Rapoport and Rapoport

• Look at the types of family diversity
• Argued that the nuclear family was no longer the main family type in the UK. They described 5 different aspects of family diversity.
• Their work predated the emergence of gay and lesbian households as a more open and accepted feature of society
• Organisational diversity (eg internal divisions of domestic labour) - there are lots of differences between and within families. The rise in divorce and decrease in marriage has meant that there are more lone parent families. This means that there are different patterns of work which is leading to more diversity in how domestic tasks are organised in a household.
• Cultural diversity (beliefs and values) - families that migrate from other parts of the work have different traditions/beliefs about how a family should work. Families from other parts of the world also have different styles of marriages, also their different religious beliefs. In some religion rules around contraception can lead to a larger child presence in certain families over others. Some cultures have a male dominated family style (patriarchy) whereas some have a female dominated family style (matriarchal).
• Social class diversity (eg how the family's position in the social class system affects the availability of resources) - argued that social class is a big factor in how families operate and organise themselves. They argued that in lower class families that there is more instability as there is a minimal income and they have less emphasis on educational activities. Whereas the upper and middle class families have a more traditional approach and they often adopt a 'traditional' family organisation.
• Life cycle diversity (cohort/historical period) - family structures are different in different historical periods, this is because after the war there are more lone parent families. Also after the Great Depression the fertility rate was low which impacted the family structures of the next generation. Over time, opinions and attitudes have changed for things like divorce, marriage and cohabitation, and the Rapoports argue that this is a big contribution to family diversity.
• Family life course diversity (stage in the family life cycle) - throughout the course of life different event can happen which affects the organisation and properties or families. An example of this is how having a family will change the domestic duties of the parents, as well as adding another individual to the family. Also the children of a family leaving for university of independent living would again change the domestic duties of the parents and the family would transition into an empty nest family.
• Described five different aspects of family diversity:

  1. Organisational
  2. Cultural
  3. Social class
  4. Life course
  5. Cohort