What did Zaretsky claim about the historical role of the family in production before industrialization?

• A. Parsons
• B. Zaretsky
• C. The family was a unit of production before industrialization
• D. Durkheim

Answer: (C)

The main idea is that, in Zaretsky’s view, the family historically functioned as an economic unit before industrialization. In pre-industrial societies the household wasn’t just a private space; it produced goods and provided services that sustained the family and sometimes fed the wider economy. Members, including children and women, contributed to farming, textile work, food prep, and other productive activities, so the family acted as a micro-economy or unit of production. When industrialization took hold, production moved into factories and the family shifted toward consumption and reproduction of the workforce. This shift is central to Zaretsky’s argument about how capitalism uses the family: as a private sphere that reproduces labor for the system while offering a sanctuary from work in the public economy.