FAMILY DIVERSITY-POSTMODERNIST VIEWS Flashcards
Discuss Staceys postmodernism and freedom choice theory
- keen to show how family diversity has been beneficial to women
- Interviewed Californian women
- found that women have greater power to shape their life around there own needs
- more women are in paid work today
- women were happy to divorce if they were unhappy with relationships and remarry with someone who suited their needs
- women experience the divorce extended family:divorced couple with children continue to remain in contact with on another and each others families to benefit children
evaluation of Staceys postmodernism and freedom of choice theory
cannot be generalised to wider society as a small sample was used
Discuss Giddens and Becks individualisation thesis
Individualisation:people putting their own needs above other needs
-traditonal structures which used to shape family experiences (gender, ethnicity) have lost influence over people
-in the past people had little freedom to shape their family experiences
-people today are now disembedded from tradition:no longer have a fixed path to follow
-people today can choose how to live their lives
leads to more diversity as people have more choice when it comes to relationships
evaluation of individualism
-traditional structures continue to be influential for many eg-religion
Discuss Giddens choice and equality theory
- focuses on growth of equality between men and women in society and what it means for family diversity
- Women have far more power today due to legal rights,contraception and growth in feminist movements
- Led to the main basis of family traditions (women being the housewife) has been removed ->Gives women and men more freedom to chose what relationship and lifestyles they want
- Adults seek a pure relationship:based on love and satisfaction rather than practical arrangements which suits the economic and cultural needs of society
- Confluent love is love today:couples are alright for now but will separate if their needs are no longer met->leads to more diversity eg single parent hood
- LGBT couples are gaining more power in society
- same sex couples are pioneers:paving the way for the future, people have complete choice over how to shape their family experiences
- same sex couples don’t conform to gender scripts so negotiate the roles each partner will play, family experience is based on genuine equality
- general idea that same sex couples have more freedom contributes towards the growth in diversity
evaluation of Giddens choice and equality theory
gender inequalities still exist today eg-women are pressured to get married
Discuss Becks negotiated family
- we live in a world which is full of risks to our safety and wellbeing
- no loner have the stability and security of fixed social norms and values which tell us what to do, risk to stability of the family
- Increase of family related risks has been brought from two factors
1) greater equality:women don’t conform
2) greater individualism :people put their needs first - led to negotiation in families:people no longer sit back and do things ‘as they have always been done’ but instead couples work together and discuss the best way to do things which will suits everyone
- Brings risks in the sense that it is less stable and prone to breakdown, more likely to experience conflict in the family->leads to divorce
- Families today are ‘zombie’ families:families may appear alive on the outside but they are dead inside, in constant risk of breaking down
evaluation of becks negotiated families
exaggerates the extent of negotiation in the family, men still have more power
Discuss the personal life perspective for family diversity
families are more diverse as they can choose what counts as families
Family includes:friends, pets,family friends and deceased relatives
-blood ties are less significant today due to reproductive technology eg-IVF
-more children being raised by parents who have no genetic ties
-donors have large amount of children that they have no emotional or social connections to
-family can be what we want it to be
evaluation of the personal life perspective
blood ties are still important
Discuss the connectedness thesis
FINCH AND MASON
-Challenges individualism thesis
-we live in a web of connections to other people and we factor these in when making decisions about our future family experiences as an adult
EG- when a couple breaks up they have factor in how it will effect the children
-choices we make may impact us different depending on wider social issues
-people who do not conform to tradition still feel different eg-same sex attracted
eg-people still feel the need to come out and risk of being discriminated as a result
evaluation of connectedness thesis
-could be interpreted as a negative theory
