Families

• A traditional family is a group of people related to one another by blood or marrige
• Nuclear family - Ideal family , Consists of 2 parents male and female and their children
• Extended family - Consists of relatives in addition to immediate family
• Vertically extended family - has three or more generations living together / nearby : children , parents , grandparents
• Beanpole family - type of vertically ex family with up to 4 generations living together / nearby, long but thin with barley any aunts and uncles.
• Horizontally extended family - has two generations with relatives other than immediate family eg, cousins and aunts and uncles
• Modified extended family - an extended family whose family does not live together but they keep in regular contact
• Reconstituted families - two partners live together with children from previous marriges.
• Same sex families - consists of couple of the same sex living together
• Cohabitation - where the couple lives together but not marries
• Lone parent families - one parent lives with children from a marriage
• polygamy - where one partner can marry several partners t the same time legally, found in smaller traditional societies eg, North Africa
• The rapoports-

  they believed that families were becoming more diverse

  trends such as marriage, divorce and remarriage have made family structures much more unpredictable.
• Robert chester -

  He argues that nuclear family is still the main type of family

  most children still bought up by 2 parents.

  Most cohabiting couples go to marry.

  Most people live in a nuclear family at some point in their lives.
• Reasons for family diversity in the UK:

  L - 1969 divorce act

  E - economic changes eg. high cost of weddings

  F - women's position in careers

  T - technological advances in contraception

  I - immigration

  N - Norms

  S - Secularisation , little impact from religion
• Secularisation - religion has lost most of its influence when it comes to families
• Reasons why divorce rates are increasing:

  Divorce reform act 1969

  changing marriage expectations

  decline of religion
• Feminists support lone parent families as they as seen as offering women a choice to escape traditional marriages where men have power over women
• Changes in conjugal roles: domestic roles of partners

  the domestic division of labour - who does which chores in the house
• reasons in changes masculine roles:

  Many of traditional industries eg, coal mining have shut down meaning men have been become more unemployed.

  women are more succeeding in education

  some jobs do not require strength meaning both men and women can do them
• Janet forster 1990's london

  adults in a family only lives a few streets from each other and saw each other most of the time
• Functionalists view of the family:

  Family is vital for society

  important sub-system / building block for society
• Functionalist Murdock:

  1)Sexual - happy sex life which prevents parents from having affairs

  2)Reproductive - The nuclear family makes the next gen

  3)economic - the family provides food and shelter, ideally men will work and women will stay at home and take care of the kids.
• Functionalist Parsons:

  1)Primary socialization occurs during early forms of childhood

  2)stabilization of adult personalities = emotional support
• Marxism view:

  They ignore benefits that families provide for their families

  Ignorance of power over women

  hard to think about raising children without adults
• Triple shift:

  Delphy and Leonard say that family is patriarchal, they argue that women contribute to most the family life in emotional factors
• Ann Oakley:

  stereotyping children and making them fit into the 'standards' met for both males and females
• Function of family - murdock

  sexual, reproductive , economic , socialization
• Stabilization of adulthood - parsons

  family comes home back from work to comfort and peace
• blended family - when two families become one through marrige
• Janet forster argues that most extended family lives only a few streets across from each other to keep in contact
• Conjugal roles -

  segregated - men breadwinner while woman stay at home mom

  feminist - women are exploited by men

  marxist - unequal conjugal roles support capitalism

  functionalist (parson) - necessary for smooth running of society
• Ann oakley is a feminist sociologist she calls the nuclear family the conventionally family because it is presented as the only acceptable family.
• polygamy - when one partner is allowed to have multiple other partners
• Monogamy - legally allowed one partner at a time in the English church, modern day there are divorces
• trends in divorce:

  increased a significant amount in the last 50 years

  43% of marriages are estimated to end in a divorce
• Marxist Zaretsky :

  family supports capitalism by

  - acting as a unit of consumption ie buying things, keeps upper chain rich

  - economic function - unpaid labor of women allows men to work

  - passing on social class inequalities - inheritance , education , socialization.
• capitalism - a system of economic organization in which the means of production are privately owned and controlled by individuals or groups
• consequences of divorce :

  parents - emotional distress , financial issues esp women

  children - emotional distress , less time with one parent

  wider family - see less of children
• duncombe and marsden

  triple shift

  women work,clean and comfort for the family

  conjugal roles