Up until the 1980s most approaches to family life focused on nuclear family
Key debate = nuclear family was a largely beneficial institution – functionalist
- serve some sections of society more than others – Marxists
- Men – feminism
In 1980s study was done called families in Britain by Robert and Rhona Rapoport (1982) began to see the idea that we were witnessing a growth
Debates in family diversity = is it good? And extent to which families are actually diversifying
Perspective on Family Diversity
Concerns about Diversity
Strongest concerns have come from New Right who see it as destroying traditional family values
Call for social policy that strengthens marriage and encourage raising children in traditional nuclear family
Other types of family don’t function
Others expressed concern about trend towards individualisation in personal relationships
Support for Diversity
Sociologists celebrated the freedom offered
Giddens argue there has been – democratisation or intimate relationships so not forced into them
Feminists welcomed many aspects of family diversity so traditional nuclear family is patriarchal
Persistence of Patriarchy
Feminists argue aspects of patriarchy persist even within new forms of families
Wendy Langford (1999) argues with Giddens in that love is potential to be a liberating and transforming experience so all woman ends up feeling alienated because they’re the ones who use emotionally
Deborah Chambers (2012) point out that woman who reject traditional family forms such as single mothers often still face condemnation from more traditional sections of society and mass media
Neo-conventional Family – Chester (1985)
Families that did not fit the nuclear model were a minority that excited disproportionate attention, so people still appear to bring up children at two-parent family
Argued that many families are not strictly nuclear as based on nuclear model
Parents are cohabitating rather than marrying
Variations of the time of nuclear family
Say statistics are misleading due to being based on snapshot
Only show many households are based on different types of families at a single point
In reality individuals move in and out of different households and are at different stages
Minority of people live in nuclear families so be part of experience to vast majority
Study was based on data from 1981 and can be criticised of being out of date
Families and households are even more diverse in last 20 years
Jennifer Somerville (2000) acknowledged there have been major changes in family life such as pre-martial sex and cohabitation are more the norm
Only 5% of people will never get married – Somerville
Comparison of rates of marriage with 1960s and 1970s are misleading as rates of marriage were highest since 1837
Concludes by suggesting that most people in the UK are still committed to family life so the need for cautions about exaggerating the extent of charge
Continues in Family Life
Some sociologists have debated the reasons for family diversity and its impact on society
Robert Chester and Jennifer Somerville argued that postmodernist arguments about family diversity are exaggerated and that the basic features of family life modelled by heterosexual nuclear family
Remained largely unchanged for the majority of the population since 1950s
Chester argues that most adults still marry and have children. Most children are reared by their natural parents
Most people live in a household shared by a married heterosexual couple
Most marriages continue until parted at death
Some feminists highlight the persistence of patriarchy even within new forms of families and relationships such as Langford argues men don’t emotionally invest in relationships to the same degree as woman while Chambers observes that single mothers and lesbians are still condemned by a patriarchal mass media
Gittins: Family ideology
Chester argues echo the functionalists view
Nuclear family is still normal
Gittins (1993) drawing on Marxists and feminists’ approaches says consensus is only maintained due to powerful ideology
Ideology to misleading view based on value judgements so labelling alternative family forms as undesirable
Mass media also portrays nuclear family as normal such as advertising
Edmund Leach (1967) called this image cereal packet family so portrays happy smiling families
Smart: Personal Life
Carol Smart (2007) does not dispute the evidence that people now live in more divorce families and intimate relationships
Suggests we have become individualised and focused on our own personal needs and interests so led to decline in commitment
More useful to think in terms of personal life rather than family life
We have friends we class as families