Sociology · Oct / Nov 2025 · Paper 21 · Question 1
0495
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1(a)(i)[2]
Define the term domestic division of labour. Award one mark for a partial definition, e.g. the wife cooks. Award two marks for a clear definition, e.g. the way in which tasks in the home are divided between husband and wife. Accept any other reasonable response.
1(a)(ii)[2]
Define the term life expectancy. Award one mark for a partial definition, e.g. how long you live. Award two marks for a clear definition, e.g. the age to which men and women are expected to live in a society. Accept any other reasonable response.
1(b)[2]
State two family structures. Award one mark for each correct point (up to a maximum of two). Possible responses:
nuclear;extended;reconstituted;lone parent;empty nest;childless;any other reasonable response.1(c)[6]
Describe three ways family life can be positive for its members. Award one mark for each point correctly identified (up to a maximum of three). Award one mark for each point that is developed (up to a maximum of three). Possible responses:
emotional support, love and care – functionalism – families provide unconditional love for the members and care for them when they are both young and old;financial support and advice – functionalism – the family can ensure stability for its members through financial loans, gifts and advice, particularly important with the high cost of living, e.g. children’s school fees, housing costs, holidays;social change – postmodernism/feminism – family life has become more about diversity and choice and therefore individuals can choose the type of family and the family roles that best suit them at any point in their life – the traditional ‘rules’ have disappeared;socialisation – functionalism – the family primarily socialises children to give them the best start in life, e.g. avoiding the difficulties faced by children with inadequate/no socialisation e.g. feral children;social control – functionalism – the family uses positive and negative sanctions to ensure social conformity thus preparing children for a smooth transition into adult life;extended families – these continue to exist in many forms, e.g. vertical/horizontal/modified and all are an effective way of offering mutual support, advice and love to family members, e.g. the close kinship bonds found in traditional working class families;child centredness – children’s role in the family has changed with fewer children now being born and they are often at the heart of privatised nuclear families. Their needs and wants are paramount to parents and they have a voice in decision making;warm bath theory – the family can be positive for workers/men coming home from a hard day at work, needing the soothing care and love that only a family/wife can provide;joint conjugal roles – families have become more symmetrical – Willmott and Young – and this creates a more positive experience for the members, e.g. joint conjugal roles, children having household responsibilities, intimate fathers etc;changing roles of grandparents – active ageing has led to grandparents playing an important role in many families, for childcare, for support, for advice and as part of the socialisation and social control role;any other reasonable response.1(d)[6]
Explain three ways urbanisation affects family life. Award one mark for each point correctly identified (up to a maximum of three). Award one mark for each point that is developed (up to a maximum of three). Possible responses:
smaller family size – small family units left the wider kin to move to the city and so the widespread growth of the nuclear family began in conjunction with the decline of the extended family;privatised families – bonds with extended kin became weaker because family members lived further away from one another and ties with the community similarly reduced;gender roles – the cost of living in cities meant that both parents often went out to work, meaning greater equality at home – feminism;the housewife role – some sociologists argue that the move to the cities started the housewife role as mothers/wives could no longer rely on their own mothers for childcare and support;family bonds – the bond between husband and wife grew stronger and replaced the traditional, pre-urbanisation bond of mother and daughter;other institutions – in the cities other institutions started to take over the functions traditionally performed by the family, e.g. childcare, elderly care, health etc;extended family became stronger – there is evidence to show that urbanisation increased and strengthened extended families because people could not afford the cost of living in the city and so moved in with other family members, e.g. Willmott and Young;any other reasonable response.1(e)[8]
Discuss the view that family life is diverse. Use Table A to mark answers to this question. Possible responses:
cross cultural – Therborn suggests that family life varies through different cultures and societies, e.g. low rates of marriage in Creole cultures;social class – people in different social classes may live in different types of family, e.g. in the UK the working class are associated with extended families and the middle class with nuclear families/childlessness;ethnicity – in some societies ethnic groups are associated with different types of families, e.g. South Asian families may have more children, Afro– Caribbean families may be more likely to be lone parent;variations in marriage – there are many variations on what is meant by marriage and this leads to family diversity, e.g. family life is very different in an empty-shell marriage compared to an arranged marriage etc;gender roles – these vary greatly in different cultures and societies often influenced by religion, e.g. Islamic societies may maintain more traditional gender roles whereas secular societies may embrace non-traditional and more symmetrical gender roles;grandparent roles – in South East Asian societies it may be more likely for families to care for their elderly relatives who they regard in high esteem whereas in Western societies women may be part of the pivot generation, seeing grandparents as an additional burden to family life;type of family structure – these vary across the globe and bring with them different expectations and family roles, e.g. nuclear families in the West often with little close contact with wider kin, extended families in South Asia whereby care happens within the family;postmodernism – people are no longer restrained by traditional views and values and can make decisions for themselves as individuals about how to live their life in a way that works best for them, thus promoting family diversity and choice;any other reasonable response.1(f)[14]
Evaluate the view that the family benefits capitalism. Use Table B to mark answers to this question. Possible responses for:
nuclear family – is smaller in size and so is easily geographically mobile meaning it can move to where the work is, so benefiting the capitalist employers;unit of consumption – Marxism – industrialisation and a higher cost of living meant that families started to work for other people/companies to earn a wage and women became employed too – the proletariat class grew thus enabling the bourgeoisie to maximise profits;unit of consumption – time at work meant less time was available for domestic work so families started to buy more products for the home – fuelling capitalism as families become pressured to buy goods through advertising, e.g. labour saving devices;pester power – the growth of the media has meant that children are exposed to a multitude of products that they want – in privatised families where the expectation is about a happy family life, this puts parents under pressure to work more hours to afford the goods, so benefitting capitalism;reproduction of class inequalities – children are socialised to accept capitalism as normal and fair and to limit their aspirations according to their ascribed social class. They believe they can only achieve what their parents have achieved and thus continue the cycle of working for the ruling class and increasing their profits;exploitation of family members – families are under pressure to provide for themselves and this turns workers into wage slaves, forced to work jobs for low pay and low status, unable to strike because they rely on the money they receive from their capitalist employer – thus increasing bourgeoisie profits;women’s role – part of their expected and unpaid role is to look after the sick and elderly alongside children, this means that the ruling class does not have to take responsibility for or fund family health and social care as women do it for free;any other reasonable response. Possible responses against:self-employment – growing numbers of workers are self-employed, particularly with the advent of the internet and new media meaning that capitalism through the state benefits less from their labour and their families benefit more;patriarchy – feminists argue that it is not capitalism that benefits from the family structure but patriarchy – men are given positions of power both in the workplace and at home, e.g. segregated conjugal roles/triple shift;strikes – families do not seem to be shackled by capitalism to the extent that they cannot protest their rights. Society is in a state of unrest where strikes are frequent across many different sectors as workers demand better pay/conditions – this does not benefit capitalism;loss of functions – many sociologists believe that the state has taken over many functions once performed by the family – this does not benefit capitalism as the welfare state and provision of care costs money;functionalism – the family benefits its individual members, not capitalism – it performs the essential functions such as care, reproduction, socialisation and social control;functionalism – the family benefits society, not capitalism – it ensures that members are brought up to be effective functioning citizens, working in harmony for the smooth running of society;functionalism – the warm bath – the family does not benefit capitalism, rather it provides a place of sanctuary and security for its members who can come home and feel loved and cared for;alternatives to the family – there has been a growth of alternatives to the family which cannot and do not benefit capitalism, e.g. communes, shared households, singlehood, focus on friends;any other reasonable response.
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