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Families (Changing family patterns (Divorces increased drastically in…
Families
Changing family patterns
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Mitchell and Goody (1997): Note that an important change since the 1960s has been the rapid decline in the stigma attached to divorce.
Fletcher: Argues that we now place too higher expectations on our marriages which is why so many of us end up getting divorced. Not getting the marriage box (what people excpect from a marriage).
Allan and Crow (2001): States love satisfaction and commitment are now the cornerstones of marriage. If you don't have them in your marriage you get out. Unlike in the 1950s.
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Divorce has increased because: easier accesability, change in position of women, and dual burden (feminsits).
Beck and Giddens: In modern society traditional norms such as the duty to remain with the same partner for life, lose their hold over individuals. This means each individual becomes free to pursue his or her own self-interest.
Nearly half of all children are born outside marriage. However nearly all these births are jointly registered by both parents.
Step families are increasing and are seen to be quite positive. Allan and Crow believe that stepfamilies face particular problems of divided loyalties and tensions such as contact with non-residential parents.
Murray: lone parent families are because the welfare state are over-generous it rewards irresponsible behaviour such as having children without providing for them. He calls this ‘dependency culture’.
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Charles: found that the classic three-generation family all living under one roof is extinct. - exceptions for Bangladeshi
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Chamberlains: found that Carribean families in Britain found that despite being geographically separated but give support and maintain contact.
Chester: the rise of family diversity is not significant or negative - there has been a change from the conventional to neo-conventional. For example a move from traditional nuclear family segregated roles to one without joint roles.
Chetser: Evidence demonstrating little has changed are a number of patterns: Although births outside marriage have increased joint registering implies both parents will raise the children.
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New right: They are strongly in favour of the traditional nuclear family, it is self-reliant and capable of caring and providing for its members.
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Generous welfare benefits undermined the conventional family and encourages ‘ deviant and dysfunctional family types’.
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The new right believe that welfare state should be reduced and so should taxes. Alongside this there should be more policies that support the nuclear family.
Evaluation: Feminists argue this is an attempt to return to patriarchy. they also assume the nuclear family is just 'natural'. Also reducing the welfare state would drive poorer families into a greater poverty.
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The nuclear family is natural and based on the biological differences between men and women. Therefore it is the only family type that can fully provide for its members.
They see society and ‘the family’ as broken due to the loss of ‘traditional values’ and laws that undermine the nuclear family e.g divorce and gay marriage.
Oakley: The new right wrongly assume that husband and wife roles are fixed by biology the new right is a negative reaction to feminism.
Criticism: The idea that cohabitation does not equal commitment is unfair some people see it as a temporary phase before getting married.
Working women
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Why are women housewives: Oakley argues this is due to the industrial revolution where women were banned from factories and so there role became in the home. Alongside this Parsons argues the expressive role.
Martin suggests that housework is in fact liberating for women as it allows them to create their own sense of power.
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Crompton and Lyontte: The cultural or ideological explanation of inequality: the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour because society expects them. Dunne: found that lesbian couples have more symmetrical relationships
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Men make decisions in the house and on money. Hunt: women's wages are seen to buy luxury items. However it can be argued these views are outdated.
Smart found greater equality amongst same sex couples to do what suits the couple best. This is due to there being no pressure to follow ‘traditional’ roles as there are none.
Childhood
The modern westernisation of childhood: Jane Pilcher - most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness. Childhood is seen as a clear and distinct life stage and children in our society occupy a seperate status from adults. This seperatness is also expressed through laws.
Non-industrial societies: There is less separateness as children take on responsibilty from a young age. Alongside this children's sexual behaviour is expressed differently.
Historical differences: Middle ages - soon after children finished breast feeding they were pushed into wider society. Childhood was there but it was short. Children were seen as ‘mini adults’ as they had the same rights and duties as adults.
Reasons for changes in position of childhood: Laws restricting children, declining family changes, technological advances and the introduction of compulsory schooling.
Social construction of childhood: They argue that what people mean by childhood and the position that children occupy in society is not fixed but differs between different times and places.
Aries - in the middle ages the idea of childhood did not exist. Children began work at a very early age they were seen as ‘mini adults’ with the same rights duties and skills as adults. For example: the law often made no distinction between children and adults with children facing severe punishments. He argues this came about in the 13th century.
Postman argues - from print to visual culture - from books to screen - reading is in a decline as a result as are the important skills of persistence and delayed gratification. Visual culture opens children to often dubious representations of sex and violence through TV, film and video.
Opie - due to children's unsupervised games, rhymes and songs. She argues that there is strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate children's culture over many years.
Pilcher (1995): Youth is best treated as: a transition between child and adult, from compulsory education to employment, from family of origin to family of destination (orientation to prove creation).
Demography
Key terms
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Dependency ratio: The relationship between the size of the working/productive part of the population and the non-working section.
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Aging population: An increasing medium age in the population of a region due to declining fertility rates and or rising life expectancy.
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Assimilation policy: Aim to encourage similar: language, norms and values.
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Reasons for change in birth rates: Feminism (less women want children more want a career),changing of norms, decline in infant mortality rate (better sanitation and nutrition), child centerdness and more economic stability.
Impact of change in birth rates: increase in public services (e.g schools), increase in smaller families nd a higher dependsy ratio.
Causes of the decrease in death rate: improved nutrition, medical improvements, better public health measures and improvements in smoking and diet.
Factors that affect life expectancy: class, gender and region.
Impact of aging population of society: single pensioner households, increased dependency ratio and an increase in the us of public services.
Advanatages of an ageing population: less crime, boosts the economy, increased family support, more women working and a sense of community involvment.
Disadvantages of an ageing population: Poverty increase, family stress, pension time bomb, housing shortages, ill health and disability, loss of skills and experience and dependency.
Why do people migrate: Economic, social and personal.
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Domestic violence
25% of serious violence takes place within the home ironically the place where women feel most secure.
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Dobash and Dobash: (husband and wife) found that domestic violence is carried out by males as a way of extending their patriarchal power.
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Problems with studying: The dark figure - many do not want to talk about it. It is also difficult to obtain valid information. Is difficult to define.
The new right: violence in the home is a result of a decline in moral standards and family values this century.
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Rapoports: The rapoports think diversity is central to understanding family life today they identify five types of family diversity:
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Cultural - different cultures have different types of families due to cultural and religious and ethnic differences for example asian families are more likely to have an extended family
Social class - different classes have different family structure are partly the result of income differences between households of different social classes for example there are class difference in child rearing practices.
Life-stage - family structures differ according to the stage reached in the life cycle - for example young newlyweds, couples with dependent children, retired couples whose children have grown up and left home, and windows who are living alone.
Generational - older and younger generations have different attitudes and experiences that reflect the historical periods in which they have lived. For example they may have different views about the mortality of divorce or cohabitation.
Family policy:
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Patriarchal policies will encourage marriage & the gendered division of labour. Tax & benefit policies assume that men are the main breadwinner making it difficult for wives to claim benefits in their own right.
Childcare:While govts pay for some childcare they don’t cover enough to allow parents to work full time unless they can meet additional costs. Courts assume women are the main caregivers & this they are more likely to get custody of children in divorce cases.
Care for sick and elderly: Government policies often assume the family will provide this care. In general it is middle-aged women who are expected to do the caring.
Feminists: They believe there is unequal levels of labour in the household causing the oppression of women within the family.
Features
Monogamy became essential because of the inheritance of private property - ‘men had to be sure of the paternity of their children to ensure the inheritance was legitimate’. Therefore the family is there to oppress women.
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Division of Labour
Parsons: He believes the family expresses two roles expressive and instrumental. The husband expresses the instrumental role through becoming successful through work. Whereas the woman has the expressive role by focusing on the socialisation of children and emotional support.
Oakley: She interviewed women asking about housework to find 70% were dissatisfied by housework, monotony was common, loneliness a common complaint and housewives have a long week an average of 77 hours.
Radical feminists: Believe that oppression is universal and that the family and marriage are key institutions of a patriarchal society and so the family needs to be abolished which can be done through ‘separatism’ (segregation of the genders).
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Marxists feminists: focus on marxist views but however view sexism and inequality as produced by the family (as an ISA) and a capitalist society. Women are oppressed by capitalism not men and are viewed as a ‘reverse army’ of cheap labour (domestic labour).
Liberal feminists: Believe women's oppression is slowly becoming overcome by new laws being put in place for example: Divorce Reform Act 1969, Equal Pay Act 1963 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
Young and Willmott: They see family life as gradually improving for all it's members. There is a move away from segregated roles to joint ones making the family ‘symmetrical’.
Bott: Joint conjugal roles - couple share tasks such as housework, childcare and spend leisure time together.
Criticisms
Oakley: Criticises young and Willmott symmetrical view and claims they exaggerate as they ignore the idea of a dual burden. Husbands were more likely to share in pleasurable jobs where childcare was concerned - they also prefer childcare over housework.
Boulton: Agrees with Oakley - Young and Willmott exaggerate the father's role in the workplace. It is always the mother who is responsible for child's well-being and safety.
Functionalists: Believe society is based on a consensus of norms and values making the family a subsystem allowing individuals to cooperate harmoniously to meet society's needs and achieve shared goals.
Features
Overview: The nuclear family is private and isolated from their extended family (by social and geographical means) and much more reliant on the welfare state.
Murdock: He came up with the idea that the family provides four functions: reproduction, primary socialisation, economic and emotional support.
Parsons: He believes that the family serves two functions: primary socialisation and the Stabilisation Of Adult Personalities (SOAP) which is a part of the warm bath theory the idea that the family provided emotional support.
Parsons: He has another theory called the functional fit theory this is the idea that the family will fit the needs of society. Rural society is specific to the extended family whereas the industrial society is specific to the nuclear family as they are more mobile and flexible. He argues that society industrialises the family as before hand the nuclear family was a unit of production and so was more self sufficient not a unit of production.
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Criticisms
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Ignores: divorce rates, conflict/abuse, gender inequality and growing family diversity.
Murdock: Some argue they could be performed equally well through other institutions or non-nuclear family structures. Alongside this marxists and feminists believe they see all this through 'rose tinted glasses'.
Marxists: They believe the family is here to serve the needs of capitalism and to continue the oppression of the working classes.
Features
Althuser: French marxist he argued that in order for capitalism to survive the working class must submit to the ruling class. He believes that this is done through the passing on of norms and values resulting in acceptance amongst the working class.
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Monogamy became essential because of the inheritance of private property - ‘men had to be sure of the paternity of their children to ensure the inheritance was legitimate’. Therefore the family is there to protect property through the use of inheritance.
Engels: The bourgeois family emerged the same time as capitalism. Society is patriarchal - it is designed to guarantee and perpetuate male power through the inheritance of property.
Zaretsky: The family 'props up' capitalism as it serves its functions. Proletariat males only experience power in the work place allowing them to accept their oppression.
Emancipation: Marxists argue that only through the overthrow of capitalism and private ownership of the means of production will women achieve liberation from patriarchal control. After this they would promote a 'classless' society where everything is owned collectively instead of privately.
The four ways in how the family serves capitalism: Producing and socialising children (socialise them into a “false class consciousness”), unpaid domestic work from women (cheap reserve army of labour), The family acts as a ‘safety value’ and being a unit of consumption.
Criticisms
Tend to assume nuclear family is dominant in society. This ignores the wide and increasing variety of family structures found in society today.
Feminists argue the ignore gender inequalities. Feminists argue that family primarily serves men rather than just a capitalist society.
Ignore the very real benefits that the family provides for its members such as intimacy and mutual support - functionalist
Marxists theories are highly deterministic in that they reduce all aspects of family life to matters of social class.
Postmoderists:
Giddens: argues that recently the family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice and a more equal relationship between men and women because: contraception has allowed sex and intimacy rather than reproduction to become the main reason for the relationships existence and women have gained independence because of feminism. This has resulted in the family changing and couples having the ability to define their relationship their self.
The connectedness thesis: Smart argues that we are fundamentally social beings and so being isolated limits our choice about personal relationships and so instead our choices are made within a web of connectedness. This means we live within networks of existing relationships. Finch and Masons argue that even though people have their own freedom of choice when it comes to decision making people still have obligations to their family and friends.
Social policy consists of guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare, such as a person's quality of life.
Cross cultural
China's one child policy: Rapid population growth in China has means that the government discourage couples from having multiple children. This is supervised by ‘Workplace Family Planning Committees’ – women must seek permission to become pregnant (obtaining a license). Workplaces have quotas & waiting lists.
Romania had a multiple child policy where they experienced a reduction in contraception and availability for abortions alongside this they reduced the age of marriage to 15. This was in an attempt to increase population size.
Nazi Germany: Women were encouraged to have large families to increase the size of Hitler's army. A way in how Hitler encouraged this was by offering out a loan to newly married couple and for every child they had 25% of the loan would be knocked off.
Perspectives on policy
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Evaluation to functions: They assume there is a 'march of progress' and that all family members are treated equally.