The Politics of Family Ideology and Domestic Consumption

Abstract

Family ideology defines women as domestic workers and men as bread-winners; it assumes women's dependence on men within the family and their little attachment to the labour market. It is an ideology, which is culturally bound and class specific; it disadvantages women of all social classes, resulting, for instance, in their greater vulnerability to poverty; it stabilizes capitalism both socially and politically. It does not, however, exist unchallenged.  This challenge comes from conflicting egalitarian ideologies emanating from various social movements on gender. Family ideology has come to structure the divisions within the labour market and other areas of life as well as within the home.