Essay Assess The Contribution Of Feminist Sociologists To An Understanding Of Family Roles And Relationships

Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of feminist sociologist to an understanding of family roles and relationships.
Before discussing the argument I think it’s important to explain that Even though feminists tend to be critical of the family it’s important to mention that feminism is split into four categories; Liberal Feminism, Marxist Feminism, Radical Feminism and Difference Feminism. Liberal feminism is the theory that even though sexism still exists it is slowly improving through the introduction of new acts, for example the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) Marxist feminists think the cause of women’s oppression is not men, but capitalism. Difference feminism is the theory that even though women are oppressed, some women are more oppressed than others (e.g. Black women and lesbian women) and Radical therapists think that the whole of society is formed on patriarchy and men are the source of oppression and exploitation. Since the feminist movement began in 1963 feminists have held a critical view of the family. They argue that family life maintains and promotes gender inequality.
They found in a study of 1,589 33- year old mothers and fathers that the father only took the main responsibility of childcare in less than 4% of the families. This contribution was important to the sociologist understanding of family roles and relationships because it proved that even in 1996, which was after the Sex discrimination act, that women were still carrying out the majority of domestic household roles. This theory could be criticised because the study was only carried out on 33 year olds and it doesn’t specify what class or race they are from which could affect validity of the