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
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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
Families are becoming increasingly diverse in the UK because of changing norms and values in society. Postmodernists highlight that people are free to choose the family type that suits them best therefore allowing for harmonious relationships in society. On the other hand Functionalists are against family diversity and argue that a family that does not fit the nuclear model creates instability.
Family diversity is the idea that there are a range of different family types, rather than a single dominant one like the nuclear family. It is associated with the post-modernists idea that in today’s society increasing choice about relationships is creating greater family diversity.
Eveyone's family is shaped diffeent, and functions differently The first major one is marital arrangements of a family, that is the number of persons each sex is allowed to marry. This includes monogamy, which is one marriage, and polygamy which is two marriages. There are also sub catergories that includes polygyny, which includes multiple wives, polyandry, which include multiple husbands, and cenogamy, which is a group marriage. the household arrangements of a family is the expected household composition including marital units and blood. There are two major houseold arrangements of a family that most of us fit into. The first arrangemnet would be a nuclear familty. A nuclear family coud either be intact, childless or incomplete. In an intact family the memebers of the family include a husband, wife, and children. In a childless family this includes a couple without children. In a incompletee family, for example this would be a widower with a child. some would say that the nuclesr family is more intimate then a compounded family because nuclear family are more monagomous and conjugal, but that is not always the case. But it is safe to say that the nuclear family is the norm in all societies today, because family comes in all different shapes and sizes. The other type of household arrangement is a compounded family arrangement. This
Diversity in British households has significantly changed over the years. To understand the full extent of the changes in British household diversity, examination of the family life in the 1950s era is essential. Furthermore then to discuss the types of diversity which now exist in families today. Lone-parenting is defined as a mother or father living without a partner who then has responsibility of a dependent child and is one diversity which will be discussed in great depth. Deliberating on the size of family sizes today is necessary to see the diversity in British households.
In today's society, there are various alternatives from the typical family type. The top examples of these are lone-parent, cohabitation and reconstituted. But there are also some others such as same sex couples, single parent and multi-cultural families. There has been a decrease in the number of nuclear families in the UK and an increase in various other families such as single parent families. But the raise in single parent households has to do with the increase in divorce across the UK which means that more people are left having to support their children on their own unless they become a reconstituted family.
Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.
Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different
There were also needs for industrial society and from there, change/ structure of the family type evolved to meet societies needs to survive such as loss of functions in extended family, where industrial society took over some functions a family would perform for its members such as healthcare (NHS). And another was geographically mobile workforce; where the family had to move to places for jobs demanding their skills. But with extended families, they couldn’t take the whole family, just maybe the wife and kids etc. However, linking with the question, the functionalists view of the family was that nuclear families were the most dominant, but they change their views during industrialisation, believing that extended was the more dominant at the time for survival of the family to fit into society, but in today’s society, functionalists have changed their view once more, which resorted back to their first view of nuclear family being more dominant.
In a sociological perspective, family is interpreted as a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties or a combination of all three. The sociological theories the connect to this concept are functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism. First, functionalism states that the family socializes children, it provides emotional and practical support for its members, and it provides its members with a social identity. Secondly, conflict theory states that members create disagreements, and create emotional support and comfort. Finally, symbolic interactionism claims family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis. "Families are defined as a relationship by blood, marriage, or affection" (Seccombe 5).
This paper discusses the dynamic issues involving the diversity of multicultural families in regards to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic, gender and sexual orientation. This paper will also highlight same or different minority or cultural backgrounds, identity and biases involving multicultural families. How multicultural families incorporate their beliefs, cultures and values into a family unit as well as the transformation of acculturation. Challenges involving racial identity, ethnicity; where do people with different cultures fit in and make it work; the population of multicultural families has risen and continue to do so. Socioeconomic status in multicultural families
n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.
Secondly, Women‘s liberation also made a big “bang” in family’s function. Recall to the traditional nuclear family, the position of women is being as a “good wife or a good mother” and limited within household’s area and husband’s authority, so Women’s liberation changed this image into a “potential good worker” because it lifted women’s position into a higher level. Starting at the 1960s, women had more chances to enrol in the paid work world and to join in more social activities. David Popenoe (1991) has investigated that women employment rate is increasing twice as much as it used to be. Therefore, this permutation of women’s social position also affects and changes the function of the nuclear family.
Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarksian have shed new light on the subject of minority families and their differences to the traditional nuclear families in their essay, “The Color of Family Ties.” According to their work, those of White descent make up most of all nuclear families which can be described as a father, mother and children all living in one household. Gerstel and Sarkasian point out that it is not always the case that, “Black and Latino/a, especially Puerto Rican families are more disorganized than White families, and that their families ties are weaker,” as they are often thought of by those in politics or the media (62). In fact Gerstel and Sarkasian write, “Blacks and Latinos/as, are as likely as
The Decline of Traditional Family Being Detrimental to Society Some people believe that the decline of the traditional family (Nuclear family) is detrimental to society because a lot of people are not socialising. This is one of the basic roles that a traditional family performs for individuals to meet the expectations of society. Only through a family can a person play a full part in society.
The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.