modernity and the nuclear family

Chester - neo-conventional family

• there has been some increased family diversity in recent years but doesn’t regard it as very significant
• the most important change has been from the conventional nuclear family to the neo-conventional family - a dual earner family in which both partners go out to work
• doesn’t see any other evidence of major change, people are not choosing to live in alternative family types on a long-term basis and the nuclear family still remains the ideal to which people strive to achieve
• most people will live at some point in a nuclear family, it is still the most common type of family - therefore family diversity not as major as it seems

Chester - patterns on households

statistics on household composition are misleading because they are merely a snapshot of a single moment in time, don’t show that most people will live in a nuclear family at some point in their lives:

• most people live in a household headed by a married couple
• most adults marry and have children, most children are raised by their two biological parents
• most marriages continue until death - divorce has increased by most divorcees remarry

the extent and importance of family diversity has been overexaggerated, sees the nuclear family as dominant

Rapoports - 5 types of family diversity

diversity of central importance in understanding family diversity in UK, nuclear family no longer dominant family type, families in UK adopted pluralistic society - cultures and lifestyles are more diverse, family diversity represents greater freedom of choice and widespread acceptance of different cultures and ways of life in today’s society

Rapoports - organisational diversity

• differences in ways in which family roles organised - some families dual earners, some one wage earners etc.

Rapoports - cultural diversity

• different cultural, religious and ethnic groups all have different family structures e.g. higher number of female-headed lone-parent families among African-Caribbean households

Rapoports - social class diversity

• income differences affect family structure and child rearing with many working class mothers being lone parents or extended families

Rapoports - life-stage diversity

• family structures change depending on what stage of your life you are at e.g. young newlyweds, retired couples whose children have grown up and left home

Rapoports - generational diversity

• older and younger generations have different attitudes and experiences that reflect the time periods in which they have lived

functionalism

• Parsons - the nuclear family is uniquely suited to modern society and performs 2 irreducible functions, therefore other types of family are dysfunctional. the nuclear family is the only correct type of family as it supports our biological and natural needs/roles as men and women

New Right

• conservative and anti-feminist perspective of the family, opposed to family diversity, believe that there is only one correct type of family - traditional patriarchal nuclear family
• see this type of family as ‘natural’ and based on fundamental biological differences between men and women, traditional nuclear family is the cornerstone of society
• argue that the decline of the nuclear family and the growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems

New Right - lone parent households

• concerned about growth of lone parent households which they as result of breaking down of couple relationships, lone parent families are harmful to children
• lone mothers can’t discipline their children properly, lone parent families leave boys without adult male role model which results in educational failure and economic instability, lone parent families likely to be poorer and therefore a burden on the welfare state

New Right - Benson

• marriage is better than cohabitation as people are less likely to split up if they are married than cohabiting
• found that the rate of family breakdown was much higher in cohabiting couples during first 3 years of baby’s life
• marriage is more stable as it requires a deliberate commitment and responsibility whereas cohabitation allows couples to avoid responsibility and commitment
• the government needs to encourage couples to stay married by means of policies that support marriage

New Right - marriage

• the family and society are ‘broken’
• a return to traditional values, including the value of marriage, can prevent social disintegration and damage to children
• laws and policies such as easy access to divorce, same sex marriage and widespread availability of welfare benefits are undermining the conventional family

Criticisms of the New Right perspective

• Oakley - New Right wrongly assumes that gender roles are fixed by biology, the New Right view of the family is a negative reaction against the feminist campaign for gender equality
• Feminists - conventional nuclear family based on the patriarchal oppression of women and a fundamental cause of gender inequality
• class and education are the main factors when it comes to educational failure and issues in childhood, not being a single parent. Many single parents do just as good a job as two parents.
• no evidence children from lone parent households are more likely to become deviant
• Smart - poverty causes the breakdown of relationships rather than the decision not to marry, cohabitation is higher among poorer social groups as they cannot afford to marry - more likely to split up as they have financial problems