Family diversity

• Parsons

  • Sees the nuclear family as being uniquely suited to meeting the needs of modern society for a geographical and socially mobile workforce.
  • The primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities contributes to the overall stability and effectiveness of society.
  • Other types of family are considered dysfunctional.
• New right

  • Nuclear family form is essential for the fucntioning of a good society.
  • Various government policies and social attitudes have combined to undermine the family.
• Charles Murray

  • Welfare policies have undermined the nuclear family and has led to a dependency culture where a underclass of people live off benefits and have no aspirations to work for a living
  • Teenage girls see pregnancy as a route to financial support and housing.
  • Individuals conclude that they can have children without being a working parent because the state will provide
  • There is no incentive to work at a relationship and keep a family together.
  • The benefits system means more children will bring more money, so it pays to have a large single parent family rather than a small one
• Neo conventional family

  • Robert Chester - there has been a move from the dominance of the traditional nuclear family to the ‘neo-conventional family’
  • It is a dual earner family in which both spouses go out to work.
  • People are not choosing to live in alternatives to the nuclear family, the nuclear family remains the ideal to which people aspire to
  • Many people living alone have been or one will be part of the nuclear family
  • Most children are still bought up by their two biological parents, cohabitation has increased but for most couples it is a temporary phase before marrying
• Postmodernism

  • There has been a rise in media saturation. This is constant exposure to different cultures and ways to live.
  • Rise of secularism.
  • Families have become more diverse and fluid, they have no 'ideal' set structure.
  • Family diversity is goof as it gives people freedom of choice to meet specific needs.
• Judith Stacey

  • Pam - got divorced after being exposed to the ideas of feminism which made her aware of the lack of contribution her husband was making to family life. She split up with her husband and then became friends with his previous partner.
  • Dotty - split up with her husband who physically abysed her. Eventually she took him back after he suffered a heart attack and was no longer able to physically abuse her.
• Giddens - 2 main reasons for greater choice and equality in relationships

  • Contraception - sex can be about intimacy rather than reproduction. Plastic sexuality led to the realisation that to feel complete, people needed to have more than just a functioning family life. Allowed more choice and freedom in partners.
  • Women have more independence due to feminism and can now work - there are fewer requirements for a relationship to fulfil ie. economic stability. This meets the needs of love instead of tradition and means people are in less stable but pure relationships.
• Giddens - choice and equality

  • Traditional relationships are no longer based on 'till death us do part'.
  • People are no longer fulfilled through falling in love.
  • Giddens states that in todays society relationships dilute and fade over time.
  • Confluent love has led to a change from long term relationships to serial monogamy (moving from one relationship to another to satisfy needs).
  • There has been a loss of religion through secularisation.
  • People are reflecting on their own sexual identities and 'who they are'
• Beck

  • Greater equality and a more individualistic society means that the 'negotiated family' is increasing and varies according to the wishes and expectations of the people in them.
  • This results in risk and uncertainty.
  • We live in a risk society where tradition has has influence and people have more choice. Marriage is now being replaced with a range of alternatives.
  • Peoples actions are influenced by their own self interest rather than a sense of obligation to others.
  • The negotiated family is when the members decide what is best for themselves and negotiate.
• Weeks

  • Identifies a long term shift in attitudes since the 1950s.
  • Sexual morality has become largely a matter of personal choice, and the church has lost much of its power to influence the state and the individual.
  • This is an increase in secularisation which has increased same sex marriage.
  • Weeks theory rejects the 'one size fits all' approach.
  • Challenged the belief in fixed sexual identities, emphasising the fluid nature of these categories instead.