Sociology families

• Polygamy is most common for a man to have several wives, found in many small traditional societies particularly in northern Africa and the Middle East
• Cultural relativity is the idea that people in different cultures have different customs, traditions, norms, and values
• Types of extended families

  • Vertically extended
  • Horizontally extended
• Women in societies where polygamy is practiced often regard the practice as unfair
• Polyandry is a custom where women may marry several men at the same time, rare and may have been accustomed in societies with a shortage of men
• Serial monogamy is becoming more common in the UK
• Arranged marriages


  Parents organize their children's marriages, often between families of similar economic and social standing
• Cultural and ethnic


  People from ethnic backgrounds in the UK may combine practices from their culture and the UK when forming families
• Class


  Wealth and income impact housing, room size, financial problems, and family planning choices
• Life course


  Reflects the varying factors such as number of children, divorce, remarriage, widowhood within families
• Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is the best form for providing both male and female role models, important for primary socialization
• G.P. Murdoch identified four important functions of the family: economic, education, emotional stability, and reproduction
• Functionalists argue that the nuclear family is important for economic functions, education, emotional stability, and reproduction
• Talcott Parsons emphasized primary socialization and the stabilization of adults as key functions of the nuclear family
• Delphy and Leonard argued that the family unit promotes labor relations that benefit men and reinforce patriarchy
• Ann Oakley highlighted how traditional family setups socialize children into gender roles through gendered toys and the dual burden on women
• Sociologists debate the symmetry of families in Britain today, considering concepts like the dual burden, the symmetrical family theory, and dual career families
• Women now have careers and don't have time to take responsibility for all the household chores as in the past
• Conjugal roles


  Roles within a marriage or long-term relationship that are based on traditional gender norms
• Wilma and Young's theory


  • Argue for the symmetrical family where conjugal roles are shared equally between partners
• About 42% of all marriages end in divorce and around a quarter of all UK households are lone parent families
• Divorce is a process by which two people legally terminate their marriage
• Anthony Giddens argued that in contemporary society, people seek pure love over marriages of convenience or financial security, leading to an increase in divorce rates
• People are no longer staying together for appearances or for the sake of children due to changing attitudes towards divorce
• No fault divorces are set to come into effect, allowing couples to get divorced without laying blame on each other
• Currently required reasons for divorce include unreasonable behavior, desertion, two years of separation with consent, and five years of separation without consent
• Divorce can lead to co-parenting challenges, custody battles, and disagreements on parenting
• Marxists attribute the failure of marriage to the stresses and strains of a capitalist society
• Challenges of new partners in a divorce

  • Taking on the baggage of a partner's previous relationship, becoming step-parents, dealing with messy divorces
• Effects of divorce on children


  • Having to move out of the family home, adjusting to new roles as stepchildren, navigating relationships with parents' new partners and their children
• The New Right view divorce as a threat to the nuclear family, leading to an increase in what they consider inadequate family forms
• Children from lone parent families are more likely to face challenges such as academic failure and involvement in crime according to the New Right perspective
• New Right sociologists argue that divorce leads to an increase in lone parent families, which they see as causing societal problems
• Couples rush into divorce without trying to make things work out due to the ease of divorce
• Changes to marriage laws, such as the Divorce Reform Act and cheap divorces, have made divorce easier - New Right
• The Divorce Reform Act of 1969 made it easier for people to obtain a divorce by introducing irretrievable breakdown as a ground for divorce
• Legal changes, decline of religion, increasing women's independence, and prioritizing love over security are factors to consider in the discussion
• Aside from legal changes, factors like the decline of religion and increasing women's independence have also contributed to the increase in divorce rates