Compare and contrast functionalist and marxist perspectives including Essay

Compare and contrast functionalist and marxist perspectives including feminist perspectives - Essay Example Interpretive sociology examines the meaning that is given to everyday life by those involved in its construction. The culture in which people live has a profound impact on what is perceived as reality. People act out their social roles, some of which are ascribed or given at birth, and others are achieved or gained through life experiences. The Functionalists and the New Right adopt a consensus perspective and uphold family values based on consensus. On the other hand, Feminism and Marxism are conflict perspectives, â€Å"which view family values as part of the problem in relation to power, control, status and inequality† (Squire, 2003: 69). The functionalist perspective of family is comprehensively explained by Parsons (1964), who identifies two major functions of the conjugal family. First, families facilitate the procreation of children and socialize them into adult roles of the kind which are accepted and expected by the social group in which they live. An example is the teaching of adult gender roles by the Western family. This is achieved by â€Å"the way in which children are dressed, the games they are allowed to play, how they are spoken to and the different attitudes of parents towards their children’s behaviour† (Bond, 1994: 95). Children are socialized into identifying with a gender role. Secondly, the family undertakes to re-inforce primary and secondary socialisation; and also stabilizes adult behaviour towards the stereotyped roles of husband and wife. Thus, in traditional conjugal families, parents act as role models for their children, besides influencing the way children identify adult gender roles. In industrialized societies, men usually work to earn money to support the family, hence their activities and interests are more focused outside the home than are those of women whose main occupations are domestic and therefore pertain to the home (Bond, 1994). Thus, the functionalist perspective views the relatively independent-functioning