Family diversity Flashcards
What do the rapports say?
Britain no longer dominated by one family now epitomized by diversity
- Should celebrate family diversity
- greater choice and variety of life styles in terms of family life (freedom)
- different types of families
What are the characteristics of reconstituted families?
- children pulled into 2 directions = likely tense relationships with step families
- further separation thru the birth of non step siblings = rivalry
- significantly different life style
What are reconstituted families made up of?
divorced or widowed people who have remarried and their children from the previous relationships
Are reconstituted families on the rise?
Yes due to divorce
- 1 in 15 families are step families
Are households always families?
Families are households but households aren’t necessarily families
- some households evolve into families or evolve out of them
(according to the Rapoport’s)
Are single parent families on the increase?
Yes, accounts for 30% of households in 2010
- surveys suggest an increase of young professional women electing to live alone
How do ethnic origins play a role?
- Britain: multicultural (minority ethnic backgrounds accounts for 14% of the population)
- Asian family life: diverse and dependent on various factors: religion, presence of extended kin and cultural beliefs
- Great deal of interracial marriage between whites, African-carribeans and Chinese = increase in mixed children
What are different patterns of kinship?
Some modern nuclear families: privatized kin
> structural differentiation
- most nuclear families: modified extended family (obligation to kin, offer emotional and material support for crisis’s)
Why are extended families important to upper class families?
Important for heritage, maintains wealth and privilege
Who speaks about geographical variations in family life?
Eversley and Bonnerjea
What are some of the geographical variations in family life?
- Seaside: large numbers of elderly couple and single person households
- Inner city: large numbers of single parent, reconstituted and ethnic minority families
- Traditional working class areas: more extended families
- Affluent southeast: greater proportion of nuclear families
Are same sex couples on the rise?
Yes, increased number of same sex couples cohabiting
Why are same sex couples on the rise?
1999: homosexual couples can be legally defined as a family
- government introduced same sex civil partnership
= same sex partners have similar rights to heterosexual married couples (eg: inheritance and next of kin)
How is labor divided according to the Rapoport’s?
Nuclear families in Britain: duel career families
- some women have responsibility for the bulk of childcare and housework
- others may have negotiated a greater/equal input from men
- new man: house husband who reverses traditional roles
How has feminism affected family diversity?
Led to introduction of equal opportunities, equal pay legislation and women wanting more
What do the New right say about the effects of feminism?
Distracted women from their ‘natural’ career as mothers
- few tax or benefits policies aimed at encouraging mothers to stay at home with children
- led to gender confusion about family roles and a rise in divorce and the number of single parent families
What do the new right think of working class mothers?
- responsible for social problems (eg: juvenile delinquency and anti social behavior)
- children don’t experience long term nurturing and socialization from their working mothers
- maternal deprivation
What do the new right say about sexual promiscuity?
It’s on the increase and the cause of moral decay in society
- government social policy encouraged this decline in morality by decriminalizing homosexuality and abortion
What are examples of government social policy causing sexual promiscuity?
Making the contraceptive pill freely available in the NHS and making divorce easier through the divorce reform act 1969 by not doing enough to promote marriage over cohabitation
What are the critiques of new right’s insistence on a ideal family type?
1994: 20% of nuclear families contained a division of labors
> father: breadwinner and mother: homemaker/childcarer
- Rapoports argue that family life in Britain characterized by a range of family types
What one negative impact of societal laws and policies?
- Tax and welfare policies generally favored and encouraged heterosexual married couples than others
What another negative impact of societal laws and policies?
Social policies such as payment of child benefit to the mother and the lack of free universal nursery care, reinforced that women should take prime responsibility for children
What’s the final negative impact of societal laws and policies?
Expectant mothers receive paid maternity leave for 6 months and unpaid leave for 12 months
- fathers receive 2 weeks paid paternity leave
- social policies change over time
What did Allan say about welfare policies?
Suggests that these policies have actively discouraged cohabitation and single parent families
What did the labor government recognize about family diversity?
- Labor government of 1997-2010 recognized few families in 21st century that had a exclusive male breadwinner
- Most families rely on 2 incomes and most women work (often part time)
Who spoke about the labor movement and family diversity?
Lewis
What did Lewis say?
Labor:
- invested in subsides for nursery childcare
- lengthened maternity care from 14 weeks to 9 months
- almost doubled maternity pay
- introduced the right for parents of young children to ask for flexible working patterns from employers
Why did the new right and feminists critique the labor movement?
New right: created a nanny state (over interference)
Feminism: overemphasized motherhood rather than fatherhood or parenting in general
Who spoke about family ideology being anti social?
Barret and MeIntosh
What did Barret and MeIntosh say?
- familial ideology dismisses alternative family types as irrelevant, inferior and deviant
- emphasis on nuclear family and need for fathers
- Single parent families seen as cause of social problems such as rising crime rates
What feminists spoke about familial ideology?
De Beauvoir and Greer
What are statistics about family diversity?
- single parent families make up 23% of all families in britain
- 1/3 of british black families headed by a
never married woman - 91% of single parent families headed by women
What did De Beauvoir and Greer say?
Nuclear family ideology = patriarchal ideology
- set of ideas deliberately encouraged by men to endure their dominance in all fields
- used to tie women to men through marriage and children
= unequal opportunities
Why are there single parent families?
- Divorce/separation
> 53% of lone mothers divorced - Death of a partner/spouse
> 6% of lone mothers widowed - Media/New right focuses on teenage pregnancies’
> 5% of lone parents are teenagers
(exaggerated)
What is 1 critique of new rights views on single parents?
Chester argues that the familial ideology led to negative labelling of single parent families by social agencies such as teachers etc
= self fulfilling prophecy = raised children around deviant behavior
What do the new right say?
Single parents are at the center of the ‘underclass’
- socialize children into a dependency culture around unemployment and benefits
- high economic costs of single parent families due to welfare payments and social security fraud
= child support agency and pursuit of absent fathers for maintenance
What’s another critique of new right views on single parents?
Marxists argue that single parents (esp teenage ones) are scapegoated by regular moral panics about social problems
- caused by unemployment, poverty, racism and decline of the inner city
