Family Diversity

• The new right oppose lone parent families because they fail to do what ?

  Discipline their children properly
• What did Benson find ?

  Couples were more stable when married
• AO3 of the New Right

  Feminists argue the nuclear family is based on the oppression of women

  No evidence that children in lone parent families are more likely to be delinquent
• Chester and the Neo - conventional family

  A dual earner family - similar to the symmetrical family

  Believes everyone will be in a nuclear family at some point in their lives
• The Rapoports

  Identify 5 types of family diversity :

  • organisational = family roles
  • cultural = religious , ethnic …
  • generational = old or young
  • Social class = income differences
  • Life stage diversity = newlyweds , retired …
• What do postmodernists think on family diversity ?

  Family structures have become fragmented

  Gives individuals more freedom to chose their own life course

  This also means more instability
• What does Stacey - postmodernist - argue ?

  Greater freedom and choice has benefited women

  Found the divorce extended family = members being connected by divorce rather than marriage
• What was Stacey’s main finding from the study ?

  Post modern families are diverse and that their shape depends on the active choices people make on how to live their lives .
• What is the individualisation thesis ?

  Argues traditional social structures such as class and gender have lost influence over us In post modern society

  So , individuals today have fewer certainties or fixed roles and more freedom
• What does Giddens argue ?


  Family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice and a more equal relationship between men and women

  Has occurred because :

  • contraception has allowed sex and intimacy rather than reproduction
  • Women have gained more independence

  So , the basis of marriage has changed .

  Couples today define their relationships
• Giddens and The Pure Relationship 


  Intimate relationships nowadays are based on individual choice and equality - pure relationship

  No longer bound by traditional norms

  Couples stay together because of love , happiness or sexual attraction rather than tradition
• What is Giddens overall idea ?

  With more choice , relationships become less stable

  Thus , produces greater family diversity
• What is the zombie family - Beck ?

  People turn to family in the hope of finding security

  But families are unable to provide this

  The family is zombie as it appears to be alive but in reality is dead .
• The connectedness Thesis - Smart

  We live in networks of existing relationships , this influences our options and choices in relationships
• Smart theorised what ?

  Where lives become embedded , it becomes impossible for relationships to end