Functionalists' perspecitve about the family

(I know that this topis is not new already but still wanted to write about functionalists in order to remember main points in their view)
The development of functionalists perspective about the family is connected with the study of anthropology. They compared society with the whole organism or human body and so every part of the society has is essential and has important functions. Family represents one of these important parts and it has to change according to changes in the whole body (society). That’s why with the industrialization family had changed and lost some of the functions which probably weren’t necessary.
In pre-industrial society family had wide developed kinship network as it had to help relatives and be supported by them and performed a number of functions. It was extended and multifunctional as there weren’t any other important institutions and every family had to cope with all the difficulties. With the developments in the society family had to evolve and its structure became more beneficial for that time. Increased development of division of labor meant that family had to be more geographically and socially mobile to be more suitable for the society and that’s why reduced it’s connection with kinship and became nuclear. One of the main sociologists-functionalists Talcott Parsons argued that in industrial society family was isolated nuclear and the main reason of this was that as division of labor and industrialization increased some other institutions took over responsibilities of some functions of the family such as education, welfare support… Mainly families weren’t units of production anymore as they didn’t just produced and consumed food but they were main consumers of other producers and so became to be units of consumption also. So generally isolated nuclear family was beneficial for the society as it was evolving and changing according to needs of the society.
Parsons said that even if there many functions that family has lost with changes in the society there are two main and irreducible functions performed by the family:
1)Primary socialization of children that is internalization of society’s culture and giving basic ideas of adequate behavior which is suitable for the society’s needs. With this function children will come to the value consensus.
2)Stabilisation of adult personalities means that children need emotional support in order to cope with difficulties in the society in the future and be prevented from all the threatens in the modern worlds.
Parsons’ theory is also known as ‘warm bath theory’: husband after a stressful day of work comes to get a warm bath that his family provides.
Another sociologist Peter Murdock argued that family as the part of the organism is universal and influence all other parts – institutions and in order to perform well and evolve have four main functions
1)Sexual : it strengthens relations in the family and creates sexual gratification for both partners but also as there are laws in some societies that forbid/limit sexual activity outside the marriage it will prevent disruption or conflicts that might occur.
2)Economic: this functions means that family has to produce and consume something in order to satisfy it’s needs and wants. Specialization of labor means that each person is specialized in particular task and his productivity rises which will be conductive to economic growth in the society
3)Reproduction: family is the main unit of reproduction of children and it helps to reproduce society
4)Educational: family is responsible for primary education of the children in order to help them accept norms and values in the society.
Murdock saw these functions as the most significant for the development of the whole society.

But when we talk about the family it is important to know how we define the family. From functionalists’ point of view family is a heterosexual couple with depended children and different roles between spouses as generally male was a breadwinner and woman housewife. Functionalists didn’t accept other forms of the family as they weren’t suitable for the society and couldn’t evolve according to changes. This picture acts as a powerful ideology as Diana Gittins argued and gave the beginning of stereotyping. However functionalists’ view was criticized because they don’t see positives in other forms of households (Morgan), they don’t take into account drawback of nuclear family such as conflicts and diversity which appear with the development of the society.
Functionalists, generally, see family as patriarchal because it is man who mainly responsible for finding all the necessities for the family and so he has more power among other members, while wife has to create warm bath for him and take care of children in addition to all the housework. Feminists said that there is a work exploitation of women.
Also functionalists in their perspective can’t explain increase family diversity which also was created by changes within society. More people choose cohabitation or single hood because see these types of living as the most suitable for them and the picture of idealized nuclear family which was introduced by Parsons looks weak in the modern society.