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The Role of the Family » Marxist Views of the Family

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Cambridge spec: 4.2.2

How Marxists say the family benefits capitalism
How family members can be exploited
How the family passes on class inequality, for example through inheritance
The family as a unit of consumption, and as a tool of ideological control

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The family through Marxist eyes

Remember, Marxists see society as a conflict between the bourgeoisie, who own the businesses, and the proletariat, who work for them. Functionalists say the family helps everyone. Marxists ask a sharper question: who does the family really benefit?

Their answer is that the family mainly benefits capitalism and the bourgeoisie. It does this in several ways, and the spec lists five of them. This lesson takes each one in turn.

Key terms:

Labour force: all the people who are able and available to work.
Inheritance: money, property and possessions passed from one generation to the next.
Unit of consumption: a group, such as a household, that buys and uses goods and services.
Hierarchy: a ranking in which some people are in charge and others follow.

How the family benefits capitalism

Marxists say all that unpaid cooking and caring raises the next generation of workers at no cost to employers

Capitalism needs workers, and it needs them every day. Marxists argue the family supplies them in two ways.

👶 A new labour force

Parents raise the next generation of workers. They feed, clothe and look after children at their own cost, so employers get trained, healthy workers without paying for their upbringing.

🏠 A support for today's workers

At home, workers are fed, rested and cared for, so they are fit to return to work the next day. Employers do not have to pay for this care.

Marxists also argue that the family acts like a safety valve. Workers who are angry about low pay or long hours can let off steam at home, rather than turning their anger on their bosses. That helps keep society stable, which suits those with power.

Exploitation of family members

Remember, exploitation means that the owners of businesses gain by paying workers less than the value of what they produce. Marxists say exploitation also reaches into family life.

Unpaid work. Much of the cooking, cleaning and caring that keeps the labour force going is done for no wages, and in many societies it is done mainly by women. Capitalism gains from this free work.
Children. Children are prepared from an early age for a life as workers who will be paid less than the value of what they produce, and in some societies children themselves go out to work.
Dependence on wages. A worker with a family to support cannot easily afford to refuse poor pay or conditions, or to go on strike. Workers with dependants may therefore be easier to control.

Reproduction of class inequalities

Marxists say the family passes inequality from one generation to the next, a process called the reproduction of class inequality. The main route is inheritance.

Friedrich Engels argued that the family became important when people began to own private property, because owners wanted to pass it on to their own children. The wealthy therefore stay wealthy: a child born into a rich family inherits money, land and businesses, while a child born into a poor family inherits very little. Rich parents can also pay for better schools, homes and opportunities, so class position is handed down.

Worked example

Two cousins finish school in the same year. One's parents own a successful building firm. She inherits shares in it and goes into the firm as a manager. The other's parents are low-paid warehouse workers. He inherits no property and starts at the bottom of the job ladder. Marxists say this shows how the family reproduces class inequality: the starting point in life depends on the family you are born into.

The family as a unit of consumption

Marxists call the family a unit of consumption: households are a huge market for businesses selling everything from food to TVs

Capitalist businesses make a profit only if people buy what they produce. Marxists argue that the family is a perfect unit of consumption.

Households need food, furniture, clothes, cars, phones and televisions, so they are a huge market.
Advertisers target families directly, for example with toys for children and holidays for the whole family.
Families feel pressure to keep up with others by buying the latest goods, even if they have to borrow to do so.

The result is that workers, who are paid wages by the bourgeoisie, spend those wages on goods sold by the bourgeoisie. The profit flows back to the owners.

Family and ideological control

Remember, ideological control means the ruling class spreads ideas that make inequality seem fair and normal. Marxists argue the family is one of the places where this happens, because it is the first place children learn about the world.

Children learn to obey parents, so they get used to accepting orders from people in authority. This prepares them to accept bosses later.
Children learn that some people are in charge and others follow, so a hierarchy seems natural.
Family life may teach that success depends on individual effort, so poverty looks like a personal failure and not a problem of the system.

Evaluating the Marxist view

Strengths: it shows how the family is linked to the economy and to inequality, and it draws attention to unpaid work and inheritance, which functionalists ignore.
Limitations: it assumes that families are simply tools of capitalism and ignores the love and care that many families give. It overlooks family diversity, and it ignores gender, since feminists argue that men, not only capitalists, gain from women's work. It also underestimates how much families resist or question the system.

Common mistakes

Saying that Marxists think the family is "bad for everyone". They say it mainly benefits capitalism. Mixing up consumption (buying goods) with production (making goods). Forgetting to say who gains, which is always the bourgeoisie or capitalism, in a Marxist answer.

Exam-style question

(a) Define the term unit of consumption. [2 marks]

(b) Give two ways in which inheritance could help the family to reproduce class inequality. [2 marks]

Model answer

(a) A group, such as a household or family, that buys and uses goods and services (1), which provides a market for the products of capitalist businesses (1).

(b) Any two of: wealthy families pass on money, property or businesses to their children, so they stay wealthy (1); poor families have little to pass on, so their children inherit no advantage (1); children of wealthy families inherit property or shares in a family firm (1); inherited wealth can be passed on again to the next generation, so the advantage lasts for generations (1).

(c) First, the family raises the next generation of workers at its own cost, so employers get a labour force without paying for it (2). Second, it cares for today's workers, who are fed and rested at home, so they are fit to return to work (2). Third, it is a unit of consumption: families buy goods and are targeted by advertisers, so profits go back to the bourgeoisie (2).

Exam tip

In part (c), name the Marxist idea, then say who gains. Each of the three points needs "so capitalism benefits because..." to reach full marks.

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