Tanmai KhannaAIR 61 · CSE 2022 · 282 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening
In most sociological analyses of society, either family has been used as an atomic unit or as a functional unit in our social structure.
Some of these are:
Body · points
→ Parson's analysis of family as a tool of latency and tension management.
→ Engel's analysis of family as a means to pass on private property and rising nuclearisation.
→ Mead's analysis of a development of 'self' through socialisation, primarily by one's family.
However, feminist critical theorists
like Ann Oakley, Sylvia Walby, Veena Das, Uma Chakravarty and many more, have analysed the dysfunctional nature of families for women and girls.
Their rejection is as follows:
→ Veena Das' 'devi-dichotomy' :
Veena Das mentions how women treated as devis in our scriptures are sufferers of constant violence and abuse in Indian families.
→ Familial Abuse : In India, 1 in 3 women have faced some form of violence in their lives, a majority of which is by their intimate partners.
Close · a summary
Families are portrayed as structures
for tension management whereas for women they cause the biggest problems in their life.
↳ Legal conception of families follows a structural-functional approach, therefore women who seek divorce are often not allowed to do it. In fact, marital rape is still legal in our country, showcasing the bleak protections of women in their own house.
↳ Nutrition and development : Young girls in families face neglect and a shortage of nutrition which reflects poorly on their cognitive development.
Early child marriages exacerbate the problem. A familial structure
which is supposed to prepare a girl for the future becomes the reason for her downfall.
Through all these experiences, family no longer remains a functionalist structure but a patriarchal suppression of women.