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Modernism and the Nuclear family - Coggle Diagram
Modernism and the Nuclear family
Functionalism:
The nuclear family contributes to the overall stability and effectiveness of society. So all other family types are considered dysfunctional.
Because of the family's ability to perform these essential functions so we can generalise about the type of family we will find in modern society.
Parsons - there is a functional fit between the nuclear family and modern society due to it uniquely suited to meeting the needs of modern society (Geographically and socially mobile)
New Right:
Lone parent families are harmful to children because:
Lone mothers cannot discipline their children properly
Boys without adult male role model
More likely to be 'poorer' and thus burden the welfare state
Benson -> In the first three years of a baby's life, the rate of family breakdown was much higher among cohabiting couples, 20% compared with only 6% of married couples.
This is because cohabitation allows partners to avoid commitment and responsibility.
Benson argues that governments need to encourage couples using policies that support marriage.
Only one correct or normal family type, they see this family as natural and based on fundamental biological differences. As a result they oppose most of the changes in family patterns. The decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems.
Criticisms:
Oakley -> The NR wrongly assume that husbands and wives' roles are fixed by biology. Study's have shown there is great variation in the roles and gender is socially constructed.
Feminists also argue that the conventional nuclear family is based on the patriarchal oppression of women and it prevents women working and keeps the financially dependent. (Edgells findings support this).
Smart says that poverty causes the breakdown of relationships, rather than the decision not to marry.
The Rapoports:
Diversity is of central importance in understanding family life. We now live in a pluralistic society in which family diversity reflects greater freedom of choice. The Rapoport's see diversity as a positive response to peoples different needs and wishes.
They Identify five types of family diversity:
C
ultural diversity
L
ife-stage diversity
O
rganisational diversity
G
enerational diveristy
S
ocial class diversity
Chester:
Chester recognises there has been increased family diversity but does not regard this as very significant or negative. Chester argues that the only important change to the nuclear family is that most are now dual earners. He names this the neo-conventional family.
Chester says that most people are not choosing to live in alternative family styles and that the nuclear family remains the ideal to which most people aspire. He claims that statistics on households misleading because they fail to show us that most people will spend a majority of their life in a nuclear family, and that due to the life-cycle many people who are currently living alone were either part of a nuclear family in the past or will be in the future.
Chester identifies a number of patterns:
Most people live in a household headed by a married couple
Most adults marry and have children
Most marriages last until death, and most divorcees remarry
Cohabitation is a temporary phase
children born outside of marriage are jointly registered
For Chester family diversity has been exaggerated and the nuclear family remains dominant
Modernity:
Does Family diversity mean a breakdown of the family or a new era of choice and personal fulfillment?
Functionalists and the New Right could both be described as modernist.
Modernists see society as having a fairly fixed clear-cut and predictable structure.