Describe functionalism and critiqued it with Feminism inrelation to Essay

Describe functionalism and critiqued it with Feminism inrelation to family - Essay Example It is this approach towards interpreting the society that it was criticized by Marxists and later on by Feminists to the extent that by the1970s, it became antique. This paper will describe Functionalism and offer a Feminist critique especially its approach towards the role of the family. An attempt will also be made to relate social work to functionalism. When Europe was going through a period of tumult in the nineteenth century basically in the event of the emerging industrial society which brought with it social issues like poverty, poor working conditions, high crime rate and most importantly heightened political awareness which posed a threat to the social fabric woven around essentially Christian moral values, there emerged a need to safeguard the society. But as argued by Davis (1959), â€Å"†¦historically, the rise of functionalism represented a revolt against reductionist theories, anti-theoretical empiricism and moralistic or ideological views under the name of sociology or social anthropology.† The French Revolution preceded by renaissance challenged the status quo of the erstwhile industrialised Europe thus questioning the role of the ruling classes. Radical ideas like equality, individual rights, free will and contentment stimulated the revolution which also changed the social consciousness. These conditions w ere naturally a matter of concern for the rulers and the conservative intelligentsia, and in order to counter the growing radicalism they came up with a new social paradigm based on the theory that every institution in the society had a function, that all social structures and processes strove to maintain a social order and had a tendency to integrate the society which was essentially to be studied as an integral whole. Proponents of Functionalism further propounded that all societies had functional