 Dear students, in this module we are going to discuss functions and dysfunctions of family institution from structural functionalist perspective. Functionalist perspective views family as the key institution in society that serves important functions for individuals and larger society. So the key functions of the family according to these functionalists are socializing children providing emotional support and maintaining the social order in society. When we look at the institution of family from different perspectives, especially structural functionalists, because they give importance to the maintenance of social order and in their opinion, the major function of all the institutions in society is to maintain the social order. Similarly, family, because society has a basic unit, from here the individual is trained to be a functionalist or a useful citizen of the society. So the different functions of the family are not only useful for them, but they also connect the individual to society. Dysfunctions of family may include divorce, domestic violence, that can have very negative effect on not only on the institution of family, but also on the society as a whole. So the functions of the family institution, where the dysfunctions are also present, if we look at the relationship between the Pakistani society, the family institution performs a lot of positive functions in the Pakistani society. From child education, from economic well-being, and from emotional support, the overall placement of the family in the society plays a very positive role. But along with this, the dysfunctions of the family, like domestic violence, the inter-relational conflicts in the family, and especially the divorce cases in the family, the overall dysfunctional or negative consequences have to be tolerated by the children. Along with this, the other institutions of the family can also feel the indirect effect on them. For example, when we see that if the family is disintegrated as a unit, and when the traditional families are gradually converted into modern families, then the dire consequences of this also start to occur in the rest of the institutions. For example, we can see the effects of education on the institution, along with this, we can also see on the economic institutions how the traditional family units, in which the doing of labour was very specified, the responsibility of the father was outside of the house, and the responsibility of the woman was of the home. But when the responsibility of modernisation, both the men and women, had financial responsibility on them, then the responsibility of the children's education gradually shifted over the third-party institutions. So in this way, we see that a major shift, in modernisation's ideology is in the family institution. So if we look at the structural functionalist point of view, then conventional or traditional gender roles were functional for the family institution, that's why they were justified in that context. But as the family institution changes its shape in the modern society, then these modern gender roles become functional in this context. The thing to look at is that in the Pakistani society, for example, when there is coexistence of traditional or modern gender roles, then how do the family members cope with different co-existing gender roles and expectations? So this is a food for thought for you that you need to see that. For example, in urban families where both male and female and both husband and wife, they are working couple, how do they perform their traditional gender roles and try to overcome traditional expectations?