Divorce,marriage,cohabitation

• Lewis (Modernist)

  Individuals have greater freedom of choice over personal lives and so we should study the changes to personal life
• Murray (Modernist)

  Welfare state offers incentives so is encouraging lone parent families as state helps support them
• Silva (Modernist)

  Concerns over lone parents and welfare of children are an attempt to force women back into traditional gender roles
• Parsons (Modernist)

  Nuclear family suited to meeting needs of modern society and performing primary socialisation and SOAP
• Murray (Modernist)

  Nuclear family provides best upbringing for kids other types are unstable

  Provides clear division of labour between breadwinner and homemaker

  Lone parents burden on society

  Marriage is essential for creating a stable environment
• Chester (Modernist)

  Increase in family diversity

  only important change is move from conventional family to neo-conventional family

  Most people live in household headed by married couple

  Cohabiting increased
• Rapoport and Rapoport (Modernist)

  CLOGS - cultural, life stage, organisational, generational, social class
• Beck (Postmodernist)

  Risk society - traditional patriarchal family unequal but was stable and predictable with clear roles and responsibilities for each gender

  Negotiated family - no traditional norms and values but vary according to wishes and expectations of different members
• Giddens (Postmodernist)

  Plastic sexuality - allowed sex to be main reason for relationship

  Pure relationship - meet partners needs based on confluent love
• Stacey (Postermodernist)

  New type of family divorce extended family

  Diversity benefited women as can escape patriarchy
• Weeks (Postmodernist)

  Growing acceptance of sexual and family diversity

  most children brought by couple, most remarry and many divorcees remarry