Using material from the items and elsewhere, assess the Marxist view that families serve the interest of the bourgeoisie more than they do everyone else (24 mark)…
Marxism is a conflict in perspective, this is based on the ideas of Karl Marx. Marxism sees society as divided into two opposed classes. These are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie class are the owners of the means of production they exploit the proletarians these are the working class, they own no means of production. Marxism says that the bourgeoisie and capitalism exploit the working class and see them as labour and not people and equal.
Marxist believe the nuclear family only serves the needs of the bourgeoisie. They believe that the family teaches the next generation how to survive and behave in a capitalist society. Marxist also sees the family as the start of conflict, this is because of the unequal roles inside of the family structure. Zaretsky suggested that the family is there to aid and ‘prop’ capitalism, this is done by cushioning the proletarian workers, and this keeps the worker not feeling the negative feelings from being exploited. An argument of this is that the housewives are simply there to create the next consumer and labour force. Peggy says that families maintain capitalism by suggesting women will become a reserve army of labour, this means if men are unable to work for or are having to do something for the government; like war. Then women will replace the male workforce, this would be for little pay and they would lose their jobs as soon as the men were available for work. Althusser argues that the bourgeoisie uses ‘ideological state apparatuses’ to influence people’s thoughts and beliefs. This is to reproduce the ideas of capitalism and to keep everyone in the same mind set of working for a boss.
Marxism support and like the idea of the nuclear family and monogamous families because it means everyone knows who their children are, this is because no one is sleeping around. With the promotion of monogamous families it meant the men’s private property would be inherited by his wife and kids, this then meant the items wouldn’t be wasted and the quality of life would be able to remain good for the children and his wife. This then meant that the private property was kept secure within the family, it also meant that women were controlled and were discouraged from sleeping around. This was accomplished by the possibility of inheritance of the man’s private property.
Marxism’s view against family is that they aid the capitalism theories, this is because men go to work and women stay at home and look after the children and the