Functions or theories of the family

We need to know:

• The functionalist, Marxist and different feminist perspectives on the family as well as what the New Right and Foucault argue about what the family does and whether the family has changed for the better or not in recent times.

• How to analyse the similarities and differences between these perspectives; for example how similar functionalism and the New Right are as well as Marxism with feminism but also how they all differ from each other.

• Be able to evaluate the usefulness of these perspectives on the family; we need to assess the approaches in terms of whether their arguments about the rise of the nuclear family and the functions of the family are correct.