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Postmodern views on diversity of the family

Decent Essays

Outline and Evaluate postmodern views on the diversity of family (33marks)
The idea of family diversity suggests that there is no dominate type of family, therefore none can be considered as the norm. However there are studies to suggest that in historical periods of Britain like when it was industrializing there is dominating types, in this period it was considered to be the nuclear family.
Rapoport and Rapoport agreed that there are five types of diversity in a contemporary family, these are: Organisational, Cultural (ethnic), Class, Cohort and Life Course. Organisational diversity refers to kinship patterns and the domestic division of labour, adding to this it is also the structure of the family-whether it is reconstituted or …show more content…

She says that society needs to come to term with these changes and adapt to cope with the evolving family. Adding to this, in the past it has been suggested that the changing in arrangements of the upper and middle class families influenced the change in working class, however Stacey suggested that working class families were already changing arrangements and forming new types of family. Another idea of Stacey 's is that the idea of the male breadwinner is a short-lived term in the working class communities, it was only until the last 20th century that men earn enough money to completely support his family at home, but now this is no longer the case. The case of Pam and Dotty are good examples of how women have responded to change occurring around them, plus they are also good examples of how people have rejected the nuclear family model. The case of Pam and Dotty also presented to Stacey that women have gained strength from the working class, more evidence to back up this point is that Black women 's matriarchal support structures had responded to change in the economy and social conditions. Overall Stacey welcomes the diversity of the postmodern era looking forward to the possibility of more equal and democratic relationships ‘with no script to follow’ compared to the more rigid patriarchal ones of the modern period.
Finally, in conclusion the

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