Elsewhere Assess the Marxist View That the Main Role of the Family Is to Serve the Interests of Capitalism.

Using material from item 2b and elsewhere assess the Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism.

The views concerning the main roles of a family within a society vary; Marxists believe that the main role of a family is to support the capitalists or bourgeoisie. Conversely, functionalists argue that the role of a family in society holds high significance as vital functions are performed to strengthen the society.

The Marxists view point suggesting that family helps to maintain class inequality and exploitation by socialising their children into accepting hierarchy may be a reference to the introduction of a hierarchical system experienced by children even within a family since a very early stage of their lives. It is evident that a family is run in a hierarchical structure where the parents can be seen as the bourgeoisies as they have superiority over their children and are the more dominant figure in most families hence children are socialised into accepting this superiority and thereby are more easily adjusted into the class system which consists of hierarchy between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Furthermore, not only are children socialised into accepting the hierarchy within a family but moreover children accept the exploitation by the bourgeoisie as the family works for the ruling class therefore children consider it to be a social norm regardless of the exploitation and inequality it brings with it; this maintains capitalism in a society. Moreover, the idea of a family being a unit of consumption may further maintain capitalism in society. People buy products and goods that are not a necessity but nonetheless money is invested in buying these goods which helps the bourgeoisies. The role of media enables this to occur as media manipulates children into buying goods which consume a lot of money and enable the concept of pester power to remain in society; this maintains capitalism as it consumes money and...