2062amc Assesment Item 2.

This shows that society so far has been very patriarchal and women have been oppressed and treated as second class inside and outside the family. So it is not surprising that this somewhat cultural norm has led to Men claiming the family as their property because "it gives them control over women and children" (Oakley, 1981, pp.236-264, 342-392).

Sexual assault and violence is a major source of women's oppression within the family, yet women constantly remain in families where they are victims of repeated physical assaults. This shows how "the imbalance of power in the family and in society becomes" (2062AMC Study Guide, 2004, p.75) a factor of women's oppression. In addition "women with young children, are likely to be financially dependent on the male breadwinner" (2062AMC Study Guide, 2004, p.75) and therefore less likely to leave an abusive marriage or family.

How the family transmits the oppression of women globally.

The Nuclear family depicts family orientated images of decency, love, tradition, discipline, and happy children. However, this is not always the case. The family also transmits the oppression of women globally. For example in regard to "the first Australian study of marital roles, by the social psychologist P.G. Herbst in the late 1940s Herbst observed that housework and childcare were 'mandatory' for women, and 'economic activities' were 'mandatory' for men" (Gilding, 1997, p.171). Furthermore, "A 1984 survey, for example, found that on average women spent almost 31 hours per week on unpaid domestic work, compared with about 14 hours per week for men" (Gilding, 1997, p.174). Therefore, "wives capacity to insist on companionship in marriage was compromised by rigid role segregation" plus low "employment opportunities for women" (Gilding, 1997, p.172). However, over time there has been improvement, for example. Between 1974 and 1987 "men's time on cooking, laundry and cleaning rose from an average of 19 minutes per day to 37 minutes per day". Therefore, it can be seen that "social revolutions were always gradual, particularly when they confront real gender differences and traditional patterns of life (Colbatch, 1993,October, p.13). In addition, marriage and family is a system, which men use to exhort gratuitous work from women.

There is much isolation experienced by women in families, especially nuclear families, for example. "The isolation of the nuclear family in a complementary way focuses the responsibility of the mother role more sharply on the one adult woman, to a relatively high degree" (Parsons, 1955, p.17). Furthermore, the absence of the father from the home means the women must take the most responsibility for the children. This is a role that the mother naturally wants to fulfil due to the bond from birth with her children which makes her attached to her child. Therefore a mother wants to care for her child, yet may feel oppressed because she has been given the role of sole carer of her children while her husband has a mediocre role in the upbringing of a nuclear family. This situation shows how the family transmits oppression to women globally through isolation and gender roles where common nuclear family roles are assumed and carried out, sometimes out of necessity enhanced by a mothers natural bond with her children. Therefore children need their mother and "after all, in a child-oriented society, what could be more reprehensible than an apparent neglect of children's supposed needs?" (Oakley, 1976, pp. 221). So, broken marriages or families oppress wives and their children and transmit oppression upon women globally by making them assume old fashioned gender roles while turning them off the idea of marriage due to its mental and physical workload, isolation, high failure rate and negative effects on children plus women when separation occurs.

Writers such as Shulamith Firestone in the 'Dialect of sex'(1972), located the source of women's oppression primarily in their biology. Firestone states that "the essential difference lay in women's reproductive role (in nature) and in the social construction of the nuclear family (in culture)". However, biology of a women can not be changed, therefore it is cultural changes that must be changed in society possibly through the feminist movements that have increased women's rights to a certain degree at this time. So now women are trying to make cultural changes by becoming part of the male world but "even when women are working, independent and not in a family they still feel that whatever career a woman may have, her most important role in life is still that of becoming a mother" (Gilding, 1997, p.207) which is a natural animal instinct. This leads to the realisation that even though women do oppress themselves through marriage and childbirth most women do still want to have babies and be part of a family due to their natural animal drive to bear children which occasionally clashes with thoughts of being freer and less oppressed.

Women are now more often choosing to have a career first and a family later or not at all due to the varying levels of commitment and oppression placed upon women in marriage and childbirth. Therefore, most people do not live in a nuclear family. "Nearly 50% of families include working female spouses, then only one in four Australian families conforms to the stereotyped nuclear family" (2062AMC Study Guide, 2004, p.55). This shows that the family has transmitted the oppression of women globally and that women are now more cautious and wise due to the knowledge of how families can oppress women. Therefore, women now usually choose to postpone a family until they are older and have already succeeded in the other areas of their life.

Social, cultural and feminist affects on family oppression of women globally.

Over time, there have been many changes in the way the family oppresses women globally, these changes are partly due to social, cultural and feminist effects.

One social and cultural effect that previously oppressed women relates to how in the past birth control was considered a threat to the family. "For example, conservative opinion forcefully maintained that birth control was a threat to the family". This belief that birth control was a threat to the family obviously led to a lack of knowledge in this area and became a source of young women's oppression. Thankfully, now due to health education and increased women's rights through feminist movements, birth control is widely used and it is considered a tool for successful family planning. Furthermore, the stigma that birth control is a threat to the family has been recognised in regard to the possibility that it encourages pre-marital sexual acts, yet it has been recognised by women that it leads to them having more choice and protection from unwanted pregnancies, thereby being freer and less oppressed.

Gender oppression is another form of social and cultural coercion that helps the family to directly oppress women globally. "Recent analysts seem to agree on the distinction between radical feminism, which holds that gender oppression is the oldest and most profound form of exploitation" (2062AMC Study Guide, 2004, p.65). This also relates to families that are not nuclear. For example, "in the past many gay men and women lived in sham marriages rather than suffer the stigma of homosexuality" (Gilding, 1997, p.24). Therefore having a sham marriage and family can be a form of social, cultural, gender and family oppression forced upon gay women so they are more socially acceptable. Although "feminists have challenged beliefs that any specific family arrangement is natural, biological, or 'functional' in a timeless way".

Also the recognition by feminists that 'normal family life' has negative as well as positive ramifications sets it apart from the functionalist analysis of the family as a personal haven, a source of social, moral and spiritual support (2062AMC Study Guide, 2004, p.70). However, the nuclear family remains the most successful and socially acceptable family system.

Some feminists "identify the family as a primary site, if not the primary site, of women's oppression and seek to abolish it" (Barett & McIntosh, 1982, p.20). But others argue that feminism must acknowledge that most women "have willingly identified marriage, children and a family with their own happiness" (Barett & McIntosh, 1982, p.20). Therefore, feminists should be more concerned with reducing oppression within the family then condemning the family as the primary source of oppression.

This is especially important when realising that the reason families oppress women is mainly due to society and cultural norms of behaviour and habit along with maintaining the system of the nuclear family, which has been one of the most successful family systems to date. But because there has been and is so many ways the family oppresses women then some of these reasons will be purely selfish, self-indulgent and related to the way society influences the family and males in the family, which inturn results in the outcome of males desiring to dominate and control women like their old fashioned fathers did.

Feminist movements have had a very big effect on society and on women, by fighting for the increase of women's rights. But sometimes feminists go to far when placing all the blame on men or the family even if this is partly true. For example "at the heart of feminism is an egalitarian impulse, seeking to free women from oppression by removing all of the obstacles to their political, economic, and sexual self-determination". "To erect a doctrine of female superiority to men, by virtue of some essential quality of biology or spirit, is to my view a dangerous step backwards" (Einsenstein, 1970, pp. xi-xx). This is due to the friction it can cause inside the family which may even break up marriage and therefore family. So indirectly, when men and families oppress women they are actually giving a women fuel to react to her oppressed situation in a way that is similar to the way a husband in a nuclear family would behave at times.

Feminists often have opposing views on motherhood and what is best for women, for example, feminists see motherhood as rather more "a 'barrier' to self-fulfilment in women than a vehicle for it". "Also they argued that biological motherhood lay at the heart of women's oppression" (Eisenstein, 1970, pp. 69-78). Therefore, feminists remind mothers "of their relative oppression within the marriage structure" (Wearing, 1984, p .75). In addition, the effects of feminism mean women are even more frustrated with inequalities than previously.

For example women who stayed at home felt inadequate; women who worked but who did not reach real seniority hit was what has been described as the glass ceiling, felt angry and betrayed; women were exhausted rather than fulfilled (Oakley, 1997, p.38).

Therefore, family ideals are sacrificed in this situation for "some apparently nobler cause, self-fulfilment in the workplace, alongside men" (Oakley, 1997, p.38). This kind of lifestyle for women is largely influenced by feminist movements and women's increasing knowledge of the oppression that occurs inside families. But on the other side of the coin "deprived and oppressed, women see in motherhood their only source of pleasure, reward and fulfilment" (Oakley, 1976, p.249). This means motherhood is a source of constant desire for a large population of the world even if it involves some oppression.

Culture plays a big part in shaping families and the way families oppress women globally. For example this may be culture that is seen as socially acceptable that stems from other families in society or culture's and societies views of what a males and females gender role should be. Therefore "mothers, fathers and children may stand in a biological relationship to one another, but their behaviour is largely shaped by cultural factors" (Oakley, 1997, p.29). Therefore, "women's oppression owes its particular nature to the ways in which society has built up layers of cultural expectation and prescription and has constructed material and political edifices to support these" (Oakley, 1997, p.29). Also "because the language of gender assumes the source of women's oppression to be cultural, any particular power and responsibility of men as oppressors fades" (Oakley, 1997, p.52), or passes for a short time. The solution therefore lays in getting rid of these patterns of cultural conditioning. This means women's oppression is most likely a result of cultural conditioning and internal gender roles therefore can be overcome by women increasing their education and knowledge of how this occurs while taking a stand and making changes in this area with the help of feminist movements.

Another social affect on the family is violence and sexual abuse. Society in the past has condoned families' abuse of wives and society has overlooked much of the domestic violence that occurs in families. For example, "in one survey of the adult population of the United States, one-fifth approved of a husband 'slapping' his wife on 'appropriate' occasions" (Stark & McEvoy in Hill, 1982, pp.44). This kind of approved or ignored abuse has only become worse and that is one reason why women's rights within the family are very important. Furthermore, violence and rape is a legacy of female-passive, male-aggressive roles, so men usually expect women to be passive when they act aggressive and it is this passiveness that keeps the cycle of abuse going. Therefore, women need to break this cycle of oppression by being more educated, self-sufficient and cautious before entering a family.

Reasons for sexual and mental abuse of women vary. For example, "it is frequently claimed that the mother's sexual incapacity or inappropriateness is a casual, or at least, precipitating factor" (O'Donnell & Craney, 1982, pp.157) of why husbands sexually abuse their daughters. In addition, when a daughter is abused, she sees the event as her mother's failure and because the father is to powerful, she takes it out on the mother. Therefore, this is a form of oppression that is created inside the family and directly oppresses women of different ages, for example: mother and daughter alike.

Conclusion.

In the last fifty years, the level of oppression on women from families has been massive, but due to changing social norms, feminist movements, increased education of women and women rights oppression has become dramatically reduced. Most women now have the knowledge to know they can change their oppression to freedom in most circumstances by making the right choices and becoming active members of society through education and independence. Although many women in poverty, third world countries, slavery, debt or war will never be able to have these choices since their lifestyle is totally dependent on family members, their husbands and their continuing long working hours for low wages. Therefore, the family will always maintain and transmit the oppression of women in some way. Overall, it is pleasing to know that discrimination against women has declined in most parts of the world.

References.

Australian Bureau of statistics, 'Family Characteristics, Australia', posted 22 of April 1998. www.abs.gov.au. Accessed 20/09/2004.

Barrett, M. & McIntosh, M. 1982, The Anti-social Family, Verso, London.

Colbatch, T., 1993, 'Marriage on the line', The Age, 12 October, p.13.

Collins, J. 1995, Gender and Cheap Labour in Agriculture, in McMichael (ed.), Food and Agrarian Order in the World Economy, Praegar, Westport Connecticut, America.

Edwards, A.R. 1975, 'Images of deviance in the press', in Edwards, A.R. and Wilson, P.R. (eds) Social Deviance in Australia, Cheshire, Melbourne.

Eisenstein, Hester 1970, Contemporary feminist thought, Unwin Paperbacks, London.

Firestone, Shulamith, 'The ultimate revolution, Demands and speculations' (excerpted) from Firestone, S (1972), The ultimate revolution, demands and speculations, The Dialectic of Sex, London, Paladin, pp. 183-195.

Gilding, Michael 1997, Australian Families, a comparative study, Addison Wesley Longman Australia Pty Limited, Brisbane, Australia.

Oakley, A. and Mitchell, J. (eds.) 1997, Who's Afraid of feminism? Seeing through the backlash, Hamish Hamilton, London.

Oakley, A. 1981, Subject women, Fontana, Glasgow.

Oakley, A. 1976, Housewife, Penguin, Harmondsworth.

O'Donnell, C. and Craney, J. 1982, 'Incest and the reproduction of the patriarchal family' in O'Donnell, C. and Craney, J. (eds) Family Violence in Australia, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.

Parsons, T. 1955, 'The American family, its relations to personality and to the social structure', in Parsons, T. & Bales, R.F., Family, Socialization and Interaction Process, The Free Press, New York.

Rodgers, Shane, 1990, 'More wives at work - more men at home', The Courier-Mail, December 18

Skolnick, A. 1978, The Intimate Environment, exploring Marriage and the Family, Little, Brown and Company, Boston.

Stark & McEvoy (eds) in Hill, T. 1982, 'Rape and marital violence in the maintenance of male power', in Friendman, S. and Sarah, E. (eds) On the Problem of Men, London, The Women's Press, pp. 44-45.

Study Guide 2062AMC, 'International Change and the Social World II' 2004, School of Arts, Media and Culture, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Wearing, B. 1984, The ideology of Motherhood, George Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

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