With Reference to Item A assess the view that the nuclear family remains the norm and the ideal (24 marks) Item A; In recent years, sociologists have drawn attention to the growth of family and household diversity in Britain and elsewhere, arguing that we have moved away from the previous norm od a conventional nuclear family composed of a heterosexual married couple and their children, with a gender division of labour. They point, for example, to the fact about one household in 10 is now headed by a lone parent as evidence of the declining popularity of the conventional nuclear family. However some sociologists argue that despite recent changes, the conventional nuclear family remains the norm in Britain today. Writing in 1985, Chester claimed that the basic patterns of family life had remained largely unchanged for most people since the 1940’s. He argued that most adults still marry and have children.
2. Assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm. * People entering higher education; becoming more independent from parental control, causing a rise in cohabitation. * Changing position of women, allowed to divorce, producing lone and diverse families * Laws changed; civil partnership legal, hence same sex families developing. * Laws such as Child support agency, reinforce nuclear families; men paying for child.
The New Right argue that the decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems, such as higher crime rates and educational failure. They see lone-parent families as both unnatural and harmful, especially to children and they disapprove of mothers going out to work because they believe women should make caring for their family their first priority. Harry Benson’s (2006) analysis of data on the parents of over 15,000 babies born in 2000-01 found that nearly 3,000 of the mothers had become lone parents during the first three years of their child’s life. Robert Chester, also a New Right sociologist, recognises that there is a modern type of nuclear family called the ‘neo-conventional family’. He defines this family type as a dual-earner family in which both spouses go out to work.
Half Term Assessment 1. Polyandry mean a woman has two or more husbands 2. The two functions the nuclear family can perform are 3. The three reasons for change in divorce rates since 1969 are that its now easier to get a divorce, people’s views on religion have changed which means they don’t take marriage seriously anymore so they are likely to divorce and they have changed because people expect a lot in a relationship 4. The Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism.
The New Right believe that state benefits should be cut and social policy targeted to discourage family diversity and promote marriage and the nuclear family. Robert Chester (1985) recognises that there has been some increased family diversity in recent years. However, unlike the New Right he does not regard this as very significant, nor does he see it in a negative light. He argues that the only important change is a more from the dominance of the traditional or conventional nuclear family, to what he
The main type of marriage in Britain is Monogamy because it is not needed to be a part of any religion. Polygyny and Polyandry are similar to each other and less common because they are associated with a specific religion. Statistically, first time marriages are decreasing and re-marriages are steadily increasing. The marriage rate in the UK has declined from 7.1 marriages per 1000 people in 1981, to 5.2 marriages per 1000 people in 2005. These statistics show that marriage remains popular despite the reduction in the number of marriages.
most Asian families in Britain are nuclear, however the extended family still plays a big role in the culture and remains a source of support and identity. The proportion of lone-parent families is also another thing which can create a different family type, a statistic states that 22% of lone parent families are white. Attitudes towards marriage can also create family structure diversity, for example, in Islam marriage is seen as compulsory and therefore a majority of muslims will get married. However, individuals with a different belief such as atheists may not look at marriage as being as important and therefore will not marry. 4.
Marriage has increased in popularity, reaching a peak in 1971. Since then people have decided to ditch the stereotypical cereal packet nuclear family and live as singletons or to cohabit with a partner. There has been a significant decline in the number of marriages, from 459000 in 1971 to 250000 in 2001. However cohabitation had been rising in today’s society modern society. New Right thinkers have seen the trends as a sign of the breakdown of the family and have argued for a return to ‘traditional values’.
There are many reasons for the changes in divorce rates since the 1969 such as the legal changes, the changing role and position of women, also how the expectations for marriage is different. It is shown that from 1969 until 1972, divorce rates had doubled from around 50,000 divorces in the UK. It had more than tripled to 170,000 in 2000. Despite this, divorce rates dropped in 1993 from 180,000 to 157,000 in 2001. We know that in the past divorce was very hard to get as it was only legal for the men to file a divorce and was socially unacceptable.
As well as a decline in the total number of marriages, there is also a decline in marriage rates (the number of people marrying per 1000 of the population aged 16 and over). In 1994, the marriage rate was 11.4 but this had declined to 10.3 by 2004. The male rate declined from 36.3 in 1994 to 27.8 in 2004 whilst the female rate declined from 30.6 to 24.6. Once again, even though there is a decline, British Social Attitude Surveys indicate that most people, whether single,