Families and Households- Changes in Family Structure Flashcards
What is pre-industrial society?
Society before industrialisation, largely agricultural
What is industrial society?
Society during and after industrialisation, work centres on factories and production of goods in cities
What family is most common in pre-industrial society?
Extended- families live and work together
What family is dominant in industrial society?
Nuclear- industrialisation separates home and work
What did Parsons think about why family structure changed?
Dominant family structure changed from extended to nuclear because it was more useful for industrial society
What is the nuclear family focused on?
Socialisation- family socialises children into the roles, values and norms of industrialised society
Why did Parsons say that the nuclear family is ‘isolated’?
Has few ties with local kinship and economic systems
How was status determined in pre-industrial society?
Ascribed
How was status determined in industrial society?
Achieved by success outside the home
What is geographical mobility?
Family can easily move to where there is work
What is social mobility?
Individuals can achieve higher or lower status than previous generations
What is the instrumental role?
Male breadwinner role, provides for family’s economic needs
What is the expressive role?
Female housewife role, provides for family’s emotional needs
What does Parsons say about the instrumental and expressive roles?
They are based on biological differences and are best for society
What is the symmetrical family?
The family is becoming more equal
Who proposed the symmetrical family?
Young and Willmott
What is part of social policy?
Laws that influence family life or family strucure
What did Donzelot say?
Social policy can be used by the state to control families and professionals such as healthcare visitors can use their knowledge to control families
What is the Welfare State?
Set up by a Labour government in 1948, supported families through benefits, public housing, family allowances and free health care
Who were the Conservatives influenced by?
New Right ideology
What did the Conservatives believe?
Nuclear families were the cornerstone of society, but also thought that society should be freed from interference by the state as much as possible
What did the Conservatives set out to do?
Make individuals more responsible for their own lives and decisions so the state would intervene much less in private matters- benefits were cut and taxes lowered, means testing was introduced
What is means testing?
You only get a benefit if your household income is below a set level
What did the Conservatives encourage mothers to do?
To stay home through preferential tax allowances- families were pushed to take on more responsibility for older people through benefit cuts
How did Thatcher describe the family?
‘The building block of society. It’s a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest’
What was the Child Support Agency?
Established in 1993 to force absent fathers and mothers to pay a fair amount towards the upkeep of their children
What was the Children Act 1989?
Outlined for the first time the rights of a child
How did the Conservatives consider making divorce more difficult?
A compulsory cooling off period of one year was proposed before a couple could divorce
What was the New Labour ideology based on?
‘The Third Way’- a middle ground between left-wing and right-wing politics that were designed to be more pragmatic and less ideological than the 1979 Conservative government or previous Labour governments
What did the 1998 consultation paper ‘Supporting Families’ say?
Made it clear that marriage was their preferred basis for life but they showed an awareness for and concern of diversity of family life
What was introduced in 2005?
Civil partnerships which is a union like marriage that is available to gay couples
What rights were cohabiting couples given?
Adoption rights
What New Right ideas did the New Labour adopt?
They cut lone-parent family benefits, supported means-testing benefits and were opposed to universal benefits
What did the Coalition promote?
Marriage as a stabilising force in family life
What did the Coalition legalise in 2014?
Same-sex marriage
What policy did the Coalition government introduce after the financial crisis of 2008?
Economic austerity which aimed to reduce the amount of money the government was spending
How did the Coalition government attempt to reduce the welfare bill?
They capped housing benefit in 2013 at £500 a week for couples and single parents with children
What did the Conservative government announce in 2015?
A cap on child benefit
