Family Diversity Flashcards
Modernist view
• Modernist (including functionalist, new right and neo-conventional) see the nuclear family as being the most suited to modern society
Functionalism
• Functionalism- ‘functional fit’ between geographically and socially mobile workforce and the nuclear family (with gender division roles)
New Right
• New Right- Diversity is seen as a threat, they wish to defend the nuclear family and traditional morality.
New Right beliefs
- Breakdown of the traditional family and views leads to delinquency, educational failure etc.
- Lone parent families are seen as a particular threat, boys lack a strong male role model and so have a lack of discipline and increased educational failure
- Cohabitation is less stable
- Solution: cut welfare benefits, enforce responsibility on parents, have incentives for couples to marry
Chester
Chester (1985)- ‘Neo-conventional’ s the new most typical structure (two parents, a small number of children, economically active wife)
o Looking at a persons life cycle rather than a snapshot, the family members may live in numbers of different types of households (eg. house share, nuclear family, lone parent family)
o Most people are born into a nuclear family, and most will be a part of a nuclear family once or twice in their lifetime
Rapport
- Organisational different structures or ways of organising a households, who is included, who earns a wage and performs certain roles etc
- Cultural differenced between cultural and ethnic groups
- Class/economic differences may decide who takes on what role (eg employing a nanny)
- Life Course throughout a life course the nature of your family may change, (a nuclear family is more common for a 30 year old than a 60 year old)
- Cohort individuals born at the same time are likely to have similar experiences (because of current events e.g. a war or expansion of education)
Ethnic diversity
- South Asian Families have a more traditional family structure (larger, more extended with less joint conjugal roles) (though Westwood and Bhachu (1988) argue that most are now based on the nuclear family with stronger kinship ties and more respect for the elderly) - arguably a result of asians coming from a traditional agricultural economy that mirrors pre-industrial Britain
- Black Caribbean Families are more likely to be single-parent or ‘mother households’ where the mother is the breadwinner and female kin and friends play all the main roles.
- Feminists say that biology does not determine the roles within the family.
Increased diversity
- Changes in marriage cohabitation and divorce patterns
- Demographic changes (changes in birth and death rates)
- Changing social attitudes
- Changes in the position of women in society
- Secularisation (movement away from the church, and their opinions on divorce etc)
- Welfare support (benefits single parents)
- Increase of ethnicities and cultures in Britain
- Historical events and periods
Postmodernism - Stacey
• Stacey (1996) argues that western family arrangements are now fluid, it no longer makes sense to ask what is the dominant family type (as there is no single family type)
Postmodernism - Morgan
• Morgan (1996) sees that diversity in family form is evidence of wider plurality in society, as seen in postmodern society. Exceptions are no longer problematic.
Postmodernism - Giddens
- Individualisation thesis- In postmodern society, people are free from fixed roles that defined earlier generations
- Giddens argues that intimate relationships based on choice and equality rather than social norms. Couples remain together as long as they choose, making them less stable.
Postmodernism - Beck
• Beck- tradition holds very little bearing over people and the traditional family with set gender roles has been undermined by individualism
Evaluation
All the decisions we make about relationships are influences by social context and pressures. Class, religion, ethnic and gender inequalities all impact on the devisions of individuals.
