Marxist Perspectives on the Family

Marxist Perspectives on the Family
An introduction to Marxism and family sociology

Marx did not write much about the family but his friend Frederick Engels wrote The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in 1884

Engels took an evolutionary view of the family.As the mode of production changed through history so did the family. Mode of production is the way in which economic production happens in society.

At the start of human development Engels said there was a stage of primitive communism. Property was owned collectively and there was no private family.

This was an era of sexual freedom and promiscuity. No rules limited sexual relationships. Society itself was the family.

HOWEVER................................

Anthroloplogists have pointed out that the nuclear family existed before capitalism. There are many tribal groups in places like the Rainforest and many of them have a family group such as the Baka people who have a custom of one man having one wife. They are hunter/gatherers and do not own property in the same way as people in a Capitalist system.There is no promiscuity.............

Engels said that with the start of ownership of private property came the need for restrictions on sexual activity because people needed to know who their heir was. Over time Engels claimed that we arrived at the monogamous nuclear family model of modern society.Engels claimed that the nuclear family fulfils certain requirements of capitalism

Capitalism requires monogamous marriage to solve the problem of property inheritance.Men had to be certain of who were their heirs and that they were legitimate heirs.Men therefore needed to control women through the monogamous family.

Eli Zaretsky is a modern Marxist writer and claims that society creates the illusion that family private life in separate from the economy.

Zaretsky claims that the family cushions workers from the brutal realities of capitalism and in this way helps perpetuate capitalism.

Capitalism is also propped up by the domestic labour of housewives who reproduce the future labour force

The family is also an important consumer of the products of capitalismZaretsky therefore concludes that the family is an institution that is in reality very closely linked to the economy and the perpetuation of capitalism

The family socialises children thereby reproducing both labour power and an acceptance of capitalism (false consciousness).Womens domestic work is unpaid which benefits capitalism.The family acts as a safety valve for the stresses and frustrations of working class men.

The Marxist view ignores family diversity. It sees the nuclear family as being simply determined by the economy.