unit 4: family

• Nuclear family: a household that consists of a married couple and children. The functionalist George Murdock argued that the nuclear family was the basic family unit worldwide.
• Reconstituted family: usually occurs after the death of a partner or a divorce, a new family that is created by someone remarrying.
• Single-parent family: when one parent and their dependant children live together.
• Same-sex family: when two adults of the same sex raise children.
• Extended family: a nuclear family living with other relations such as grandparents. Vertically extended, if more than 2 generations.
• Household unit: the group of people living together in the same residence and sharing living space.
• Civil partnership: a relationship between two people usually of the same sex that has been formally registered giving them similar rights to married couples.
• Matrifocal family: one in which the mother heads the family and the father has a less important role in the family and in bringing up children.
• Matriarchy: when the mother is the head of the household, with authority over the men and children in the household.
• CS: African-Caribbean:

  • A-C families are matrifocal (reduced male involvement) and matriarchal (female breadwinner) due to high rates in single-parent families.
  • The male absence of responsibility is believed to root back in slavery.
  • Some argue that racism has led to lack of employment to fulfil the instrumental role.
• Social stratification in family in the past:

  The extended family in the UK was strongly associated within the working-class. Areas with old industries had strong working-class communities so there was no reason for them to move away. These industries declined in the late 20th century. When men lost their jobs as factories were closed, women became the main breadwinners and men took on domestic roles. Surviving extended family ties weakened.
• CS: South Asian:

  • South Asians generally have extended families due to settlers having family join them from South Asia.
  • Traditional gender roles; women play an expressive role, men are breadwinners.
  • Rich in culture with large families; above-average size families in the UK.
  • Arranged marriage is a custom whereby parents choose partners for their adult children or provide options with limited choice.
• CS: Eastern European:

  • Eastern Europeans settlers (migrants, immigrants) from Poland are usually young adults.
  • They have religious and cultural differences than that of the UK natives.
  • Polish have higher birth rates than the average UK resident.
  • They operate in blue-collar jobs doing manual labour mostly.
• CS: Oneida Community:

  • They believed that free love is practiced in heaven.
  • Casual sexual activity was common.
  • Leader was John Humphreys Noys.
  • Complex marriage. (free love).
  • Bible: Jesus died for sins so we are in a state of heaven on earth. Bible passage states that there is no binding contract in heaven.
  • Community looks after Children.
  • Public criticism 'ridicule'.
• Loss of functions:

  • The loss of functions happened when the nuclear family was formed.
  • Extended family doesn't live together.
  • Education started taking place in schools.
  • Less responsibility in agriculture.
  • Grandparents aren't looked after as well as before.
• One-person household: only one person lives in a residence.
• Commune: shared living space
• Oneida community: alternative to family living in a shared living space based on political/religious ideologies.
• Traditional societies: non-modern societies, contrasted with industrial societies.
• CS: Nayer Community: women would lay with many husbands in a commune. The brother raised children while ‘husbands’ fought in wars.
• Friends as family: young people want more freedom to live with friends.
• Polygamy: Being married to more than one person at the same time, for example, a man with several wives or a woman with several husbands.
• Polygyny: When a man has more than one wife at the same time.
• Polyandry: When a woman has more than one husband at the same time.
• Monogamy: being married to one person at a time.
• Serial monogamy: when someone has more than one marriage partner during their life but only one at any given time.
• Arranged marriage: marriage partners are chosen by older family members rather than people choosing their own marriage partner.
• Cereal packet family: the stereotypical nuclear family of mother, father and children with traditional gender roles that is often shown in advertisements.
• Cohabitation: two people who are not married to each other living together in an intimate relationship.
• Marital breakdown: when a marriage has broken down so that the couple are no longer living as husband and wife; some breakdowns lead to divorce.
• Empty shell marriage: a married couple continue to live together but without love or affection.
• Secularisation: the process by which religion has become less important in the daily lives of many people in modern industrial societies.
• Conjugal roles: the roles taken by the husband and wife within the family resulting from the domestic division of labour.
• Joint conjugal roles: the husband and wife carry out many tasks and activities together, so that there is no clear separation of roles; the opposite of segregated roles.
• Domestic division of labour: the way in which household chores and responsibilities are divided up among members of the family.
• Segregated conjugal roles: the husband and wife have separate spheres of activity with little overlap between them; the opposite of joint roles.
• Traditional conjugal roles: the segregated roles assumed to be normal in the traditional nuclear family.
• Symmetrical family: a family in which the conjugal roles have become more equal.
• Dual worker families: families in which both the man and woman do paid work.
• Gender equality: when men and women have equal roles, status and rights.