child cannot be
deprived from its own culture and argues
that WC children are just culturally different
not culturally deprived .She also argues that
they are failing because the education is MC
dominated through mostly MC values.
- culturally deprived=they put less amount of
emphasis on education .
douglas
Childrens fail in education because WC parents
are less likely to do anything intellectual that
would prepare children to school .
Language
Carl bereiter and siegfried engel mann : they
argued that language used by WC is defitiant
.they describe working class families as using
gestures,single words and disjoint senetences .
Thats why children fail
basel bernstein
Restricted code : used by workig class . Short
limited , simple sentences used . They uses
CONTENT-BOUND = everyone knows what
you are talking about .
Elaborated code : MC use it . They use wider
vocabulary and they are CONTENTS FREE=
they dont assume eclveryone knows what they
are talking about .
Elaborated code is important :
- used by middle class people so when MC
children start school they use elaborated code
and have no diffuculty unlike W/C STUDENTS .
- used by teachers , textbooks and exams and
thats why bernstein argues this skill is needed
for education . He argues that WC are culturally
deprived because schools fail to teach them the
elobrated code .
Douglas
wc people put less value on education and
gives less encouragement to them and visits
schools less and are less likely to discuss their
children's progress with teachers which causes
lack of motivation.
Cultural. Deprivation theorists
They argue that WCs lack of parental interest in
their children's education reflects the
subcultural values of of the WC .
SUBCULTURE. : a group whose values differ
from mainstream culture.
They argue that WC have different goals beliefs
attitudes from rest of the society and thats why
children fail in school .
Feinstein
Middle class children succeed because they
are given the nessasry support, motivation and
displine .
Sugarman 4 mains to education barriers
Fatalism : accepts accepts what happens and does
not challenge it .
Collectivism : being. Part of a group than a individual
success
Immediate gratification : wants to rewarded straight
away rather than rewarded more in future .
Present time orientation : present time is more
important .
Cultural capital bordie
Means knowledge, values , language and
abilities of middle class.
Bordie argued that cultural and material
deprivation are equally affecting child education
.like bernstein he agrees that Mc children are
more advantge because school transmits MC
culture .
GEWIRTZ types of families when
choosing schools
privileged skilled choosers: professional
middle.class parent who know all about the
system e.g looks at ofsted reports .
Disconnected local chooser: WC who have lack
of cultural and economical capital so they
choose local schools .
Semi skilled : Mainly WC . They want to send to
best school but lack fron cultural capital
BARRY TROYNA AND JENNY
WILLIAMS
- they argue that it is not the child's language
it is the school’s attitude.the teachers have
speech hierarchy where MC language is the
highest.
BLACKSTONE AND MORTIMORE
They reject the view that WC parents are not
interested in their children's education .They
argue that WC parents attend less parent
evening because they work longer or are put off
by middle class schools atmosphere not
because they are not interested .
STATISTICS ON MATERIAL
DEPRIVATION
In 2006 33% of children who
received free school meal got 5 or
more GCSE (a evidence of child
poverty) .But 61% who had not
received this help got 5 or more
GCSE.
JANE FLAHERTY
Argued that money problems in family is a
factor to childrens non attendance to school.
one other statistics is that 90% of failing
schools are in deprived areas .
HOUSING -Poor housing could affect children's achievement e.g for example
overcrowding could make it hard for the child to study and this could be
due to sharing rooms or no extra room to do homeworks.
-for little children lack of space causes unsafe environments to do
activities at home .
-more over living in temporary houses causes frequent changes in
schools and disturbed their education.
-temporary and crowded housing can cause illness and greater risk of
accidents which causes absence and failure in education as they miss
out on work.
DIET AND HEALTH
-Marilyn howard argued that younger people
from poorer areas are lacking from energy
intakes like vitamins and minerals .poor
nutrition affects health e.g.weakening immune
system and decrease their energy levels and
causes absence or lack of concentration in
school.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND COST OF EDUCATION
Lack of support means children from poorer
areas are missing out on experience that helps
their education .DAVID BULL refers to this as
the ‘cost of free schooling’
EMILY TANER ET AL : found that the cost of
transport,uniforms,books,computers,calculators
and sports,musics and art equipments place a
heavy burden on poor families
lack of funds = children work
RIDGE found that children in poverty tend to do
baby sitting,cleaning and paper rounds and
this often has a negative impact on their school
work.and this explains why WC children tend to
leave school at 16 and few got to university.
OVERALL JUDGMENT
Material deprivation is more important:
PETER MORTIMORE AND GEOFF WHITTY
argues that material inequalities have a greater
effect on achievement than school factors and
for this reason PETER ROBINSON ARGUED
:That tackling child poverty would be the most
effective way to boost achievement.
Internal factors
Refers to factors within school and the
education system including:
Labelling
Self fulling prophecy
Marketisation and section policies
Pupil sub cultures .
Children are put top sets
High statues knowledge is more
abstract,theoretical and complicated.
Low statues knowledge : common sense and
the ones that relate their knowledge to
everyday life .
Interactionist
They look at small scale of studies e.g.
Interviews .
They are interested in how people are labelled
and effects of those who are being labelled
.They focus on the meaning out of the research
Labelling
Howard becker : 60 chicago high school
teachers were assessed and becker found that
they judged pupils according to how close they
are to ideal student . Appearance and work are
also considered in. Judgment .MC students are
the closest to ideal student whereas Wc are
furthest away due to bad behaviour .
labelling
- Cicourel and kitsuse studied education
councillors and found that :
- they judged and choose the students
through social class and race .
- when students who had similar grades they
tend to choose middle class students
because they have more potential to
succeed .
labelling Ray riste : found that labelling was consistent
throughout the education system. he found that
teacher labelled students in primary school .the
teacher had two groups:
tigers=fast learners=middle class=close to
teachers table = great encouragement
cardinals+clowns= working class =furthest
away =low level book given= groups work
labelling
Gillborn and youdell
that by having sets in schools are not allowing
those who are in low groups to have access to
high status knowledge . Which increase the
gap they labelled them according to their ability
to get 5A*-C GCSE .
NELL KEDDIE
children are labelled through what they are
taught :
low status knowledge:named it as C stream
pupils = working class =everyday knowledge
high status knowledge = named it as A
STREAM =middle class =abstract and
theoretical.
The self-fulfilling prophecy:
is a prediction that comes true simply because
it is been made to come true .
How Self-fulfilling prophecy WORKS
step 1: the teacher labels the child (too clever) and makes predictions (he will
get A)
step 2:the teacher acts according to this e.g. by giving extra hard work to push
him and gives more attention.
step 3: the people internalises (takes it in) the teachers expectation and it
becomes part of self-image and causes confidence in the child to work harder
and the prediction is fulfilled .
APPLY THE LABELLING:
negative labelling =you will fail= teacher shows lack of attention =child
believes=subculture=FAIL= prediction fulfilled.
positive labelling = intelligent girl = teacher gives attention and harder work =
child internalises it = confident child= harder work= success= prediction fulfilled.
JACOBSON AND ROSENTHAL:FULFILLING
PROPHECY
-They went to a school and did a IQ test
-they choose random students who did the IQ
test and labelled them as CLEVER
-they told the school and teacher believed it
-results that 47% made significant progress
ones they were labelled as clever by their
teachers.
STREAMING AND THE SELF-
FULFILLING PROPHECY
STREAMING:separating children into different
groups regard to their ability and self fulfilling
prophecy can be cause after streaming .
BECKER showed that working class students
are not seen as ideal students and that they
lack from ability so they are likely to put into
lower streams .
DOUGLAS
CHILDREN WHO WERE PUT IN
LOWER STREAMS AT THE AGE OF 8
WERE LOW IN IQ TEST AT THE AGE
OF 11.
STREAMING and SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
BENEFITS
Middle class benefit from streaming because
they teachers sees them as ideal student and
they gain confidence and work harder and
succeeds .
PUPIL SUBCULTURES
this is the name given to a group of students
who have similar values and behaviour patterns
and this subcultures emerge according to the
labelling they get and due to their reaction to
the streaming in the education system.
LACEYS ARGUED : streaming=differentiation
differentiation means when teachers are
categorising pupils according to their ability and
behaviour .
streaming is a form of this
polarisation : is when students react to the
opposite of their streaming.
the pro-school subculture
PRO-SCHOOL : pupils placed in higher
streams (middle class) tend to be suitable to
the schools values and they forms status
through academic success .
anti-school subculture:LACEY FOUND
That children placed in low streams ( working
class) suffer from low self esteem because the
school has undermined this by placing them to
lower streams and feel they have inferior
status.
this label failure=search for alternatives ways to
gain statues=breaking school values which
leads =self fulfilling prophecy
ball found that
if abolishing banding is used (type of
streaming) where everyone is taught together
subcultures are removed and anti-school
attitude is declined and that the students got
better exam results which shows self fulfilling
prophecy and shows that how teacher labeling
is enough to cause anti-school subculture .
limitations of labelling
it makes it seem like there is DETERMINISM which means
that it assumes that children who are labelled cannot
achieve.
marry fullers study shows that not all students do bad when
labelled as she studied how black girls in year 11 did well
in their exams after being labelled negatively .
marxist criticism: that labelling is not just the teacher fault
but the system they work in too.
MARKETISATION AND SELECTION
POLICIES
GILLBORN AND YOUDELL :A-TO-C
ECONOMY.
this is when the school spends time effort and
resources on students who are able to get 5A*-
C to boost their league table position .
they call this process = educational triage
triage=sorting
youdell and gilborn use (educational triage: ) =analogy of a cave
=education system
WALKING WOUNDED =
COULD BE IGNORED
BECAUSE THEY WOULD
DEFINITELY SURVIVE
=STUDENTS WHO WOULD
DEFINITELY GET 5A*-C
THOSE WITH THE
CHANCE TO SURVIVE=
STUDENT WHO HAVE
THE POTENTIAL TO GET
5A*-C
THOSE WHO
WOULD DIE
ANYWAY =
HOPELESS AND
HAVE NO CHANCE
OF GETTING 5A*-C
COMPETITION AND SELECTION
MARKETISATION:explains why schools are
under pressure to select more able and largely
middle class students .
because they help to gain good league table
results and make their school more popular and
more middle class students attracted to
maintain this success .
THIS pressure increases social segregation because marketisation leads to :
popular schools to:
cream-skimming= selecting higher ability
pupils= who costs less to teach
silt-shifting= off loading pupils =with learning
difficulties= expensive to teach= get poor
results=NO.
ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN
ACHIEVEMENT :
ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN ACHIEVEMENT COULD BE EXPLAINED THROUGH :
- CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
- MATERIAL DEPRIVATION AND CLASS
- RACISM IN WIDER SOCIETY
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
INTELLECTUAL AND LINGUISTIC SKILLS
:Is one of the reasons why children of W/C
and ethnic groups underachieve .
SOCIOLOGIST LINKED THIS TO:
BEREITER AND ENGELMANN: language
spoken by black families with low is not enough
for for educational success of their child
.BOWKER also agrees with this and says that
lack of standard english is a barrier to to
progress in education and wider society
CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS LACK
FROM ENGLISH
SWAN REPORT SHOWED THAT PARENTS NOT
HAVING ENGLISH AND NOT SPEAKING
ENGLISH AT HOME IS NOT THE MAIN REASON
TO WHY MINORITY CHILDREN
UNDERACHIEVE .
GILLBORN AND MIRZA FOUND THAT INDIAN
CHILDREN DO REALLY WELL DESPITE THEIR
PARENTS NOT SPEAKING ENGLISH AT HOME
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION
THEORIEST ARGUE :
- Children fail to be socialised because of
dysfunctional family structure .
- Moynihan argued that many black families
are headed by lone mothers = children are
deprived of enough care=financial struggle
+child role model of dad not there = the child
himself forms this type of family and fail in
school in future
NEW RIGHT:MURRAY
HIGH RATES OF LONE PARENT
FAMILIES+LACK OF POSITIVE MALE ROLE
MODEL =UNDERACHIEVEMENT OF
CHILDREN MINORITIES
scruton argues that : ethnic minorities are
failing because they are failing to embrace
mainstream British culture .
ASIAN FAMILIES
DRIVER AND BALLARD