Cambridge A-Level Sociology: The Family — Revision Notes (9699)

Related: Paper 2 study guide

Condensed, exam-focused notes for Paper 2 of Cambridge AS & A Level Sociology (9699), 2024-2026 series.

3.1 Perspectives on the role of the family

• Functionalist: family benefits members and society; “loss of functions” debate — schools/welfare state have taken over roles the family used to perform alone.
• Marxist: family benefits capitalism — ideological control, reproduction of labour, consumption.
• Feminist: challenges both accounts for overlooking inequality within the family.

3.2 Diversity and social change

• Changing patterns: marriage, cohabitation, divorce, separation.
• Family/household forms: nuclear, extended, lone-parent, reconstituted, single-person (and others, where locally appropriate).
• New Right: treats growing diversity as a social problem. Postmodernist: treats it as evidence of greater individual choice.
• State/social policy: an active influence shaping family form, not a neutral backdrop.

4.1 Gender equality and experiences of family life

• Feminism in finer detail: liberal, radical, Marxist feminist perspectives on power within the family — distinct explanations, not one unified position.
• Conjugal roles: division of housework, childcare, decision-making, and emotion work (often unequal effort managing a family’s emotional life).
• Live debate: is the overall experience of family life positive or negative? — don’t assume an answer.

4.2 Age and family life

• Childhood as socially constructed — varies over time and between societies, not a fixed biological fact.
• Grandparents: role and social position, cross-cultural comparison, impact of rising life expectancy.
• Class, gender, ethnicity shape children’s experience of family life.
• Changing concepts of motherhood and fatherhood — redefined over time.

Assessment objectives on Paper 2

Section A’s three compulsory questions draw more on AO1 (knowledge/understanding) and AO2 (interpretation/application). Section B’s essay (26 marks) is where AO3 (analysis/evaluation) carries the most weight — explaining strengths/limitations and reaching a reasoned conclusion, not just describing perspectives in turn.

Exam technique for this topic

Learn 3.1’s three perspectives as a set that can be directly compared and contrasted, since Section B essays reward cross-perspective evaluation, not description of one theory in isolation. Treat 3.2’s diversity content (the forms families take) as related but distinct from 4.1/4.2’s roles-and- relationships content (what happens inside those forms, along gender and age lines). Because feminism reappears across both halves of the paper — once in 3.1, then in finer internal detail in 4.1 — keep a running note of which feminist strand (liberal, radical, Marxist) makes which specific argument, since conflating them is a common source of lost marks in essay answers.

Worked example: comparing perspectives in an essay

Consider a Section B essay question asking candidates to evaluate the view that the family primarily benefits society as a whole rather than any particular group within it. A strong answer sets the three perspectives from 3.1 directly against each other on this specific claim: the functionalist view broadly supports the statement, arguing the family performs necessary functions (socialisation, economic support) that benefit society generally; the Marxist view partially agrees that the family serves a wider system, but argues that system is capitalism specifically, benefiting the capitalist class more than society as a whole; and the feminist view directly challenges the premise, arguing the family primarily benefits men within it rather than society or its members equally. Reaching a conclusion that weighs these three positions against each other — rather than describing each perspective as a separate, unconnected paragraph — is what converts a descriptive answer into an evaluative one.

Worked example: applying 4.1’s concepts to a scenario

A question describes a household where one partner works full-time and the other works part-time while also managing most of the childcare and household organisation. A strong answer identifies this as an example of unequal conjugal roles and emotion work — the partner managing childcare and household organisation is likely also carrying more of the family’s emotional labour (anticipating others’ needs, maintaining relationships, managing family logistics) even beyond the visible domestic tasks. Different feminist strands would explain this pattern differently: a liberal feminist might emphasise persisting workplace inequality shaping this division, while a radical feminist might emphasise patriarchal power structures within the home itself as the more fundamental cause — being able to attribute a specific explanation to the correct feminist strand, rather than a single generic “feminism says inequality is bad,” is what distinguishes a strong response.

Self-test

1. What does the “loss of functions” debate argue?
2. How do New Right and postmodernist perspectives differ on family diversity?
3. Name the three feminist strands examined in 4.1.
4. What is “emotion work”?
5. In what sense is childhood “socially constructed”?

Answers: 1. That institutions such as schools and the welfare state have taken over roles the family used to perform alone. 2. New Right treats growing diversity as a social problem; postmodernist treats it as evidence of greater individual choice. 3. Liberal, radical, Marxist feminism. 4. The often-unequal effort of managing a family’s emotional life. 5. What counts as childhood, and how children are treated, has changed over time and varies between societies rather than being a fixed biological fact.

Why keeping the four sub-topics distinct matters

A common source of lost marks on this paper is blending 3.1’s perspectives with 3.2’s diversity content, or 4.1’s gender content with 4.2’s age content, when a question asks specifically about one. Before answering, identify precisely which sub-topic the question is testing — a question about family diversity (3.2) wants named forms and causes of changing patterns, not a restatement of functionalist or Marxist theory from 3.1, even though both sub-topics concern “the family” broadly. Keeping this boundary clear under exam pressure, rather than answering with whatever family-related content comes to mind first, is a reliable way to avoid losing marks to an off-target answer.