Assess the Marxist View That the Main Role of the Family Is to Serve the Interests of Capitalism (24 Marks)

In society many people have different ideas on what role the family takes. Capitalism meaning the investment of profit is said by Item 2B that Marxist sees ‘all social institutions as serving the interests of capitalism’. This including the family, it suggests that they help to maintain and justify capitalism by reinforcing class inequality and exploitation from the rich. Another opinion on this is the functionalist approach in which they think the family performs the essential needs of the society. Both Marxist and functionalist ideas contrast as functionalists see society based on value consensus in which everyone agrees whereas Marxists believes that there is an unequal balance of classes.

The family play an important part for the market of consumer goods. This being due down to the advertisers being in competition with one another to sell their products. It also increases competition between families to keep buying all the latest gadgets and appliances. Typically adverts target children by in which they bother their parents into buying more things and spend money on them. This is one of the ways in which Marxist say that the family serves capitalism because the family generates profit for it from such things as adverts and commercial.

They also say that capitalism exploits the labour of workers and making a profit by selling the products made from their labour for more than it costed them to produce. From a Marxist perspective the family performs ideas and beliefs that justify inequality for capitalism by trying to justify and maintain inequality. As highlighted in item 2B they say that the family ‘socialising the children into accepting hierarchy’ and inequality.