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Free UNIT 3 SOCIOLOGY ENGLISH - Gulag - Free
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INTRODUCTION
The family is a social group in which its members maintain a symbiotic relationship
(they form a unit). The term family can be replaced by “family group”, “domestic
group” or “family unit”. The family is not chosen. For better or worse, we are children
of our parents just as we will (would) be the parents of our children. We can define
family as a social group of two or more people related to each other by blood ties,
marriage or adoption, which has an essential function of the reproduction and care of
their offspring.
HISTORICAL REFERENCES
Industrialisation brought social changes that would affect the family groups.
Migratory movements from the countryside to the city increased, and family groups
began to concentrate around factories. As industries and cities developed, the place
of residence and the place of work began to be separated. As a result, the nuclear
family, composed of the father, mother and children, began to spread. Men were in
charge of working and women were in charge of reproductive work (having children
and taking care of them). The housewives were born. At the end of 1960s, women
began to express discomfort and disagreement with this model of family that
prevented them from developing as a person in the same way that men did.
The first feminists to show their discomfort with the family would be the “liberal
feminists”. In addition to changing diapers and cooking for when their husband
arrived, these women wanted to be able to develop as people in all social settings.
They demanded equal access to the education system, the labour market and the
political sphere. Betty Friedan (Mystique of Femininity) co-founded NOW (National
organisation of women) in 1966. An organisation that campaigned for the abortion
law, women’s work and women’s social and political rights.
For “radical feminists”, the family was a particularly problematic social group.
Relationships between family members were considered an intimate and private
matter. In short, they were the territory where the head of the family ruled. For
example, violence against the children or women by the head of the family was a
private matter in which society should not intervene.
For “marxist and socialist feminists”, societies were not only patriarchal but also
capitalists. From this point of view, capitalist societies had two spheres: production
(organised goods and services) and reproduction (life and labour). The sphere of
production is led by men and that of reproduction is led by women. The sphere of
production has the greatest social recognition while the sphere of reproduction has
no social value. One of the demands of these feminists was wages for housewives
(as they have to both work outside the house to earn money and also take care of
the children and the house).
Finally, “feminist psychoanalyst and poststructuralists” will emphasise aspects of
identification with gender role and culture. They emphasise that we live in
phallocratic societies where masculinity is the model that has social value.As a
consequence, a gender socialisation occurs, which imposes gender mandates on
girls and prevents them from developing as people. Culture ends this reproduction of
gender inequality since men and women have difficulties finding books, movies and
works of art told from an egalitarian point of view.
The family has been undergoing profound changes in terms of its structure, functions
or social meaning for 50 years. In 1985, De Miguel and Díez Nicolás summarised
these changes (Europe):
The process of incorporation of women into the education system began in 1970 with
the general education act, which established:
● Free and compulsory basic education to all girls and boys aged 6 to 14 years
old.
● Mixed education. Boys and girls were located in the same classroom.
Access to the education system has resulted in women’s incorporation into the
labour market, especially those with a medium or high education level. The
employment rate of women increases as the level of qualification rises.
The second important change concerns the number of children couples have. The
drop in the birth rate was very drastic from 1976 until the end of the millennium,
when there was a relative recovery until the year 2009, after which the trend
changed again, reaching the present day.
The reasons why the birth rate has decreased so much are numerous, and have to
do with factors such as:
The formula of sexuality= reproduction (descent) has been broken. Children do not
have to be biological and are mostly desired. Artificial insemination and in vitro
fertilisation are making it possible to separate reproduction from sexuality even more.
The number of children per woman has decreased since 1975. In the future, we can
expect that the Spanish population will decrease unless we incorporate people born
outside our territory. The more women’s education level increases, the fewer children
they have and later. They also have the possibility of abortion if they don’t want
them. Also, children can not be biological as you can adopt them. Also, as people
desire to have children (the ones who want), they will constitute the centre of a family
(puerocentric society).
The third major change has been the reduction in household size. In 1970, the
average family size in Spain was 3.75 members, and today’s average family size is
2.5 members maximum. In fact, couples with children are decreasing, and
households with a single person under 65 years old, households of couples without
children, and households with children and a single parent (father or mother) are
increasing.
The level of satisfaction with one’s life increases the more one’s income increases.
However, among the richest, it tends to decrease. Those who are most satisfied with
their life live alone. The most dissatisfied are those in households where two adults
live, both under 65 years old. Those living in poor households, where there are two
or more adults with dependent children, are the most dissatisfied (Children produce
satisfaction but only in households with high income).
Today, the nuclear family, composed of married parents and children, is the most
common in Spain, but many others have emerged. People who live alone have
grown enormously. Common-law couples are becoming more and more frequent,
and for these couples, marriage is not a condition to form a family. Families formed
by same-sex couples have appeared, and mixed marriages have grown. Also,
adoptions have been spreading in our society.
1. LIMITATION FUNCTION OF WHO YOU HAVE SEX WITH: The family begins
when there is a sexual partner with some affective bonds (love). The
commitment that seals that relationship is marriage, although nowadays there
are more and more people who decide not to marry.
THE FAMILY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SCHOOL: SOME TENSIONS
Changes in the family and in its functions have important consequences in the
school.
We live in puerocentric societies, which means that children are the centre of the
family (parents’ schedules revolve about their children’s activities). If children are the
centre of the family, parents sometimes do not understand that in school, their son is
just “another child”.
In addition, couples with children lack time. If women enter the labour market and
men do not change their working hours full-time, someone has to look after their
children. As a result, nurseries have become widespread, primary schools have
opened nursery schools, morning classrooms, canteen…etc This means that the
school system is beginning to be in charge of the socialisation of children (children
learn to speak in the nursery, how to pick up the spoon…)
The school takes care of the guard and custody of the child during a good part of the
day (Monday to Friday) and the family takes care of the child’s socialisation the rest
of the time.
The type of authority that teachers develop, due to a puerocentric society, is less and
less traditional and more related to affectivity. Authority is increasingly instrumental
and rational. Also, in many cases, children are better at using information and
communication technologies than their teachers.
Despite the tensions mentioned before, the relationship between parents and school
is more or less satisfactory. Mentoring and guidance are an essential part of the
teaching function. Parents’ associations make it possible to tackle problems
collectively and organise solutions and activities to achieve common goals. School
councils make it possible to make decisions and give opinions and advice to
administration. They are composed of the school director, head of studies, town
council, teachers, parents, representatives of the PAS, The secretary and the
students. Their functions include approving and evaluating the projects, rules and
annual programming of the centre, knowing the candidacies to the management and
participating in its selection. Deciding on the admission of students, knowing the
resolution of disciplinary conflicts, proposing measures to improve the co-existence
of the centre, promoting the conservation and renovation of the facilities and setting
the guidelines for collaboration with other local administrations.