Sociology-families and households-family diversity

Question 1

What perspectives have been described as ‘modernist’?

Answer 1

Perspectives such as functionalism and the New Right. They see modern society as having a fairly fixed, clear-cut and predictable structure. They se one ‘best’ family type-the nuclear family-as slotting into this structure and helping to maintain is by performing certain essential functions

Question 2

What is the functionalist view of family and modernism?

Answer 2

Parsons ‘functional fit’ between nuclear family and modern society as it is uniquely suited to meet needs of modern society for geographically and socially mobile workforce, and performs to ‘irreducible functions’ that stabilise and increase effectiveness of society (primary socialisation of children and stabilisation of adult personalities). Therefore we can generalise about the type of family in modern society-nuclear family with division of labour between husband and wife. Other family types can be seen as dysfunctional, abnormal or deviant as they are less able to perform the functions required of the family

Question 3

What type of perspective is the New Right?

Answer 3

Conservative and anti-feminist perspective on the family. They are firmly opposed to family diversity

Question 4

How are the New Right similar to functionalists in terms of views of family?

Answer 4

Like functionalists, they hold the view that there is only one correct or normal family type. This is the traditional or conventional patriarchal nuclear family consisting of a married couple and their dependent children, with a clear-cut division of labour between breadwinner-husband and homemaker-wife. This is the same as the functionalist distinction between the instrumental and expressive roles

Question 5

How do the New Right see the division of labour?

Answer 5

The nuclear family is ‘natural’ and based on fundamental biological differences in men and women. In their view, this family is the cornerstone of society; a place of refuge, contentment and harmony

Question 6

What are New Right views on family diversity?

Answer 6

They oppose most of the changes in family patterns, such as cohabitation, gay marriage and lone parenthood. They argue the decline of the traditional nuclear family and growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems

Question 7

In particular, what family changes are the New Right most concerned about?

Answer 7

The growth of lone-parent families, which they see as resulting from the breakdown of couple relationships. They see lone-parent families as harmful to children

Question 8

Why do the New Right argue lone-parent families are harmful?

Answer 8

Lone mothers cannot discipline their children properly. Lone-parent families leave boys without an adult male role model, resulting in educational failure, delinquency and social instability. Such families are also likely to be poorer and thus a burden on the welfare state and taxpayers

Question 9

What do the New Right claim is the main cause of lone-parent families?

Answer 9

The collapse of relationships between cohabiting couples, eg Benson analysed data on the parents of over 15,000 babies. Found that, over the first 3 years of the baby’s life, the rate of family breakdown was much higher among cohabiting couples: 20% compared with only 6% among married couples. In the New Right view, only marriage can provide a stable environment in which to bring up children

Question 10

Why does Benson argue that couples are more stable when they are married?

Answer 10

Because it requires a deliberate commitment to each other, whereas cohabitation allows partners to avoid commitment and responsibility

Question 11

How have New Right thinkers and Conservative politicians used evidence such as Benson’s?

Answer 11

As evidence and arguments to support the view that both the family and society at large are ‘broken’. They argue that only a return to ‘traditional values’, including the value of marriage, can prevent social disintegration and damage to children. They regard laws and policies such as easy access to divorce, gay marriage and widespread availability of welfare benefits as undermining the conventional family

Question 12

What does Benson argue about the government and the future?

Answer 12

The government needs to encourage couples to marry by means of policies that support marriage

Question 13

How can the New Right’s view on family diversity be criticised?

Answer 13

By Oakley, by feminists, lack of evidence, meaning of relationship, by Smart

Question 14

How does Oakley criticise the New Right’s view on family diversity?

Answer 14

Argues that New Right wrongly assume that husbands and wives’ roles are fixed by biology. Instead, cross-cultural studies show great variation in roles men and women perform within the family. Oakley believes the New Right view of the family is a negative reaction against the feminist campaign for women’s equality

Question 15

How do feminists criticise the New Right’s view on family diversity?

Answer 15

Also argue the conventional nuclear family favoured by New Right is based on patriarchal oppression of women and is a fundamental cause of gender inequality. In their view, it prevents women working, keeps them financially dependent on men, and denies them an equal say in decision-making

Question 16

How does lack of evidence criticise the New Right’s view on family diversity?

Answer 16

Critics of New Right ague there is no evidence that children in lone-parent families are more likely to be delinquent than those brought up in a two-parent family of the same social class

Question 17

How does the meaning of relationships criticise the New Right’s view on family diversity?

Answer 17

New Right view that marriage equals commitment, while cohabitation does not, has been challenged. It depends on the meaning of the relationship to those involved. Some people see cohabitation as a temporary phase, while others see it as a permanent alternative to marriage

Question 18

How does Smart criticise the New Right’s view on family diversity?

Answer 18

The rate of cohabitation is higher among poorer social groups, therefore she points out it may be poverty that causes the breakdown of relationships, rather than the decision not to marry

Question 19

What does Chester recognise about the family?

Answer 19

There has been some increased family diversity in recent years. However, unlike the New Right, he does not regard this as very significant, not does he see it in a negative light. He argues the only important change is a move from the dominance of the traditional or conventional family, to what he describes as the ‘neo-conventional’ family

Question 20

What does Chester mean by the conventional family?

Answer 20

Means the type of nuclear family described by the New Right and Parsons, with its division of labour between a male breadwinner and a female homemaker

Question 21

How does Chester define the neo-conventional family?

Answer 21

A dual earner family in which both spouses go out to work and not just the husband. This is similar to the symmetrical family described by Young and Willmott

Question 22

How does Chester view family diversity?

Answer 22

Apart from the change to neo-conventional families, Chester does not see any other evidence of major change. He argues that most people are not choosing to live in alternatives to the nuclear family (such as lone-parents) in a long-term basis, and the nuclear family remains the ideal to which most people aspire

Question 23

What does Chester argue about the nuclear family being the preferred choice, despite many not being part of one?

Answer 23

Although many people are not part of a nuclear family at any one time, he argues this is largely due to the life cycle. Many of the people who are currently living in a one-person household, such as elderly widows, divorced men or young people who have not yet married, were either part of a nuclear family in the past or will be in the future

Question 24

What does Chester argue about statistics on household composition?

Answer 24

They are misleading because they are just a snapshot of a single moment in time. They don’t show us the fact that most people will sped a major part of their lives in a nuclear family

Question 25

What does Chester give as evidence of his view that little has changed?

Answer 25

He identifies a number of patterns: most people live in a household headed by a married couple. Most adults marry and have children, and most children are reared by their two natural parents. Most marriages continue until death (divorce has increased, but most divorcees remarry). Cohabitation has increased, but for most couples it is a temporary phase before marrying or re-marrying (most couples get married if they have children). Although births outside marriage have increased, most are jointly registered, indicating the parents are committed to bringing up children as a couple

Question 26

What does Chester suggest about the patterns he identifies?

Answer 26

They show the extent and importance of family diversity has been exaggerated. Like the functionalists, Chester sees the nuclear family as dominant

Question 27

What is the one important difference between Chester’s view and functionalists’ views?

Answer 27

That Chester sees a change from a conventional to a neo-conventional nuclear family, where both spouses play an ‘instrumental’ role

Question 28

Unlike Chester, what do the Rapoports argue?

Answer 28

Diversity is of central importance in understanding family life today. They believe we have moved away from traditional nuclear family as the dominant family type, to a range of different types

Question 29

What do the Rapoports argue about families in Britain?

Answer 29

They have adapted to a pluralistic society where cultures and lifestyles are more diverse. In their view, family diversity reflects greater freedom of choice and the widespread acceptance of different cultures and ways of life in today’s society

Question 30

How do the Rapoports differ from the New Right?

Answer 30

They see diversity as a positive response to people’s different needs and wishes, and not as abnormal or a deviation from the assumed norm of a ‘proper’ nuclear family

Question 31

What do the Rapoports identify?

Answer 31

Five types of family diversity in Britain today: organisational diversity, cultural diversity, social class diversity, life-stage diversity, and generational diversity

Question 32

What is organisational diversity?

Answer 32

This refers to differences in the ways family roles are organised. For example, some couples have joint conjugal roles and two wage-earners, while others have segregated conjugal roles and one wage earner

Question 33

What is cultural diversity?

Answer 33

Different cultural, religious and ethnic groups have different family structures. Eg there is a higher proportion of female-headed lone-parent families among African-Caribbean households and a higher proportion of extended families among Asian households

Question 34

What is social class diversity?

Answer 34

Differences in family structure are partly the result of income differences between households of different social classes. Likewise, there are class differences in child-rearing practices

Question 35

What is life-stage diversity?

Answer 35

Family structures differ according to the stage reached in the life cycle. Eg young newlyweds, couples with dependent children, retired couples whose children have grown up and left home, and widows who are living alone

Question 36

What is generational diversity?

Answer 36

Older and Younger generations have different attitudes and experiences that reflect the historical periods in which they have lived. Eg, they may have different views about the morality of divorce or cohabitation

Question 37

Overall, what are modernist perspectives of the family like?

Answer 37

Eg functionalism. Emphasise dominance of one family type (nuclear family). Structural or ‘top-down’ view. Family is a structure that shapes behaviour of members to perform functions that society requires. Individuals have no real choice about family patterns. Behaviour is orderly, structured and predictable. At most there may be limited variety such as the Rapoports five types of diversity

Question 38

By contrast, what do postmodernists argue?

Answer 38

Postmodernists, such as Cheal go much further than the Rapoports. Postmodernists start from the view that we no longer live in ‘modern’ society with its predictable, orderly structures such as the nuclear family. In their view, society has entered a new, chaotic, postmodern stage

Question 39

What are families like in postmodern society?

Answer 39

There is no longer one single, dominant, stable family structure such as the nuclear family. Instead, family structures have become fragmented into many different types and individuals now have much more choice in their lifestyles, personal relationships and family arrangements

Question 40

What are the advantages and disadvantages of greater diversity and choice?

Answer 40

It gives individuals greater freedom to plot their own life course-to choose the kind of family and personal relationships that meet their needs. But greater freedom of choice in relationships means a greater risk of instability, since these relationships are more likely to break up

Question 41

What does Stacey argue about postmodern families?

Answer 41

Greater freedom and choice has benefited women. It has enabled them to free themselves from patriarchal oppression and to shape their family arrangements to meet their needs

Question 42

What was Stacey’s family study?

Answer 42

She used life history interviews to construct a series of case studies of postmodern families in Silicon Valley, California. She found that women rather than men have been the main agents of changes in the family. Eg many women she interviewed had rejected the traditional housewife-mother role. They had worked, returned to education as adults, improved their job prospects, divorced and re-married. These women had often created new types of family that better suited their needs

Question 43

What was one of the new family structured Stacey identified?

Answer 43

The ‘divorce-extended family’, whose members are connected by divorce rather than marriage. The key members are usually female and may include former in-laws, such as mother- and daughter-in-law, or a man’s ex-wife and his new partner

Question 44

What is an example of Stacey’s ‘divorce-extended’ family?

Answer 44

Stacey described in one of her case studies how Pam Gamma created a divorce-extended family. Pam married young, then divorced and cohabited for several years before re-marrying. Her second husband had also been married before. By this time the children of Pam’s first marriage were in their twenties, she had formed a divorce-extended family with Shirley, the woman cohabiting with her first husband. They helped each other financially and domestically, eg by exchanging lodgers in response to the changing needs of their households

Question 45

What do cases such as Pam’s illustrate?

Answer 45

The idea that postmodern families are diverse and that their shape depends on the active choices people make about how to live their lives-eg, whether to get divorced, cohabit, come out as gay etc

Question 46

What does Morgan argue?

Answer 46

Ot is pointless trying to make large-scale generalisations about ‘the family’ as if it were a single thing, as functionalists do. Rather, a family is simply whatever arrangements those involved choose to call their family. In this view, sociologists should focus their attention on how people create their own diverse family lives and practices. One way of exploring this is by means of life course analysis

Question 47

How are Beck and Giddens linked to postmodernism?

Answer 47

While not accepting everything postmodernism says about the nature of society today, they have been influenced by postmodernist ideas about today’s society and have applied some of these to understanding family life

Question 48

What in particular do Giddens and Beck explore?

Answer 48

The effects of increasing individual choice upon families and relationships. Their views have therefore become known as the individualisation thesis

Question 49

What does the individualisation thesis argue?

Answer 49

That traditional social structures such as class, gender and family have lost much of their influence over us. According to the thesis, in the past, people’s lives were defined by fixed roles that largely prevented them from choosing their own life course. Eg everyone was expected to marry and to take up their appropriate gender role. By contrast, individuals in today’s society have fewer certainties or fixed roles to follow

Question 50

How does the individualisation thesis demonstrate freedom of choice?

Answer 50

We have become freed or ‘disembedded’ from traditional roles and structures, leaving us with more freedom to choice how we lead out lives. Beck argues the ‘standard biography’ or life course that people followed in the past has been replaced by the ‘do-it-yourself biography’ that individuals today must construct for themselves

Question 51

What do Giddens and Beck believe about the individualisation thesis and family?

Answer 51

This change has huge implications for family relationships and family diversity (Giddens: choice and equality, and Beck: the negotiated family)

Question 52

What does Giddens argue about families?

Answer 52

In recent decades the family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice and a more equal relationship between men and women. This has occurred due to contraception which has allowed sex and intimacy rather than reproduction to become the main reason for the relationship’s existence, and women have gained independence as a result of feminism and because of greater opportunities in education and work

Question 53

What has happened as a result of the changes identified by Giddens?

Answer 53

The basis of marriage and the family has changed. In the past, traditional family relationships were held together by external forces such as the laws governing the marriage contract and by powerful norms against divorce and sex outside marriage. By contrast, today couples are free to define their relationship themselves, rather than simply by acting out roles that have been defined in advance by law or tradition. Eg a couple nowadays don’t have to marry to have children and divorce is readily accessible so they don’t have to stay together ‘til death do us part’

Question 54

According to Giddens, what holds relationships together today?

Answer 54

It is no longer law, religion, social noms or traditional institutions. Instead, intimate relationships nowadays are based on individual choice and equality. He describes this kind of relationship as the ‘pure relationship’

Question 55

What is the ‘pure relationship’?

Answer 55

It is typical of today’s late modern society, in which relationships are no longer bound by traditional norms. They key feature of pure relationships sis it exists solely to satisfy each partner’s needs. As a result, the relationship is likely to survive only so long as both partners think it is in their own interest to do so . Couples stay together because of love, happiness or sexual attraction, rather than because of tradition, a sense of duty or for the sake of the children. Individuals are free to choose to enter and leave as they see fit. Relationships become part of the process of self-discovery or self-identity: trying different relationships becomes a way of establishing ‘who we are’

Question 56

What does Giddens argue about the stability of today’s relationships?

Answer 56

With more choice, personal relationships inevitably become less stable. The pure relationship is a kind of ‘rolling contract’ that can be ended more or less at will by either partner rather than a permanent commitment. This produces greater family diversity by creating more lone-parent families, one person households, stepfamilies and so on

Question 57

What is Giddens’ view on same-sex relationships?

Answer 57

He sees them as leading the way towards new family types and creating more democratic and equal family types

Question 58

Why does Giddens believe same-sex relationships lead the way towards more equal family types?

Answer 58

Because they are not influenced by tradition to the extent that heterosexual relationships are. As a result, same-sex couples have been able to develop relationships based on choice rather than on traditional roles, since these were largely absent. This enabled those in same-sex relationships to negotiate personal relationships and to actively create family structures that serve their own needs, rather than having to conform to pre-existing norms in the way that heterosexual couples have traditionally had to do

Question 59

What did Weston, and Weeks, find about same-sex couples?

Answer 59

They have created supportive ‘families of choice’ from among friends, former lovers and biological kin, while Weeks found that friendship functioned as kinship networks for gay men and lesbians

Question 60

What is Beck’s version of the individualisation thesis?

Answer 60

Beck argues we now live in a ‘risk society’ where tradition has less influence and people have more choice. As a result, we are more aware of risks. This is because making choices involves calculating the risks and rewards of the different options open to us

Question 61

How does Beck’s view of today’s society contrast with the past?

Answer 61

In the past people’s roles were more fixed by tradition and rigid social norms dictated how they should behave. Eg in the past, people were expected to marry for life, once married, me were expected to play breadwinner and disciplinarian role and to make important financial decisions, while women took responsibility for housework, childcare and care of sick and elderly

Question 62

What was good and bad about the family in the past?

Answer 62

Although this traditional patriarchal family was unequal and oppressive, it did provide a stable and predictable basis for family life by defining each member’s role and responsibilities

Question 63

What two trends have undermined the patriarchal family?

Answer 63

Greater gender equality (challenged male domination in all spheres of life. Women now expect equality at work and in marriage), and greater individualism (people’s actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest than by a sense of obligation to others

Question 64

What have the trends that undermine the patriarchal family led to?

Answer 64

A new type of family to replace the patriarchal family. Beck and Beck-Gernsheim call this the ‘negotiated family’. Negotiated families do not conform to the traditional family norm, but vary according to the wishes and expectations of their members, who decide what is best for themselves by negotiation. They enter the relationship on an equal basis

Question 65

What is bad however about the negotiated family?

Answer 65

Although it is more equal than the patriarchal family, it is less stable. This is because individuals are free to leave if their needs are not met. As a result, this instability leads to greater family diversity by creating more lone-parent families, one person households, re-marriages and so on

Question 66

What is the zombie family?

Answer 66

In today’s uncertain risk society people turn to family in hope of finding security, but in reality family relationships are themselves now subject to greater risk and uncertainty than ever before. For this reason, Beck described the family as a ‘zombie category’: it appears to be alive, but in reality it is dead. People want it to be a haven of security in an insecure world, but today’s family cannot provide this because of its own instability

Question 67

What is the personal life perspective?

Answer 67

Sociologists who take a personal life perspective, such as Smart, and May, agree that thee is now more family diversity but they disagree with Beck and Giddens’ explanation of it. They make several criticisms of the individualisation thesis

Question 68

How does Budgeon criticise the individualisation thesis?

Answer 68

It exaggerates how much choice people have about family today. This reflects the neoliberal ideology that individuals today have complete freedom of choice. In reality, however, traditional norms that limit people’s relationship choices have not weakened as much as the thesis claims

Question 69

How else does the personal life perspective criticise the individualisation thesis?

Answer 69

It wrongly sees people as disembedded, ‘free-floating’, independent individuals. It ignores the fact that our decisions and choices about personal relationships are made within a social context. Also it ignores the importance of structural factors such as social class inequalities and patriarchal gender norms in limiting and shaping our relationship choices

Question 70

How does May explain the point that the individualisation thesis ignores important structural factors?

Answer 70

She notes that this is because Giddens’ and Beck’s view of the individual is simply ‘an idealised version of a white middle-class man’. They ignore the fact that not everyone has the same ability as this privileged group to exercise choice about relationships

Question 71

What theory do the personal life perspective propose as an alternative to the individualisation thesis, based on its criticisms?

Answer 71

The connectedness thesis

Question 72

How does the connectedness thesis differ from the individualisation thesis?

Answer 72

Instead of seeing us as disembedded, isolated individuals with limitless choice about personal relationships, Smart argues we are fundamentally social beings whose choices are always made ‘within a web of connectedness’

Question 73

What does the connectedness thesis state?

Answer 73

We live within networks of existing relationships and interwoven personal histories, and these strongly influence our range of options and choices in relationships

Question 74

What is an example of the connectedness thesis?

Answer 74

Finch and Mason’s study of extended families found that, although individuals can to some extent negotiate the relationships they want, they are also embedded within family connections and obligations that restrict their freedom of choice. Such findings challenge the notion of the pure relationship

Question 75

How do findings such as those of Finch and Mason, challenge the notion of the pure relationship?

Answer 75

Families usually include more than just the couples Giddens focuses on, and even couple relationships are not always ‘pyre’ relationships that we can walk away from at will. Eg parents who separate remain linked by their children, often against their wishes. Smart says, ‘where lives have become interwoven and embedded, it becomes impossible for relationships to simply end’. Smart therefore emphasises the importance of always putting individuals in the context of their past and the web of relationships that shape their choices and family patterns

Question 76

What other structures does the connectedness thesis talk about?

Answer 76

It emphasises the role of the class and gender structures in which we are embedded. These structures limit our choices about the kinds of relationships, identities and families we create for outselves

Question 77

What are the examples of the class and gender structures in which we are embedded?

Answer 77

After divorce, gender norms generally dictate that women should have custody of the children, which may limit their opportunity to form new relationships-by contrast, men are freer to start new relationships and second families. Men are generally better paid than women and this gives them greater freedom and choice in relationships. The relative powerlessness of women and children as compared with men means that many lack freedom to choose and some remain trapped in abusive relationships

Question 78

How do Beck and Giddens, and May’s views on the power of structures contrast?

Answer 78

Beck and Giddens argue there has been a disappearance/weakening of the structures of class, gender, and family that traditionally controlled our lives and limited our choices. However, May argues these structures are not disappearing, they are simply being re-shaped. Eg while women in the past 150 years have gained important rights in relation to voting, divorce and employment, this does not mean they now ‘have it all’

Question 79

What is an example of May’s views on the power of structures?

Answer 79

While women can now pursue traditionally ‘masculine’ goals such as careers, they are still expected to be heterosexual. As Einasdottir argues, while lesbianism is now tolerated, heteronormativity means many lesbians feel forced to remain ‘in the closet’ and this limits their choices about their relationships and lifestyles

Question 80

Overall, what does the personal life perspective believe about family diversity?

Answer 80

Do not see increased diversity simply as result of greater freedom of choice, as Beck and Giddens do. Instead it emphasises importance of social structures in shaping the freedoms many people now have to create more diverse types of families. Although there is a trend towards greater diversity and choice, the personal life perspective emphasises the continuing importance of structural factors such as patriarchy and class inequality in restricting people’s choices and shaping their family lives