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Fundamental reports relevant to today's problems and to a better future

  
         
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Family's Role in the Real World:

Teamwork in an Age of Specialisation and Accelerating Change

and

Gaining Strength in the Struggle for a Better Life




The family needs food and shelter and while the female looks after its young and its people, it is usually the male who struggles outside the immediate family to provide it with an income, with a standard of living, to the best of his ability. He is assisted in this when required by his spouse to an extent which depends on her own work within the family. He struggles outside the family to provide it with a good life, against those who wish to profit from the family's needs, against those who wish to exploit, who may even wish to oppress so as to exploit.

Each member of the family gets strength from the others. Two heads are better than one, and work divided between two people in such a way that each can become expert in his or her own area is done much better than one person trying to do it all. The family gives people enormous emotional and economic strength to overcome life's problems. Husband and wife battle on together back-to-back and they do so successfully regardless of how tough the struggle may be. You cannot win all the battles but what cements the relationship is not just battles won but battles fought together. The depth of such a relationship between husband and wife, and the wealth of strength it gives regardless of the opposition, this you know as well as I do. The children follow the example of their parents, gain the same strength and pass it on. It all depends on deep and secure emotional involvement between two people, between husband and wife.


Outside the family a struggle is taking place. The breadwinner is competing for work and income on behalf of the family. He is also struggling against those who wish to exploit him (and thus his family) and who oppress so as to exploit.

In the working environment women are just as oppressed and exploited as men are. When women receive lower wages for work of equal value then this is bad for men and women alike. When some people in a group are being underpaid, the pay of the others is being pushed down.


Anyone who sees men and women co-operating with each other within a family, struggling side by side, back to back, and sees them co-operating with each other and helping each other in the outside working environment, for a more secure and better life for their families, knows how strong and effective they are together.

All are equal as people. What has to be done is shared out between them according to individual skill, ability, knowledge and experience. And in the end all share equally in the family's gains and losses. In other words, all are equal, contribute to the best of their ability, and stand or fall together.

Teamwork implies sharing work and responsibilities in a way which ensures that all that has to be done is done well. Success is measured by social and mental well-being as well as by standard of living and quality of life, of the family as a whole and of each member.


Within the family we should see co-operation and teamwork between equals who divide up the work which has to be done between them in a functional way so that each becomes expert and effective in his or her part of what has to be done.

The spouses share out between themselves what needs to be done, each concentrating on areas of work in accordance with their abilities, knowledge, understanding, likes and dislikes.

Equal as people, each takes the decisions falling within their own area of competence and responsibility. The husband may decide which car is to be bought or about getting a new job, the wife about which school the children should go to or where the family should live. But each discusses matters with the other family members before agreement is reached about what is best for the family as a whole.

Such a functional division of work and responsibilities, such co-operation and teamwork, enable us to survive and do well in the dangerous environment in which we find ourselves.


Consider shopping for food. The shopping expert takes into account the likes and dislikes of the other members of the family. And the expertise involved in shopping can be appreciated by considering what has to be thought about while shopping. How fresh is the food, how long will it have to be stored at home, how much does it cost here compared with elsewhere, has it been genetically modified and what does this mean for us. And what about nitrates in water, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides, irradiated foods, chemical additives, fat and sugar contents and other health risks, and more expensive organic foods.

It would be a waste of time for each to become expert in this field. It would be useless for each of the two people to do so and to argue continually about what is to be done. They would in this way be competing with each other by attempting to show that one is better than the other.

Family members do not waste their time competing with each other but add their knowledge and experience to the decision-taking process of the other. In general, the person who decides would be the one most competent to take such decisions.


Co-operation between men and women, within the family and as equals, would seem to be essential when bringing up their children under modern conditions of rapid change at an accelerating rate of change.

Strength to resist oppression and exploitation comes from men and women co-operating with each other and so men and women struggle together to achieve a better life, a humane way of living and of government, and social security.

It is in democracies that a high standard of living has been achieved. In democracies people can struggle openly for a better life but we see that what has been gained has to be defended and extended.


Human rights are based on controlling primitive dominating behaviour, on concern, care and affection for our young and our families, for people and for our communities. Human rights express themselves in co-operation and teamwork between men and women to achieve a good life of high quality.

The relationship between the two spouses is a functional relationship and functional relationships are often misunderstood and misrepresented. Women, for example, have at times been persuaded by traditions or beliefs into accepting domination and sometimes exploitation as the norm. And women have in the past been denied education and full equality with men within the family and in the community in which they live.


Source, with Description

Title   Description
     
Family, Sex and the Individual; Women's Liberation, Feminism and Community   This report investigates casual sex and its effects on individuals, family and community. It examines the role of the family in bringing up children and relates dominance and confrontation within the family to that in the working environment. See  'Press Notices'.
     


Manfred Davidmann

Manfred Davidmann is an internationally well-known and respected scientist and author of a number of books and reports which have had and are having considerable impact. His work usually breaks new ground and opens up new understanding and is written in meaningful and easily understood language. Outstanding is that his work is generally accepted as factual, objective and unbiased.


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