Family Theory

• Morgan (1996) - postmodernist

  • we should focus on family practices rather than the family
  • individuals create families and other networks of intimate relationships by their daily activities, eg. cooking meals for each other, sharing leisure activities, and buying gifts
• Finch (2007) - postmodernist

  • ’family display’ - the way that individuals convey to themselves that they are a family
  • shown through family rituals, eg. photos, meals etc.
• Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1992) - postmodernist

  • “risk society” - a society where social life is based in the construction of lifestyles and identities, which are based on the avoidance of risks
  • “the normal chaos of love“ (1995) - they argue that a process of individualisation is occurring in high modernity, individuals are no longer tied to fixed roles
• Hakim (2010)

  criticised feminists for constantly ‘complaining’ that men are not doing their fair share of domestic work
• Harkness (2008)

  • found that British men work longer hours in total than women do when there are children in the home, largely because men often work more overtime to boost the family income at this stage
  • wives, instead, switch to part-time jobs, or drop out of employment
• Cooper (1972) - marxist

  • family relationships reflect the property relationships of capitalism
  • sees the family as an ideological conditioning device
  • children are socialised to accept their place in society
• Levin (2004) - LAT

  some couples enjoy the intimacy of being a part of a couple but the freedom of being alone too
• Haskey and Lewis (2006)

  suggest that LAT is a prelude to cohabitation and possibly marriage
• Langford (1999)

  • found women still fear being alone
  • love is still seen as the natural basis for relationships and a way in which individuals can transcend a meaningless, harsh, alienating world
  • love as an illusion because in reality it ends up concealing the way in which men exercise power and control over women in many relationships
• Spencer (2005) - Single parent families

  found that of over 15,000 children examined whether living in lone parent families accounted for poorer health, lower educational achievement, and increased risk of children being involved in anti-social behaviour
• Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995) - extended families

  • we are undergoing a process of individualisation whereby individuals choose their own lifestyles rather than following traditional norms
  • including individuals choosing whether to maintain ties with extended families or to lead more independent lives
• Klinenberg (2013) - Living alone

  in western Europe and north American societies, people are living alone in large numbers for the first time in history

  pros -

  • independence
  • experience adulthood
  • lack of distractions for study

  cons -

  • lonely
  • lack of social time
  • lack of experience for marital shared living
• Hall et al (1999) - singlehood 


  people find freedom in singlehood
• Heath (2004)

  children save money after university by living at home
• the domestic division of labour

  tasks within the home between the family
• feminists - the domestic division of labour

  argue work does not just include paid work
• BSA Survey (2012) Park et al (2013) - the domestic division of labour

  • men spend on average 8 hours per week doing domestic labour, whilst women spend an average of 13 hours
  • criticised as it relies on respondents to answer accurately and to be truthful about how much time they spend on household tasks, men tend to overestimate their own participation while women tend to underestimate
• budget diaries

  daily record of how much time individuals spent on different activities
• Gershunny (1999) - the domestic division of labour

  • compared budget diary data in the 1970s
  • found that women do 60% more domestic work
  • found a gradual increase in men
  • in the next generation, men are likely to take a bigger share of housework and childcare
• Delphy and Leonard (1991) - radical feminists

  • view society fundamentally as a patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women
  • women are restricted in the home
  • men are still labelled as “the head of the household“
  • women undertake reproductive and sexual work in the home
  • women do more but receive less in return as men control the finances, have more leisure time, and have more access to the family care
• Benston (1972) - marxist feminist

  • women do not challenge their role in society because they have been socialised to comply and believe that this is their natural role
  • the unpaid domestic work of women helps to support the capitalist system
  • women are exploited in the family
• Furedi (2001)

  parents are more concerned about their children due to moral panic caused by the media
• Feminists

  • men exercise power in most heterosexual relationships
  • traditionally gendered roles are a major form of social inequality
• Pahl (1989)

  • among some older working class couples there is an ‘allowance system’, involved men controlling the majority of the finances and giver their wives an allowance to cover housekeeping
  • in younger couples there is growing individualisation
• Charles and Kerr (1986)

  • carried out interviews with 200 mothers, in the North of England
  • cooking was seen as a central part of women’s domestic routines, if men reacted badly they would become violent
• Klineberg (2013) - reasons for living alone

  • they are influenced by 'the cult of the individual' - people prioritise themselves over others, eg. women resist the desire of their parents to marry and instead promote their own desire to have a career
  • they are influenced by the communications revolution - the rise of technology makes single household lifestyles more attractive because face-to-face interaction is no longer essential to establishing relationships
  • UK society has an ageing population - many single households are made up of divorced or widowed people
• Smith (2005)

  found that older single people living alone were often visited and supported by their children and grandchildren
• Murray (2001) - “nanny state” (new right)

  • criticises an over protective government
  • advocates for a smaller, more limited government
  • emphasises individual responsibility
• Dennis and Erdos (1992) - single parent families (new right)

  • there is an overall increase in SPF, particularly with no father
  • SPFs impact children‘s well-being and develop negatively
  • this contributed to social issues, eg. poverty crime and a lack of social cohesion
• Berthoud (2001) - ethnicity

  South Asian families are more likely to adopt traditional gender roles compared to their white counterparts
• Arlacki (1997) - ethnicity

  ethnic minorities experience material deprivation, this causes them to require more support from their extended family
• Sedghi (2014) - ethnicity

  • ethnic minorities outperform their British peers
  • better income leads to a better lifestyle
• Man Yee Kan (2008) - social class

  middle class women do less housework than lower class women
• age

  youths allocate household duties more equally