nuclear families

Advertisements have used it to sell products from gravy to cereal. This earned the nuclear family the nickname of, the "cereal packet family."

The feminist Ann Oakley often refers to the nuclear family as the conventional family because she complains that it is presented as the only acceptable family form.

Although feminists may object the nuclear family as being presented as the ideal type, functionalists support this view. Functionalists see the family as one of the most important institutions in society that play an important part in socialising children. In the 1950s, the functionalist, G P Murdock studied 250 societies around the world and defined family as:

"a group consisting of adults of both sexes, at least two of whom were in a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children of the couple, who shared resources and lived together."

Murdock claimed that the nuclear family was a cultural universal and vital for society to survive. However, his definition does not cover all families in Britain today. It would not include same sex families or lone parent families. This was surprising as he was writing shortly after the

Second World War when many families had been left with only one parent. Nevertheless, at the time, partly because of tradition and the influence of religion, it was considered the norm for children to grow up in a family with two parents of the opposite sex.

Functionalists believe that if society is to operate as it should then children should be raised in nuclear families. However, this traditional view of the nuclear family as the 'normal' family has been challenged by other sociologists as other family types have developed. Today, there is a variety of family types in Britain and not one main type.

Key Terms

children.

or cousins.

Nuclear Family - A family type consisting of two parents of opposite sex and their

Extended Family - Family in addition to the immediate family such as grandparents