Family Diversity Flashcards
Different types of family types
Traditional nuclear - married couple with 2/3 own children
Symmetrical - women and man both go work and share housework
Extended family - horizontal (aunts, uncles and cousins)
Bean pole family - vertical (multiple generations living together)
Lone-parent - family head by single mother of father
Same-sex couples - same gender couples
Living apart together - a couple who choose not to cohabit
New rights view on family diversity
They firmly oppose family diversity - only one correct family type = nuclear
- clear division between breadwinner + houswives
New right argue that the decline in traditional family and increased in family diversity is the main factor in the cause of many social problems
Why is there concerns regarding lone-parent families
-lone mothers cannot discipline their child properly
-leaves boys without an adult male role model = results in educational failure, delinquency + social instability
-more likely to be poor = burden on welfare state + tax payers
Criticisms of new right
Oakley - they wrongly assume husbands + wives roles are fixed biology
- Oakley believes their view is a negative reaction against feminist campaign for women equality
Further feminist believe traditional family is based around patriarchy and gender inequality - keeps women financially dependant on men + prevents them working
The rapoports -5 types of family diversity
Organisational diversity - family organised in range if ways = eg, some couples have joint conjugal roles + two wage earners while others gave segregated conjugal roles + one wage earners
Cultural diversity - diff cultural, religious + ethnic groups = diff structure - eg, African-caribbean families - more likely matrifocal (female-headed), some asian households more likely to include extended family
Social class diversity - difference in family structure partly the results in income differences eg, stats show divorce is more common among those on lower income
Life stage diversity - people live in range of fam structure throughout life eg born into nuclear, live on own, share with housemates, become cohabiting couple, become nuclear, divorce etc…
Generational diversity - diff gens have diff attitudes to family life eg older might be more traditional (nuclear)
Postmodernism and family diversity
Emphasise the dominance of one family type in modern society (nuclear)
-this family structure shapes behaviours of its members so they performs functIons society requires
Postmodernists -no longer live in society with predictable, orderly structures
- no longer one single, dominant, stable family structure (nuclear)
Advantage of fam diversity
Greater freedom to plot their own life course - choose family + personal relationship that meets their needs
Disadvantage of family diversity
Greater freedom = greater risk of instability, these relationships more likely to fail and breakup
Stacey & postmodern families
The greater freedom + choice = benefitting women
- can free themselves from patriarchal oppression and to shape their family the meet their needs
Morgan + postmodern families
Pointless trying to make a large generalisation about family as it’s not a single thing (functionalists do this)
-a family is simply whatever arrangements those involved choose to call their family
2 changes in choice and equality: giddens
Family + marriage - transformed by greater choice - more equal relationships
-contraception - allows sex & intimacy rather than reproduction being main reason for relationships existence
Giddens and the pure relationship
relationships no longer bound by traditional norms
- more likely to survive - as long as both partners on same page
However giddwns notes more choice = less stability
