family forms and diversity

• Contemporary Family Forms and Diversity

  • Marriage
  • Divorce
  • Cohabitation
• Sharpe - women are becoming more ambitious


  1976-94 interviews where women shifted their priorities from joining /creating families and getting married to valuing their careers more
• Wilkinson - the changing roles and attitudes of women = 'genderquake'


  Women are no longer prioritising their families but focusing on financial independence to have a solid career before settling into family life
• Marxists

  Highlight the expenses of marriage, in which weddings cost between £22,500 and £55,800 in the UK due to the capitalist pressure to have a 'dream wedding', instead opting to cohabitate and wait until they are both in financially stable positions to commit to the wedding expense
• Increasing numbers of multigenerational families and households increase the burden of work for women
• Following retirement, the responsibility of care is passed onto the extended family, specifically the women of the family
• This reduces welfare dependency as they do not need the benefits to pay for the nursing homes


  Benefiting capitalism as the bourgeoise can keep the money that would've been handed out through benefits, however, detrimental to the family as the females are likely take on a dual burden or triple shift
• Care Uk finds that responsibility over older and younger people is placing emotional strains on family life additional responsibilities of this care may have significant impacts on the middle generations as 1/3 claim that their own health is deteriorating and an equal number saying their relationships are suffering due to these emotional burdens
• A Care UK survey shows that women are 4x more likely to take on the burden of caring for an elderly relative as well as doing the domestic labour involved in raising children into adulthood
• Increase in relationship ties with family


  May provide emotional stability for adults and children
• Harper - many more generations are living at the same time


  This shows the increase in relationship ties with 3 generations
• ONS shows 61% of grandparents are in contact with their families at least once a week
• NRR - Family diversity

  Increases financial pressure on the working adults and the welfare state
• CPAG 2021 found that 44% of single parents were in relative poverty.This is 2x the risk faced by 2 parent families
• With most dual earner families, the grandparents then take on childcare provision saving the parents up to £60 per day. Without the grandparents, families might limit the number of children they have to save on such expenses
• Marxists


  This is a ploy for capitalists to benefit from working families. Those families need to work to survive financially, yet at the same time, are exploited by having to work and pay for childcare
• Functionalism regards family diversity positively as people are living for longer so multigenerational families are becoming more common. These families give financial support to their extended families. Older generations who live longer are able to provide childcare for them
• rain and increased relative poverty within different family types )some see a reduction in the number of working adults and others see a growth in dependent children(. This leads to an increase in welfare dependency and the emergence of the underclass
• With most dual earner families, the grandparents then take on childcare provision saving the parents up to £60 per day
• Without the grandparents, families might limit the number of children they have to save on such expenses
• Marxists - this is a ploy for capitalists to benefit from working families


  Those families need to work to survive financially, yet at the same time, are exploited by having to work and pay for childcare
• Functionalism

  Family diversity is positive
• People are living for longer so multigenerational families are becoming more common
• These families give financial support to their extended families
• Older generations who live longer are able to provide childcare for them
• This may lead to some of their adult children moving closer to their parents to utilise this help
• There is an increasingly affluent retired population who are able to provide financial aid to their families, e.g. mortgage payments and general financial aids
• Pure relationships (Giddens)


  People can leave relationships if they are unhappy and can choose which family structure they want to be a part of
• Romantic love (Giddens)

  Ends in death
• Confluent love (Giddens)


  Aims for mutual satisfaction for both partners
• Beck - families are negotiated, people leave relationships that do not satisfy them = increased relationship breakdown and unhappiness
• Government Policy no longer supports marriage, the welfare system does not encourage marriage
• Murray - links welfare payment to unmarried women, illegitimate births and men's joblessness )no longer need to be responsible for their families(
• Lawlor - paid maternity and tax credits should be binned for all non-married partnerships and single mothers, stating only married couples should receive these benefits which would increase marriages and nuclear families in society
• Hart /Duncombe and Marsden - the triple shift leads to greater conflict and eventual divorce as the female is responsible for paid work, house work and childcare which leads to stress and unhappiness within the marriage/relationship
• Women then choose to divorce as a method of the release of their emotional burden
• Liberal feminists highlight that women are now more independent, they can leave their unhappy marriages and remain emotionally and financially stable
• Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act allow women to become financially independent at an earlier age, meaning they don't seek it from a partner )e.g. men as breadwinners no longer applies here(
• Wilkinson - 'genderquake' where women are more assertive and capable of providing for themselves = less pressure to get married
• Postmodernism


  Individualisation