Types of families

Question 1

LAT family

Answer 1

LEVIN
- LAT families are a new form of family and an alternative to marriage or cohabitation which challenges the traditional concept of the nuclear family. He proposed three reasons to why people choose these types of relationships.

1. May be existing responsibilities for other people ie. children living at home
2. Practical reasons: couples may work or study in different areas
3. Partners may want to avoid making the same enviroment that lead to their previous break-up

Question 2

Lone parenthood

Answer 2

Since 70s, the number of lone parents in the UK has risen x3

• 2015, 1/4 of all families were lone
• 90% of lone parent families were headed by females–> women are more likely to be awarded custody of their children. This reflects the cultural norm that women are more expressive
• Men abandon women before the baby is born

WHY THE RISE?
- Greater economic independence for women through better job opportunities and welfare support

• Advances in reproductive tech such as IVF
• Less stigma
• Rising divorce rates

Question 3

Views of the New Right (Lone parent families)

Answer 3

See the rise in lone parent families as a sign of a decline of conventional family life

• See it as a source of social problems
• Generosity of the welfare state encourages women to have children that wouldn’t otherwise be able to support–> Creating a culture dependency

HOWEVER…
- This ignores the fact that 88% of LF are from divorce and widowhood in previous married couples–> people aren’t making the choice to be LF

• Feminists also argue that the NR attack lone parents as a patriarchal attack on traditional roles of motherhood and the homemaker

Question 4

Symmetrical family

Answer 4

• Gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within the family are contemporary
• Symmetrical families refer to those that are equally balanced and flexible and where parents share both instrumental and expressive roles
• Young and Willmott support the ‘March of Progress’ view of modern families, that families are becoming less patriarchal and more symmetrical

Question 5

Reasons for Symmetrical families

Answer 5

• Women’s rights: - improvements in women’s rights and more paid employment, men are encouraged to view women on equal terms
• Domestic labour: - commercialisation of domestic labour means that there are many consumer goods that help to ease the burden of domestics
  → for example, washing machines and dishwashers, however these are only accessible to the middle classes
• Postmodernists: - pick n mix roles and identities lead to the weakening of traditional identities
  This weakens the gendered division of housework and childcare

Question 6

Evaluation of Symmetrical families

Answer 6

• Evidence suggests that women still carry out the majority of domestic tasks around the house despite being in paid employment themselves → WAERNESS states that there is no modern country in the world where men do more housework
• European Social Survey → women living with male partners who are in full time work are on average responsible for ⅔ of the time couples spend on household and childcare activities
  More than 3.4 of women take all or most of the responsibility for household food shopping
  HARKNESS → women are more likely to take time off paid work to look after children when sick
• Feminists argue further that women entering paid work have ;ed to them carrying a DUAL BURDEN