Conceptualizing Family Diversity

Question 1

The cereal packet image of the family

Answer 1

In the 1980s Feminist Sociologist Ann Oakley (1982) described the image of the typical or ‘conventional’ family. She said, ‘conventional families are nuclear families composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing the parenthood of one or more (but not too many) children. Leach (1967) called this the ‘cereal packet image of the family’ because this image is the prominent in advertising, especially with ‘family sized’ products such as boxes of cereal.

Question 2

a considerable body of Feminist inspired research has shown that the idealised image of the cereal packet family is something of a myth:

Answer 2

firstly, once we factor in the extent of female dissatisfaction in traditional relationships, the rates of domestic abuse, and the number of empty shell marriages, the reality is not as ideal as it appears in the media, and secondly, even the 1950s there were a range of different family types in society, but these have been under-represented in the media.

Question 3

The Rapoport’s(1982) Five Types of Family Diversity

Answer 3

Organisational diversity

Organisational diversity refers to variations in family structure, household type, and differences in the division of labour within the home.

Cultural Diversity

The Rapoports also identified significant variations by ethnicity – In the case of South Asian families, both Hindu and Muslim, there was a tendency for the families to be more traditional and patriarchal, and extended families were also more likely.

Class Diversity

The Rapoports also found differences between working class and middle class families in terms of how children were socialised (middle class families are much more pro-school for example) and in terms of support-networks

Life course Diversity

There are also differences which result from the stage of the life cycle of the family.

Cohort Diversity

A cohort of individuals refers to those born in the same year (or band of years).

Question 4

Allan and Crow and Beck-Gernsheim argue that increasing individualisation (more individual choice) has led to even more diverse families since the 1980s

they identify the following demographic changes as contributing to increased family

Answer 4

1. The divorce rate has risen.
2. Lone parent households have increased in number.
3. Cohabitation outside marriage is increasingly common. In the early 1960s only 1/20 women lived with her husband before marriage, now 1/2 do.
4. Marriage rates have declined. This is partly because people are marrying later,

5.A big increase in the number of step families also appears to have increased family diversity.

Question 5

Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim – Individualisation, Diversity and Lifestyle Choice

She argues that relationships and family life are so diverse that there are no longer any clear norms about what a modern relationship should consist of, let alone what a modern family should look like. Two pieces of evidence she cites for this are as follows:

Answer 5

In terms of relationships, Beck-Gernsheim points out that people today call their relationships different things – there are fewer ‘married’ couples and more ‘partners’ or just ‘couples’ – in the past we had an idea of what marriage meant, today it less clear what being part of a ‘couple’ or ‘living with a ‘partner’ actually means
. She also points out being ‘coupled up’ doesn’t even necessarily involve living together, as the increasing amount of ‘Living Apart Together’ (LAT) relationships testifies to.

Where families are concerned, Beck argues that the increase in divorce and higher rates of breakdown amongst cohabitating families has resulted in the rise of the ‘patchwork family’ in which adults go through life with a series of different partners, which greatly adds to the complexity of family life (as in Judith Stacy’s Divorce Extended Family). In such family settings, one person may regard particular family members as forming part of their family, while other members living in the same household may define their family as consisting of different people. For example, children may or may not regard half-brothers and step-sisters as a part of their family, they may lose contact with one parent after divorce, and yet retain contact with all grandparents.

Question 6

How does family life vary by social class?

Answer 6

Middle class couples are more likely to get married than working class couples

Poor teens are much more likely to get pregnant and have babies than rich teens
Professional women have babies later than ‘working class’ women’