Functionalists such as Parson, Young and Willmott (1973) and Fletcher (1966) believe that the classic extended family (more than two generations of family e.g. including grandparents and cousins living together in one household) is mostly disappearing in the UK and its replacement the privatized nuclear family (family of two generation of married heterosexual parents with their own children who lives isolated from their extended kin and community), is emerging as a family form most suited to life in contemporary British society. Parson’s Function Fit Theory explains that privatized nuclear family meets the need of society as it is socially and geographically mobile, in which it can easily move up and down the social scale in our meritocratic society (a society in which status position is based on individual’s merits and etc., rather than what family you were born into) and can easily move to places for the sake of work. However, Postmodernists argue that we no longer have clear structures such as the nuclear family, but instead a greater fragmentation and diversity of family types and lifestyle (Item 2B). This essay aims to explain and evaluate the view that there is greater diversity of family types and lifestyle today in contemporary British society.
So it seems the nuclear family is not so universal – but it is true that it exists in majority in most developed countries. His second function of the family is reproduction, where the nuclear family unit is the best form for reproduction of future productions. This is because the husband can support his wife and their baby. Before the days of women in work, it was crucial to have a working husband to assure a stable household for the children to brought up in. But now it seems that many women are choosing to have a job instead of rearing children.
This type is becoming more common due to the change in society where divorce is more common and accepted. Single parent families are another type that has become more common in recent years as it has become socially acceptable to have children out of wedlock. Female parentage in this instance make up over eighty percent of cases within the United Kingdom. Although bigamy is banned in this country by law, there are certain ethnicities and cultures who come here leading in polygamous lifestyles, where usually the man, can have two, three or more partners or wives. The most common two however, are the extended and the nuclear families.
The family structure is considered a traditional family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring. However, this two- parent, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and alternative family forms have become more common. The family is created at birth and establishes ties across generations. Those generations, the extended family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, can hold significant emotional and economic roles for the nuclear family. Over time, the traditional structure has had to adapt to very influential changes, including divorce and the introduction of single- parent families, teenage pregnancy and unwed mothers, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and increased interest in adoption.
Couples were also not able to adopt any children as this was also shameful. Nowadays however, individuals/couples who cannot have children of their own are able to turn to the option of adoption which is also now a norm. As well as that, the rate of single sex couples has also increased. Couples who are the same sex often also turn to adoption which has also become a norm in British society today. This shows that nuclear families now have decreased.
Also post modernists believe that the nuclear family is no longer dominant and people now live in a society where they make their own decisions and every family is different in structure as peopled live with freedom and they don’t have to follow convention. Item 2B states that ‘postmodernists argue that we no longer have clear structures such as the nuclear family, but instead individuals have greater choice.’ This view however can be criticised by census data that does show that the majority of people still do claim to live in a nuclear family.
Many people believe that the family should be nuclear and the male should be the main economic provider with the woman spending most time at home and taking care of the children, this is a functionalist point of view, who believe that the nuclear family is the best type of family and childcare is less important than financial income. One of the main factors affecting the division between genders is societies view on men and women. Pink and blue jobs are a good example of how the division is set, women would do pink jobs which included maids and domestic workers and men would do blue jobs which would include more manual labouring jobs and jobs that required a higher level of intellect. Even nowadays these are still referred to, In the United States, a pink-collar worker performs jobs in the service industry. In contrast, a blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs skilled or unskilled manual labor.
The idea of nuclear family was thought up by Functionalist Talcott Parsons, this family consisted of a married man and wife living together and raising children of their own. The father would naturally be seen to be the breadwinner while the mother had the nurturing, comforting and expressive role in the family. Watson (2011) stated that “Parsons claimed that marriage was essential for emotional security. Within marriage, men and women are filling their natural roles as human beings.” This did cause much controversy especially among feminists at the time as it took away from the concept of equality between men and women. Murdock (1949) said “The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction.
Same-gender marriage has become a hotly contested topic in the past few years, and while many people are beginning to see it as what it really is, an issue of equality and justice, there are still many people who are set against it for various reasons, although mostly religious ones. Same-gender couples should legally be allowed to get married because peoples’ religious biases have no place in the federal government, it will give them access to the many legal protections and privileges that heterosexual married couples get, and while any group of people is being denied their rights, society is being damaged. The United States is a federal state that was, more or less, literally founded on the basis of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, and denying people the right to marry because some people are using religion as an excuse for their ignorance is unconstitutional and wrong. Not only are conservative members of Congress using their power to stop bills that would allow same-gender couples to marry from being passed, but many religion-based groups (almost always Christian ones) will rally together and contribute money and time to do the same. One must realize that our country is a diverse place full of people who hold
The diversity of families has increased over these following years, due to the changes in society and values. New right hold the view that the there is only one correct or normal family type which is the nuclear family. Conservative government which traditionally follows the new right traditions support the nuclear family. Same as functionalist who have similar views ; parsons 1995 still recognise that there are a number of diversity families rising, nevertheless, functionalists 2000 argues that these changes are exaggerated and still sees the cereal packet nuclear family as the norm. Whereas on the other hand, feminist see the nuclear family still as the norm as they live under an oppressed government who follow the traditions of the new right where they believe in the nuclear family as the norm.