Assignment:
When it comes to understanding families, how are structural functionalists and conflict theorists different? Contrast how the two theories might explain the breadwinner-homemaker family?
Also respond to this response. Give your thoughts on this response.
Structural functionalists and conflict theorist actually different in many ways when it comes to understanding families. First, structural functionalists believes in the nuclear family with the husband and the wife and the children all playing their respect roles in the family. They believe that there is an equal dynamic between the husband and wife. Functionalists agree that the dominant family was the breadwinner- homemaker style (an employed father, a non-employed mother, and their children). An American sociologist named Talcott Parson looked into family structure, and believed that it provided the basis for stability and cooperation. There is an mutual compatibility between man and women, with each performing separate roles.
On the other hand, conflict theorists disagreed that families were just agreeing and there were no issues with the breadwinner- homemaker style. They see families as opposition and conflict. They focused on the competing interest of family members to understand families. Randall Collins, a leading writer in the field, expressed that men use their power to gain control over the family. Conflict theorists tied Marx's theory of capitalism in the understanding of families. They argued that the work women, as the homemakers, were doing for many years without pay such as cleaning, cooking, raising children, and etc is the reason women get paid less. In turn, men maintain their domination as the breadwinner within the family because they get paid more due to them not having to do the many things women have done without pay. So rather then seeing different roles of men and women as harmonious and functional, conflict theorists see them as part of the unstable governmental system that do not want or look for change.
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