Family Diversity Flashcards
What is the new right perspective on families
The new white believe that the nuclear family is the ideal type of family. Where partners are married as it is the most stable environment to raise children.
The new right perspective on families
Welfare state and lone parent families
The new right is Anti welfare state because they claim that it encourages higher levels of single parenthood, and is a cause of the growth of lone parent families
The new right perspective on family
Lone-parent family
The new are concerned about the growth of lone parent families and they see these families as harmful to children. They think that mothers can’t discipline children properly and boys are left without an adult role model and attracted to delinquency
The new right perspective on family
Cohabitation vs marriage
The right believe that the cohabiting of couples is the main cause of loan, parent families.
The new right perspective on families
Cohabitation vs marriage
Harry benson and Family breakdown
He analyse data on parent of over 15,000 babies and found over the first three years of the babies life The rate of the family breakdown was higher among cohabiting couples.
The new right perspective on families
Cohabitation vs marriage
Harry Benson and stability
Harry claims that married couples are more stable as it requires deliberate commitment, unlike cohabiting couples that avoid commitment and responsibility.
The new right perspective on families
The view that the family and society are broken
New right, thinkers and conservative politicians
They argue that only the return of traditional values like marriage can prevent social disintegration and damage to children. They also argue that laws and policies enable easy access to divorce are undermining the conventional family.
The new right perspective on families
Criticism to the new right
Ann Oakley 1997
Argues that the right wrongfully, assume that men and women roles are biologically fixed, and also believes that the new rights view of family’s is a negative reaction against feminist campaigns and female equality.
The new right perspective on families
Criticism to the new right
Feminists
They argue that the ideal family favoured by the new right is based on patriarchal oppression of women and a cause of gender inequality.
The new right perspective on families
Criticism to the new right
Children as delinquent in lone parent families
Evidence shows that there is no way of known whether the children from lone parent families are more likely to be delinquent.
The new right perspective on families
Criticism to the new, right
Carol, Smart, 2007
Argues that poverty may cause family breakdowns, rather than couples, choosing not to marry.
Functionalist perspective
Nuclear family and functions
the nuclear family is uniquely suited to meeting the needs of modern society by performing two functions, primary socialisation of children and stabilisation of adult personalities, which contribute to stability and effectiveness of society.
Functionalist perspective on family
The effectiveness of nuclear families performing the essential functions
We can generalise about the type of family that we will find in modern society, which is the nuclear family with a division of labour. Other families are considered dysfunctional, abnormal and deviant as they are less able to perform the functions.
Chester: the neo-conventional family
Robert Chester on family diversity
He’s recognised that there has been increased family diversity in the recent years, but he does not regard this as significant or in a negatively. the only important change is a shift from the dominance of the traditional families to neo conventional families
Chester: the Neo conventional family
Chester and the conventional family
The conventional family is the type of nuclear family described by new right and parsons with its division of labour between a male bread winner and a female homemaker.
Chester: neo conventional family
What is a neo conventional family?
The Neo conventional family is described as a dual earner family. Where both spouses go to work, this is similar to the symmetrical family described by young and Wilmott
Chester: Neo conventional families
Nuclear family as the ideal family
Chester suggests that most people are not choosing to live in alternatives to nuclear families, such as lone parent families on a long-term basis, and the nuclear family remains the ideal to which most people aspire
Chester: neo, conventional families
Everyone once being in a nuclear family
Although many people are not part of a nuclear family at any one time Chester argues this is due to the life cycle, many people who are currently living in a one person household were either part of nuclear family in the past, or will be in the future.
Chester: Neo, conventional families
statistics on households as misleading
Statistics on household composition are misleading, because they are mainly in snapshot of a single moment in time, and don’t show us the fact that most people will spend a majority part of their lives in a nuclear family
Chester: Neo, conventional families
Evidence of little being changed, patterns found by Chester
• most live in a household, headed by a married couple
• most adults Marry and have children
• Cohabitation has increased but for most it’s temporary before marrying or remarrying.
Chester: neo, conventional family
Chester and functionalists
They both see the nuclear family as dominant. However, the difference is that Chester sees a change from a conventional to a neo conventional nuclear family which functionalists don’t see.
Rapoports: five types of diversity
Rona and Robert Rapaport, and diversity
They argue that diversity is of central importance in understanding family life today, and believe that we have moved away from traditional nuclear families as the dominant family to arrange a different types, and this reflects the greater freedom of choice.
Rapoports: five types of family, diversity
First type
The organisational diversity: refers to the differences in ways. Family roles are organised. Some couples have joint conjugal roles while others have segregated conjugal rolls.
Rapoports: five types of family, diversity
2nd type
Cultural diversity: different cultural, religious and ethnic groups have different family structures. There’s a higher proportional female headed loan, parent families among African Caribbean households, and a higher proportion of extended families among Asian households.
