Families And Households Flashcards
What is the traditional definition of a family?
a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage
What is the problem with the traditional family definition?
this definition is no longer accurate; for example, couples do not always marry, and adults often live in a household with children from a partner’s previous relationship(s).
What is the conventional nuclear family?
contains married parents (mother and father) and their biological children
What does Functionalist Talcott Parsons in the 1950s state the husband would carry out?
the instrumental role of breadwinner (bringing in the money)
What did Functionalist Talcott Parsons state the women would carry out?
expressive role based in the home: the nurturing role (looking after the children, doing housework and cooking)
What did Parsons believe the conventional nuclear family did?
Parsons believed that the conventional nuclear family met the needs of society and the economy, and helped maintain social stability.
Definition of segregated conjugal roles?
The idea that women and men both preform different tasks within the family. The husband’s role would be earning money outside the home, and much of his leisure time would be spent with his friends and workmates. The wife’s role would be based in and around the home, with the children, and any leisure time she had would often be spent with female relatives.
Evaluation of Parsons idea about women?
Even in the 1950s, many working-class women worked for money outside the home, and they needed the support of their female kin (relatives) if they were juggling part-time low-paid work, domestic responsibilities and childcare.
What did Ann Oakley say the conventional nuclear family would have?
• a married opposite-sex couple
• one or two biological children of the couple
• the father as the main or only breadwinner
She was not saying this was a ‘good’ thing – she was just describing it!
Definition of the Neo-conventional family
The nuclear family type is still common in the UK today, but conjugal roles are not as segregated as they used to be. The expressive and instrumental roles are not necessarily tied to gender roles. So the father may be based at home with the children while the woman is the main breadwinner. Or joint conjugal roles may be more equally shared by both parents.
Definition of a vertical extended family?
A vertical extended family will contain three or more generations, and probably include grandparents
Definition of a horizontal extended family?
A horizontal extended family may only contain two generations, but include uncles, aunts and cousins.
What has the recent census shown about extended families?
The recent Census has shown that large extended families still exist in South Asian communities in the UK, but they are less common now than they used to be.
Reconstituted (or blended) families definition?
This family usually contains two adults with one or more children from their previous relationships. The adults either re-marry or cohabit to form a new family. The child(ren) may then move backwards and forwards between different families
Lone parent family definition
This family is headed by one parent as a consequence of divorce, death, or individual choice.
What type of family is lone parenting most common?
According to the Census, this family type is most common within Black Caribbean families, with the families usually being headed by the mother.
Evaluation of Black Caribbean families?
Recent research has shown that Black Caribbean families often have tight kinship and wider community networks, and REYNOLDS’ research showed that the fathers often play an active role in their children’s lives, even if they do not live in the same house.
Same-sex family definition?
This family is headed by a couple of the same sex
What made same-sex families more common?
become much more common since the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 and the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act of 2013.
Cohabiting family definition?
The family is headed by a couple who are not married to each other, or in a civil partnership.
What is the fasted growing family type in the uk?
Cohabiting family
What % of people co-habit before getting married?
Recent official statistics have shown that 88% of couples in the UK now co-habit before getting married.
Beanpole family definition?
This is a type of extended family which has very few members in each generation e.g. two parents, one child and one grandparent under the same roof.
Foster family definition?
In these families, children live with adults who are not their biological parents – e.g. with other relatives or foster carers.
Boomerang family definition?
This family contains at least one young adult who returns to their parents’ house (the empty nest) often after finishing university, then leaves again when (if) they can finally afford their own accommodation. This situation is becoming much more common, with affordable accommodation hard to find for young people.
What has recent research showed about boomerang families?
Recent research suggests that this can cause considerable stress for women (the ‘sandwich generation’) who are still providing a home for their young adult children while also helping care for grandchildren, and their elderly parents and in-laws.
LATs family definition?
this refers to couples who are Living Apart Together. The couple are in an intimate relationship, but choose not to live in the same home. This is becoming more common in 21st century Britain, and is a fast-growing trend in New York.
Monogamy definition?
men and women in the UK are only allowed to have one marriage partner at a time. It is against the law to re-marry if you are still married to someone else. When an individual moves from one marriage partner to another after divorce, this is known as serial monogamy.
Polygamy definition?
the custom of one man legally marrying more than one woman at a time. This is common in some traditional societies e.g. in northern Africa.
Polyandry definition?
the custom of a woman marrying more than one man at the same time. This is very rare, but happens in some areas of Nepal.
Arranged marriages definition?
This is the norm in many countries in the Global South. The parents choose a marriage partner for their child in consultation with the other set of parents. Marriages are usually arranged between families of similar caste, or social & economic status. Arranged marriages also take place in some communities within the UK, e.g. those of South Asian heritage, but the children are more likely to have some input into the decision these days.
What is the one child policy in China?
Due to the population
crisis, the Chinese government introduced the one-child
policy in 1979 to slow down population growth. Married couples received positive sanctions (financial rewards) for having only one child, but were penalised with harsh negative sanctions for having more than one child. Many women were forced to terminate pregnancies, particularly if they were carrying a girl. As a result, many young men in China have not been able to find a girl to marry, as there are not enough girls in the population. The Chinese Government has recently introduced a policy to encourage families to have two or three children to address the gender imbalance within the population, and decrease the dependency ratio.
What did Robert and Rhona Rapoport argue about range of family types?
Robert and Rhona Rapoport argued in 1982 that there was now a wider range of family types, and this family diversity is even greater today than it was when they carried out their research 40 years ago.
What were the 5 different types of diversity the rapoports identified?
Organisational diversity, Cultural diversity, Social class diversity, Life cycle diversity, Cohort diversity
Organisational diversity definition?
there are now many more different family types e.g. same-sex, lone parent, reconstituted, etc.
Cultural diversity definition?
families from different cultural and religious backgrounds may have different family structures.
For example, the Roman Catholic Church teaches against contraception and abortion, so Roman Catholics often had larger families, although this is changing with the growth of secularisation.
Social class diversity definition?
The Rapoports discussed variations in family structures, attitudes and conjugal roles between different social classes. For example, working-class women have always worked outside the home, whereas middle-class women were more likely to be traditional housewives in the 1950s.
Cohort diversity definition?
Family structures can differ depending on events in the wider world e.g. after World War One, there was a huge shortage of young men available for young women to marry.
The Rapoports concluded in 1982 that fundamental changes were taking place in family life in Britain.
However, Robert Chester argued that the main change was the rise of the neo-conventional family where wage- earning and home-making are no longer tied to gender roles.
Life cycle diversity definition?
Families move through different stages and have different priorities at different times.
For example, a young heterosexual female teacher may be single when she starts her full-time teaching career at 22 years old, go part-time when she has young children, go full-time again when the children are all in primary school; then go part-time again in the final years of her teaching career when she takes on some responsibility for the care of her grandchildren and elderly parents and in-laws.
What has social change led to?
led to major changes in family structures and patterns over the last 60 years.
When was the Divorce Reform Act?
1969
What did the Divorce Reform Act enable?
Individuals were now able to leave an unhappy marriage without having to prove that a matrimonial offence like adultery had taken place.
A growth in secularisation means what to do with divorce?
most people no longer feel that it is ‘sinful’ to get divorced, and there is no longer stigma attached to divorce.
What did the government begin to provide after the divorce reform act?
The UK government also began to provide state benefits to lone parents to support them, and this made it easier for women to divorce and raise children in a lone-parent household, if they chose to.
Recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics in 2018 showed what about divorce?
that about 42% of marriages in England & Wales ended in divorce
What has an increase in divorce led to?
led to an increase in lone- parent families.
The percentage of lone-parent families has tripled since 1971
Around a quarter of all families and dependent children were living in a lone-parent family in 2017. Nine out of ten lone-parent families are headed by women.
What are changes in law linked to?
These changes in society are all linked to the impact of feminism, secularisation and changes to the economy which have led to changing social norms, and changes in the law.
What has changes to the legislation system (SUCH AS EQUAL PAY ACT) resulted in?
women are more likely to start their career after studying at university, and delay having their first child until they are about 30 years old. They may also delay marriage until after the birth of their child(ren) and this trend did not start to become normalised until the 1990s. By delaying their first child, this enables young women to get a foothold in the labour market.
What is the issue with childcare and returning back to work?
it is still not easy for women to return full-time to some occupations when they have small children. There is also a chronic lack of affordable childcare in the UK at the moment, and both main political parties are being forced to address this issue before the next General Election.
What is the motherhood penalty doing?
the Motherhood Penalty is driving many women out of the workforce, and there are high levels of economic inactivity – mostly mothers of young children who wish to work outside the home, but who cannot afford to do so.
What have most changes in social norms been influenced by?
by a rise in secularisation.
Secularisation definition?
means religion plays much less of a role in people’s lives
What did the Census in 2021 show about religion? In Norwich and Brighton?
In the recent Census in 2021, over half of the people in Norwich and Brighton ticked a box saying they had ‘No Religion’. (These people are known as The Nones.) Individuals are now much more able to make choices based on their personal wishes rather than, for example, the teachings of the Bible
What do people choose to do instead of following religion?
Far more people now choose to: have several sexual partners before settling down; to co-habit; to have children outside marriage; to have a same-sex partner; to use contraception or have an abortion; get divorced, etc. without worrying that ‘the church’ would consider their behaviour sinful and shameful. The decline in stigma attached to such personal choices has had a huge impact on the behaviour of individuals and couples in the 21st century.
What do some members of traditional religious groups still do?
some members of traditional religious groups, including Roman Catholics and Muslims, still choose to follow the teachings of their religion
What did the 2021 census show about young Muslims?
The 2021 Census shows that young Muslims in the UK are the most likely group under 35 to identify closely with their religion.
What’s happened since 1960s to do with legislation?
a huge number of laws have been passed which impact on the family.
What was much of legislation changes due to?
due to pressure from feminists to improve the quality of life for women, and push for greater equality.
When was the Abortion Act?
1967
What did the Abortion Act enable?
enabled women to legally seek termination of a pregnancy before 24 weeks with the consent of two medical practitioners.
What happened as contraception was gradually becoming more easily available? What did this result in?
women started to gain some control over their fertility. This has enabled many women (especially middle-class women) to delay having their first child until the age of about 30, and start their career first.
What group find the Abortion Act controversial?
controversial amongst Roman Catholics, and evangelical Protestant Christians within the UK.
When was the Equal Pay Act?
1970
What did the Equal Pay Act mean?
employers were obliged to pay women the same rate as men for work of the same value.
Impact of the Equal Pay Act? Who did this benefit?
women’s wages did go up, and they started to achieve more financial independence. This benefited not only women, but their husbands who saw an increase in the family income.
What is still the issue with women in work?
women are still more likely than men to work part-time, and women are hit by the ‘motherhood penalty’ when they have children, as men in their age group are promoted ahead of them.
Is there still a gender pay gap in the UK?
As more men still attain the senior roles in organisations, it is clear that a glass ceiling is still in place, and there is still a gender pay gap in the UK.
Glass ceiling meaning?
an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities.
Evaluation of the Equal Pay Act? What do intersectional feminists argue? What do some black feminists argue?
Intersectional feminists argue that women are not a homogenous group, and some women have benefited more than others from the Equal Pay Act. Working-class Bangladeshi women are the lowest paid women in the UK, while some middle-class graduates – e.g. White British and Indian – are much more highly paid. Some Black feminists in the UK have argued that the nuclear family can provide support for Black women who are experiencing racial oppression outside the home.
When was the Sex Discrimination Act?
1975
What was the Sex Discrimination Act?
Employers were no longer allowed to discriminate against women in the workplace. All jobs had to be advertised to both women and men, unless there was a very good reason not to. Women could take sexist employers to court.
What did feminists start campaigning for from the late 1960s onwards?
started campaigning for changes that would improve the quality of life of women within families, and help them achieve greater equality with men.
What do liberal feminists acknowledge?
acknowledge that there is inequality between men and women, but choose to work within the structures of society to change the law, and change social norms.
Liberal feminists have worked with male allies to change laws affecting women within the family: e.g. the Equal Pay Act and the Divorce Reform Act, and the law outlawing marital rape in 1991. However, other feminists would argue that the family is still a site of oppression for many women.
What do Marxist Feminists argue?
Marxist feminists argue that the nuclear family supports the capitalist system, but it also works in the interests of men. They argue that women – especially working-class women - often work outside the home, but also carry a dual burden of unpaid work inside the home too.
What happens when children are born, according to Marxist feminists?
When children are born, women have to take time out of the labour market, and often take part-time roles when they return to work, in order to ‘fit around the children’. Marxist feminists also believe that women are used as a reserve pool of labour.
What do Marxist feminists campaign for?
Marxist feminists campaign for universal childcare
What do radical feminists believe?
believe that the nuclear family is a patriarchal institution which serves to empower men.
What do radical feminists campaign against?
Radical feminists campaign against Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
What did radical feminists open the first of?
opened the first rape crisis centres for women in the 1970s
