Families and Households - changing family patterns

Mitchell and Goody

Decline in stigma attached to divorce is the most important change since the 1960s, and the main reason for increased divorce rates.

Fletcher

Higher expectation of marriage = less willing to tolerate unhappy marriage.

Allan and Crow

Marriage is "less embedded within the economic system"; today "love, personal commitment and intrinsic satisfaction are the cornerstones of marriage".
No love = no marriage.

Hochschild

Women are treated more favourably at work than they are at home (where they have to carry out the dual burden). With both partners working, couples have less time and energy to focus on their marriage.

Sigle-Rushton

Wives who face a dual burden are more likely to divorce than wives who are domestic. If the husband helps around the house, the dual burden decreases and the chance of divorce decreases.

Cooke and Gash (disagree with Sigle-Rushton)

No evidence that working women are more likely to divorce

Bernard

Many women face growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal marriage. Increase in divorce is due to a growing acceptance of feminist ideas (women can be independent, can afford to live alone, or cohabit without marriage).

Beck and Giddens

Individualisation thesis.
- In a modern society, traditional norms have lost their hold.
- each individual is now free to pursue their own self interest.

Morgan

The meaning of divorce cannot be generalised because everyone's experiences are different.

Smart

Divorce has become normalised. Family can adapt to deal with divorce without disintegrating.

Coast

75% of cohabiting couples say they expect to marry each other. Shows that cohabitation is a life stage preceding marriage, rather than a fixed status.

Bejin

Cohabitation amongst some young people represents a conscious effort to create a more negotiated and equal relationship than marriage.

Shelton and John

Women who cohabit do less housework than married women.

Stonewall

About 5-7% of the adult population have same-sex relationships. Impossible to tell whether this is an increase from the past (legal repercussions and stigma)

Weeks

Gays create families based on the idea of friendship as kinship (fictive kins). Connections make a chosen family.

Weston

Same sex cohabitation = quasi marriage. Many gays deciding to cohabit as stable partners; very different from the 1970s.

Einasdottir

Gays don't have civil partnerships legally recognised as it may limit the flexibility and negotiability of relationships. They stay away from heteronormative labels to remain different.

Although same-sex relationships are tolerated, heteronormativity means that many gays feel obliged to stay 'closeted' which limits their ability to marry.

Duncan and Phillips

1/10 adults live apart together (LAT). This is about half of all people classified as single. Reflects trend toward less formalised families.

Renvoize

Professional women able to support their child without the involvement of the dad. Led to an increase in lone-parent households. However, New Right (Murray) argue that this has led to increased delinquency and less socialisation within children.

Cashmore

Working class women with less earning power choose to live on welfare benefits without a partner, generally due to experiences of abuse.

Murray: growth of lone parents as a result from over-generous welfare state. Rewards lone mothers for bad behaviour.

Ferri and Smith

Stepfamilies are very similar to first families in all major respects.
Have a greater risk of poverty:
- more children from first marriage, generally residentially cared for by the mother, which increases the cost of supporting children.

Ribbens-Mccarthy et al

Diversity among stepfamilies. Some have higher tensions (due to lack of clear norms) whilst some don't.

Mirza

Higher rate of black lone parent families reflect the high value black women place on independence.

Raynolds

Many lone parents are in stable, supportive LAT relationships.

Ballard

For Asian families, extended family ties provided an important source of support amongst Asian migrants during the 1950s and '60s.

Berthoud

British South Asian families more likely to adopt traditional gender roles.

Qureshi (disagrees with Berthoud)

The percent of British Asian lone parent families has at least doubled since Berthoud's research.

Parsons

Extended family was the functional fit of the past. No longer suitable due to a lack of social and geographical mobility.

Charles

3 generation families living under one roof is all but extinct in Swansea's Bangladeshi community.

Wilmott (disagrees with Charles)

Extended family continues to exist as a dispersed extended family. Relatives are geographically separated but stay connected.

Chamberlain: Caribbean families may be geographically separated but continue to support.

Bell

Both working class and middle class families have had emotional bonds with kin and relied on them for support.

Brannen

Beanpole family - extended vertically but not horizontally.
- due to increased life expectancy but smaller family size.

Finch and Mason

Over 90% of people had given or received financial support from family members. About 1/2 had cared for a sick relative.

Cheal

Sons rarely chosen as caregivers for elderly. Daughters rarely chosen as appropriate to provide money.

Mason

History of relationship factors in on who helps relatives. Relationships corroborates to obligation and responsibility to the family member.