Foundations of Sociology SCL 3100       Today’s class is a seminar. Get into groups of three and think about the following questions: What is a FAMILY? How would you define a family. Are there different TYPES of family? Explain your answers. What do you understand by the term GENDER? Why do you think sociologists think gender is an important concept? How does a persons gender impact on their lives? Why are Sexuality and intimacy important in sociological analysis? What social issues are affected by a persons sexuality? What do you understand by the term FEMINISM NUCLEAR family or TWO-GENERATION family 1) of ORIGIN 2) of DESTINATION (members create their own families) vs. EXTENDED family 1) HORIZONTALLY (aunts, uncles parents) extended or 2) VERTICALLY (grand parents, older aunts and uncles) extended ENDOGAMY (marry within the group) vs. EXOGAMY (marry outside the Group) MONOGAMY (or SERIAL MONOGAMY) vs. POLYGAMY (POLYGYNY (more than one wife) or POLYANDRY ) based on inheritance patterns: PATRILINEAL family vs. MATRILINEAL family based on residence patterns: PATRILOCAL family vs. MATRILOCAL family vs. NEOLOCAL family The main functions of the family: 1. Socialization 2. Regulation of sexual activity → the incest taboo:  forbids sexual relations or marriage between certain kin  minimizes sexual competition within family by restricting legitimate sexual relations to spouses  forges broader alliances 3. Social placement and identity 4. Material and emotional security The family and the social reproduction of inequality (F. Engels)  The family originates from the need to identify legitimate heirs.  It supports the concentration of wealth and reproduces the class structure in each succeeding generation.  To know who their legitimate heirs are men must control the sexuality of women; the family thus transforms women into the sexual and economic property of men (patriarchy). Sanity, Madness and the Family (R D Laing and A Esterson 1964)  Family conflict can lead to Schizophrenia. Families create tensions and sometimes unbearable pressures on family members.    Stage 1 – the pre-industrial family -the family is a unit of production with all family members working as a team in order for the family unit to survive. They agree with the idea this type of family was superseded by the industrial revolution. (this type of family hasn’t disappeared as some farming families still work this way. Stage 2 – the early industrial family – was an outcome of the industrial revolution, developing from the early 19th century running through to its peak the early 20th century. As family members increasingly became employed in factories the site of the family as a unit of production faded. Stage 3 – the symmetrical family (sometimes known as privatised nuclear family) –Young and Willmott’s book The Symmetrical Family was based on 1970s large-scale social research they’d conducted in Greater London which uncovered the demise of the Stage 2 family in favour of the Stage 3 family. This shift was particularly profound within the working-classes.  Trend towards the free selection of a spouse  Shift to the SYMMETRICAL family → SEGREGATED vs. INTEGRATED conjugal roles  Higher levels of sexual freedom for men and women  Child-centredness  Rising divorce rate  Decline in average family size  Increased acceptance of cohabitation and same-sex relationships  Growing number of one-person households Britain has highest divorce rate in EU Britain has the highest divorce rate in the European Union, a survey reveals today.  The number of divorces throughout the EU is on the increase, with an average of 1.8 divorces for every 1,000 people.  But in Britain and in Finland the rate is 2.8 divorces per 1,000, compared with just 0.6 per 1,000 in Luxembourg.  But while the divorce rate slightly increased during the 1990s, the rate of births outside marriage has risen sharply – more than one child in four was born outside marriage in the EU in 1999, compared with fewer than one in five in 1989.  The figures vary widely between member states – ranging from just 4% of births being outside marriage in Greece to 55% in Sweden. Britain is well above the 26% EU average, at 38.8%.  Russia has the highest divorce rate in the world 5 per 1000 people.  In the USA half of all marriages fail. European Statistics Office   Sex = the biological differences between men and women Gender = the social and cultural differences between men and women that are learnt in the process of socialization Socio-biology → Biological features as responsible for innate differences in behavior between men and women. Gender socialization theories, for example M. Mead (1935) Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies → There is a disconnection between biological sex and social gender: we are born with the first but we develop the second under pressure of various social influences.       The struggle for women’s equality has a long history. Mary Wolstoncraft Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) Women not naturally inferior to men, rather crippling social conventions marginalize women. First Wave Feminism emerged in the early 19th century. Focused on suffrage, and challenged the cult of domesticity. The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir (1950) ‘Women are not born they are made’. Second wave Feminism emerged in the 1960s. Linked to civil rights and other victimized minority groups. Increasingly radical. Critiques of sexual stereotypes. Gender equality in work and pay. Third Wave Feminism emerged in the post 1980s. Consolidated the gains made by earlier feminists but expressed Grrl feminism as in (Riot Grrl feminism). Celebrated a women’s right to her sexuality. Gender as performance, and play. Madonna as a leading icon. LIBERAL feminism aims to ensure that women have equal opportunities with men within the present system, through steps such as legal changes to stop sex discrimination, removing obstacles to women’s full participation in society, and better childcare measures so that women can play their full part in paid employment. SOCIALIST/MARXIST feminism emphasizes the way in which women are doubly exploited: both as workers and as women. Roz Coward Female Desire (1984) RADICAL feminism tends to focus more on the problem of patriarchy, i.e. male domination in society. BLACK feminism emphasizes that black women are discriminated against on the basis of both their gender and ‘race’ and urges feminists to focus on the issues of gender, class and ‘race’ at the same time. …