Feminists
When feminists describe the nuclear family as patriarchal they mean that the father/husband is the dominant figure, in a position of power and authority over his wife and children.
Marxists
The nuclear family supports capitalism by allowing men to work long hours in workplaces such as factories, because children and home are the responsibility of the woman carrying out the housewife role. A second way is that it provides for inheritance of private property, with the eldest son inheriting from his father.
When feminists describe the nuclear family as patriarchal they mean that the father/husband is the dominant figure, in a position of power and authority over his wife and children.
Marxists
The nuclear family supports capitalism by allowing men to work long hours in workplaces such as factories, because children and home are the responsibility of the woman carrying out the housewife role. A second way is that it provides for inheritance of private property, with the eldest son inheriting from his father.
- Feminist concepts such as patriarchy, age patriarchy, the triple burden
- Draws attention to negative aspects of the conventional nuclear family, such as domination by male, housework as unpaid drudgery, unequal power relationships, abusive and violent relationships, the concept of familial ideology
- Correcting the Functionalist and New Right approaches which emphasises positive aspects of the nuclear family
- Drawing attention to the importance of the female role to the experiences of women
- Recognition of different types of feminism; liberal, Marxist/socialist, radical
- Use of more qualitative research methods which drew out personal experiences (e.g through unstructured interviews) give more valid data about experiences of family life