f+h

• The family is a cultural universal. Some form of family structure exists in all societies, although they may be quite different from those that people in Western cultures consider normal.
• There have been considerable shifts in both the structure and relationships in Western families so that family forms that were once seen as shameful are now quite normal and unremarkable.
• Family is a cultural universal, although some family forms differ between cultures.
• Marxism


  Families support capitalist ideology
• Functionalism


  Families fulfil key social functions and are important for social harmony
• New Right


  Some forms of family are better than others at supporting children to become good members of society
• Feminism


  Women are exploited and families train children to accept traditional gender roles
• Postmodernism


  People are now creating families of choice and family forms are becoming varied
• Functionalists and the New Right take a view of family that suggests a traditional nuclear family consisting of a male, female and their dependent children is the best way to support family members.
• Marxists and feminists are very critical of this view of family, arguing that women and children are exploited.
• Postmodernists argue that no particular family form is better or worse than any other, and that people are freer to create their own family forms and relationships than ever before.
• Significant family changes that contribute to family diversity

  • A decrease in the number of traditional nuclear families consisting of a working father, a domestic mother and their children
  • An increase in both two working parent households and two non-working parent families
  • A rise in the number of households of all ages consisting of one person living alone (singlehood)
  • A rise in the number of single-parent households (lone parenthood)
  • A rise in the number of people who have had a number of marriages or cohabiting relationships (serial monogamy)
  • An increase in the number of adult children living at home with a parent or parents (sometimes called boomerang children)
  • An increase in cohabitation, where people form partnerships but are not legally married
  • An increase in the number of children born outside legal marriage - although not necessarily to single parents
• Fewer children born to women: the average age at which women give birth to a first child is rising. Completed family size is smaller, with many households only having only one child.
• Many people actively choose not to have children (child freedom).
• An increase in the number of openly same-sex relationships (LGBT: lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender), which are now legally accepted as a result of civil partnership or marriage.
• A fall in marriage rates and an increase in the age of those marrying.
• More people living in blended (or reconstituted) families, where there are children from more than one relationship.
• The overall trend over a long period of time suggests more divorce is taking place. However, in recent years, divorce rates have fallen slightly, probably because fewer people marry and so broken relationships do not appear in official statistics.
• Increasing longevity: people live longer, healthier lives but may require support from adult children in extreme old age.
• Some ethnic minority families have family structures such as extended (or multi-generation) families who share homes or live close to each other.
• Instrumental role


  A leadership role, usually associated with males in the family
• Expressive role


  An emotional role, usually associated with females in the family
• According to functionalists, in traditional nuclear families, fathers took on an instrumental role as the breadwinner earning money, while mothers took on an expressive role as home maker and domestic worker.
• There are now changes to these traditional family roles: women have paid work while men take on caring roles for their children. Wilkinson (1994) has referred to these changes to gender roles as being the genderquake.
• There is debate about the changes to the social roles of children within families, but the experience of childhood appears to have undergone change since World War II.
• British society formerly consisted of a high death rate/high birth rate society, but has rapidly been transforming itself into a low death rate/low birth rate society.
• Possible causes of social change

  • Economic change in wider society
  • Legal change
  • Social norms and values change
  • Secularisation
  • Medical technological change
• Reasons for family change may be linked so that safe contraception is linked to changes in the role of women in society.
• There are regular and constant changes to laws relating to a variety of aspects of family life. These have affected same-sex relationships, the protection of children within the home, abortion and contraception rights. There has been a liberalisation of laws covering same-sex relationships, while women and children have more rights within the family.
• The genderquake has meant that social expectations of males and females have changed. Sharpe (1994) interviewed girls in the 1970s and again in the 1990s and found that young women had changed their ambitions from marriage to careers.
• ONS employment figures (2012) found that approximately half of the workforce is female. This movement into the workforce means that women no longer expect or see marriage as their primary role in life.
• Equally, males are now expected to participate in domestic life, so there has been a growth in the New Man who is willing to enjoy participating in childcare and domestic labour.
• Even though women tend to reject the term feminism, the basic ideas of feminism have challenged traditional family life and allowed women to challenge patriarchal attitudes in the home and at work.
• New Right David Popenoe (2009) said that, increasingly, people are placing an emphasis on their own personal and emotional needs for self-fulfilment over community and shared goals such as family life. He calls this process, individualisation.
• Sharpe (1994)


  Interviewed girls in the 1970s and again in the 1990s and found that young women had changed their ambitions from marriage to careers
• ONS employment figures (2012) found that approximately half of the workforce is female
• Movement into the workforce


  Means that women no longer expect or see marriage as their primary role in life
• Family


  A social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of which maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults (Murdock, 1949)
• Family


  Based on kinship ties: biological (blood) or legal (marriage & adoption)
• Functionalist ideas about the family

  • Families are essential for the survival of society
  • The family, despite variations in structure, existed in some form or another in all 250 societies studied by Murdock
  • The ideal family consisted of a heterosexual couple and their children- the nuclear family