It is clear that Parson’s functional perspective of the family was a once dominant theory in terms of its functional location in the social system. Today this theory can easily be criticized due to the evolution of the family and sex roles. I see his view as old-fashioned, with inexplicit consensus reasoning and lack of testability. Parson distinguishes the different sex roles when he claims that the working parent, the father, represents the “instrumental” role by attaining a “job which is fundamental to his [father’s] social status”, and there is the stay-at-home parent: the mother; the nurturer. Parson does mention his observations on women beginning to take up occupational roles, but states that “only a very small fraction have gone very far in this direction”. I wonder what he would have to say about my family where my dad stayed at home with the children and my mom founded and ran a successful business. I do not think that children need to be socialized into what Parson would consider proper sex roles, keeping society stable.
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