sociology family
domestic abuse
Mirrlees-Black
99% of all incidents against women are committed by men. nearly 1 in 4 women have been assaulted by a partner at some point in her life time.
Official statistics
understate the true extent of domestic violence. police and prosecutors may be reluctant to record, investigate or prosecute those cases that are reported to them.
Dobash & Dobash
violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority. they argue that marriage legitimises violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives.
Radical feminists
domestic violence is an inevitable feature of a patriarchal society.
Wilkinson and Pickett
domestic violence is the result of stress on family members caused by social inequality. so, those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at greater risk.
Fran Ansley
women are the 'takers of shit'. this could include domestic violence. in this case domestic violence is the product of capitalism.
decision making
Edgell
Hardhill et al
Pahl and Vogler
pooling and allowance systems. only 1/4 of the study had a fair system of managing money.
wives made minor decisions, husbands controlled allocation of spending.
some evidence of small move towards more egalitarian relationships.
demographics trends
Birth rate
Death rate
decreasing. fertility rate gone down. 1.49 in 2022 compared to 2.95 in 1984.
•changes in the position of women. •decline in IMR. •children become an economic liability as expensive. •child centredness, it's about quality not quantity.
•beanpole. •smaller families as one sibling or none. •increase in women who are child free, which leads to more symmetrical families. •dependency ratio decreases
decreasing. 1900- 19 per 1,000. today is 4.4. life expectancy: 1900- 50M, 57F, 2013- 90M, 97F.
due to improvements such as; nutrition, medical, public health measures, environmental improvements.
•beanpole, where grandparents are used as childcare. •lone parent household as having children later. •lower IMR- more child centred. •dependency ratio increases.
Migration rates
increasing. 672,000 in 2023. reached its peak of 745,000 in 2022.
due to push and pull factors, also globalisation.
•shared households of workers and students. •south asian more traditional, meaning beanpole. •black caribbean families SPF. •women migrate for sexual (husband) and emotional labour. •increases fertility rates. •dependency ratio decreases as most migrants work
changes in family patterns
•1st time marriage= decreasing. •divorce= increasing. •cohabitation= increasing. •same-sex families= increasing. •SPF= increasing. •single person= increasing. LAT= increasing. •fewer children= increasing.
why?
•secularisation. •changing attitudes. •decline in stigma. •legislation (divorce, pill, equal pay). •technology. •women's changing position. •individualisation.
perspectives
The New Right (Murray)
functionalism- Parsons
opposes family diversity, favours the nuclear family as it is patriarchal with clear division of labour between husband (breadwinner & instrumental) and wife (expressive).
decline of nuclear family + diversity is cause of social problems.
lone parent families are harmful. they are a burden on the welfare state and don't discipline their children properly.
marriage is essential for a stable environment. cohabitation + divorce creates instability.
disapprove of mothers working as caring for children should be a priority.
gender roles
impact of paid work
parsons
instrumental and expressive roles are natural
march of progress view
joint conjugal role (Bott), symmetrical families (Willmot +Young).
Future Foundations: 60% of men claimed to do more housework than their father, whilst 75% of women do less than their mothers.
ONS: found that women tend to spend more time on chores. But, Boulton found that fewer than 20% had a major role in childcare. Warde and Hetherington show that sex typing of domestic tasks is strong.
feminist view
Ann Oakley
claims that the symmetrical family is exaggerated and unconvincing. Oakley found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework, and only 25% in childcare. The housewife role is still women's primary role.
more than 3/4 of married or cohabiting women are in some kind of paid employment in the UK, compared to less than half in 1971.
march of progress
gershung argues that wives who work do less housework.
feminist
there is still little sign of the 'new man' who does an equal share of housework and childcare, while women now carry a dual burden.
Dunscombe and Marsden: 'triple shift' of housework, paid work and emotion work.
2 explanations for this: cultural as inequality. its what society expects. material as women earn less.
Dunne: lesbian couples are more equal
theories of the family
childhood
better
not better
policies
march of progress: Aries and Shorter- children were 'little adults'.
child-centred society. in 2023, the cost of raising a child to the age of 18 was £166,000. lower IMR. in education until 18. growth of children's right. social policies to protect children.
Opie- there is a seperate childhood culture.
Brooks: evidence suggests that adults are taking more control of children's lives. cotton wool society (criticism of Postman).
postmodernism
childhood is changing. instability in families; adults become more fearful for children's security and even more preoccupied with protecting them.
Postman: the disappearance of childhood. rise and fall of print culture and rise of TV culture. information hierarchy has disappeared. social blurring- children have the same rights as adults, are engaging in more adult behaviours.
Palmer: toxic children. unhealthy food, lack of outdoor play, poor sleep patterns, little patterns, little time to interact with family= increase in obesity and ADHD.
conflict views
there are inequalities between children- ethnicity, gender and social class differences.
inequalities between children and adults. neglect and abuse. adults control children's space, time, bodies and access to resources.
functionalism
marxism
feminism
the new right
divorce reform act 1969, no fault divorce 2022.
adoption act 2002 for single parents and same-sex couples
marriage act 2013 legalised same-sex marriage
family allowance act 1945, allowed child benefits
education and skills act 2008, increased school leaving age to 18.
childcare expansion 2024- working parents with children age 2, 3 and 4 can get 15 hours childcare support.
nuclear family with traditional gender roles is the ideal family type. however welfare state has facilitated the growth of SPF and same-sex families which the NR are against. benefits offer perverse incentives and create a dependency culture.
radical
marxists
liberal
Murdock 4 functions; economic, reproductive, sexual & educational
Parsons functional fit thesis; primary socialisation, stabilisation of adult personalities (warm bath theory).
Engels- inheritance of property (economic function)
Zaretsky- ideological function. parental power, king of the castle. unit of consumption. keeping up with the Jones's, pester power.
women's position in family improving thanks to changes in legislation (canalisation). patterns of socialisation need to change though.
women reproduce the labour force, absorb anger and are a reserve army of labour (during WWII and covid).
are patriarchal institutions. political lebanism.
Rapoports: 5 types of family diveristy
Robert Chester- neo conventional family
increase in family diversity, but not as significant as others make out and not as negative.
conventional family- nuclear family with division of labour.
neo-conventional family- nuclear with dual earners (both work).
other than this, no major change. nuclear family still what people aspire to be and see in their lives.
postmodernism
family less stable, gives individuals more choice about personal relationships.
Giddens- result of improved knowledge + availability of contraception and increased independence of women. relationships based on confluent love (love & respect). same-sex couples as pioneers.
Beck- negotiated family.
Stacey- divorce extended family (reconstituted).
personal life perspective- Smart
terminology in the sociology of family has shifted, introducing concepts such as households. discussing families of choice and thinking in terms of practises rather than structures and institutions. the idea of personal life does not see kin as necessarily more important as friends and allows for the idea of families of choice.
families of choice
relationships with friends.
fictive kin- close friends treat as family.
gay and lesbian chosen families- supportive network.
relationships with dead relatives who continue to shape lives.
pets- for children in particular.