Evaluate the view that in modern industrial societies family life is no longer patriarchal?

Answer 1

It is assumed that in modern industrial societies, family life is no longer patriarchal. As the demographic trends of divorce and widowhood lead to matrifocal families, Post-modernists believe that as matrifocal families are becoming a norm in modern industrial societies. The status of men as the breadwinner and decision-maker of the family is becoming less dominant due to this dual role being taken on by single mothers. Women have also begun to live longer and often become widows as men have a lower life expectancy rate, leading to the creation of beanpole families. Furthermore, Breen and Cooke (2004) suggest the variation in the gendered division of domestic labour by identifying three types of women and three types of men.

Post-modernists reject the idea that family life in modern industrial societies is still patriarchal as there are generalisations and over-exaggerations made at the extent of men's power over women in society. Since the 1950s, women now play an important role in the labour market, and the change from manufacturing to service economies have prompted more women to enter paid employment. The increase in the number of self-employed and part-time employed women suggest that the dual employment of families have begun to transfer breadwinner and decision-making power to women, especially when the woman earns a higher income bracket than that of her husband.

From a post-modernist perspective, the feminist approach to the patriarchy present in society is not sensitive to the difference between families. Bernades states that "the modernist view of the family is essentially a popular image of the nuclear family. Heterosexual couples, with a small number of healthy children, living in an adequate home," implying that feminism is arguing against an outdated model that does not take into account the great diversity that exists between family relationships in different social classes and different ethnic groups. Certain groups have a higher demographic of women becoming the decision maker and breadwinner, such as the case in the West Indies concerning matrifocal families.

The study of certain West Indian families as an example of a matrifocal family is an interesting concept simply because it is part of their culture for a woman's husband to live outside of the household. This is frequently found in mother households, in which the mother or grandmother of the children is head of the household and, for most of the time the household contains no adult males. It is likely that the fatherly figure present in western families is not seen in West Indian families simply because of how the husband is less economically successful than the mother. Often, the father of the children had sexual relations with the mother and neglected contact with her and the soon-to-be born children afterward. By obtaining a dual role of being a breadwinner and a home-maker, the mother has eliminated the man's supposed role as a breadwinner (in the perspective of functionalists).

Julia Brannan (2003) claims that matrifocal families are not restricted to the role of a mother providing for her family, but there is an extended kinship network provided through the grandparents and the great-grandparents. The vertical structure of such a kinship network is known as a beanpole family. Brannan argues that there are strong intergenerational links (links between generations) in contemporary British families. Grandparents are increasingly providing informal care for their grandchildren. However, as the life expectancy of women is higher than that of men, it is suggested that in some families, the surviving intergenerational links are re-established between the widowed female members of the family and their children. Therefore, women have increasingly removed the power of the patriarchy in beanpole families through the dominance of women in sheer numbers as women become increasingly widowed; they begin to establish a matriarchal lineage as the generations begin to descend down the family tree.

Breen and Cooke (2004) published their work entitled "The persistence of the gendered division of labour", exploring the concept of the gendered division of domestic labour by identifying three types of women. Traditional women are expected to take on the majority of domestic tasks, even if they are the breadwinners themselves. Transitional women represent the majority of women who temporarily give up work to stay at home with the children and return to employment, often part time, as the children begin to mature. Autonomous women on the other hand place their careers as the most viable economic option aside from marriage. These women do not want to depend on support from their partner. Breen and Cooke also identified three types of men. Hardliners do not make any contributions to domestic work or childcare, opting to divorce if forced to do so. Meanwhile, adjusters prefer not to do housework but are willing to compromise to prevent divorce. This is in direct contrast to the co-operators who are willing to participate fully in unpaid domestic tasks. Breen and Cooke's theory shows that while there are men and women who follow the same trend of being a breadwinner and a home-maker respectively, there is an increasing amount of these men and women who share house work and are no longer tied down to the traditional roles which benefit the patriarchy of society.

However it can be argued that these patriarchal values continue to be present in society. Margaret Benston (1972) put a great deal of emphasis between the capitalist economic system and its role in shaping men to serve the needs of a Marxist patriarchy. She believes that the nuclear family and the housewife role played by women is a perfect fit with the need of capitalism. Women reproduce and socialise the labour force, providing a source of unpaid labour to the husband (housework). Women are also perceived by the Bourgeoisie to be a reserve army of labour that can be exploited when the need for extra workers arise.

Benston also claims that "the amount of unpaid labour by women is very large and very profitable to those who own the means of production," suggesting that the women, in her role as a housewife, attends to her husband's needs and keeps him in running shape as a wage labourer. Fran Ansley (1972) emphasises the role of women in the family as "sponges". They soak up the anger and frustrations of their brainwashed husbands who have been exploited and forced into labour by the Bourgeoisie. This outlet numbed opposition to capitalism and women served to suffer the consequences.

Radical feminists on the other hand translate the patriarchy as the source of all inequality that exists in family relationships. Christine Delphy and Diana Leonard (1992) suggest that the family is a hierarchical and patriarchal institution that benefits men, where women are dominated and exploited, and providing "57 varieties of service" to their husband. Bernard (1978) also stresses the preference made by men who preferred women who were submissive than those were assertive and dominant in marriage. He also suggested that marriage made life easier for men that it had for women. Such is the claim made by feminists who believed that married women suffer the consequences of a patriarchal system by dealing with stress and depression in contrast to single women who have not married.

Qualitative studies (Dryden, 1999) show that 17 couples found women to be primarily responsible for housework and childcare. The Time Use Survey (2005) also suggested that 92% of women in families do the housework, showing little sign that the traditional sexual division in labour was changing. These statistics show that men make little contribution to their wives' work and the husband's career remains the central one. Delphy and Leonard believe, then, that wives contribute more work to family life than their husbands, receiving fewer material benefits as men retain ultimate responsibility for family finances.

However, there is reason to show that women are not necessarily accepting the patriarchy passively, as these feminist approaches have been criticised by Catherine Hakim (Work-Lifestyle Choices in 21stcentury; Preference Theory 2000). She suggests that feminists have underestimated the amount of power that women have in the family, claiming that "we must stop presenting women as 'victims' or as undifferentiated mass of mindless Zombies whose every move is determined by other actors and social forces." Hakim also presented the 'preference theory' where women take up household work and childcare based on accepting it as an option, which they see as the right way of living. Her statistics suggest that 20% of women were work orientated, 20% of women were home orientated and 60% were 'adaptive', treating employment as a job, not a career.

In conclusion, while it can be widely assumed that the family retains patriarchal values through the sexual division in labour and inequality of work burden, it is also assumed that matrifocal and beanpole families have began to take on matriarchal control over society. Breen and Cooke suggests that there are different types of men and women who either prefer their careers, pure housework or are adaptive in order to equally spread out both housework and their careers.