The Name of the University
The City
Abstract
Today, the family is one of the issues that is widely discussed among the society and sociologists, as it is the phenomenon that is very hard to define in the modern day society.
The purpose of this report is to provide the critical view on contemporary issues of the family that include, first of all, the status of traditional family types like the nuclear and extended families, and, secondly, to understand the concept of family diversity in the British society. Another purpose of this paper is to identify factors and changes that contribute or influence family diversity, as well as to analyze the British family that existed in the 1950s and 1960s and the modern family and show the scale of change.
The family diversity means that in the modern British society function other types of families, including lone parent families, same-sex families, etc. making the traditional nuclear family less stable due to the social changes, like changes to marriages and children, and factors like multi-culturalism of geographical variations. In this regard, a modern family differs from the family of 1950s to the greatest extent.
The Family: Contemporary Issues
The contemporary issues of family are always one of the most discussable social issues. Once Princess Diana said that «Familiy the most important thing in the world». And she is absolutely right like other well-known people who said that it is «a nature's masterpice» or «essential cell of the society» (Family quotes at BrainyQuote, 2001).
Nuclear and Extended Family
What is the family? Today, it's not an easy question to answer. If we refer to the traditional definitions of family, they include such aspects as a union of male and female that results in reproduction, common residence and economic and financial cooperation (Cohen et al., 2007). Recently, we’ve looked at the family in the traditional way as being either nuclear or extended. In this regard, the traditional structure of the family implies the mother, father and their children that form the nucleus, or in other words, nuclear family, which may also be with grandparents extending the nucleus (Thompson, 2013). Basically, sociologists often speak about so-called «cereal-packet family», the image of the family consisting of parents and a child, where a woman is a housewife and a man is breadwinner – typical family image TV and advertising present (Sociology: Issues of Family Diversity, 2011).
Speaking about the nuclear family, that is widely considered and portrayed as the ideal type of family, it is worth mentioning the statement on the nuclear family of the George Peter Murdoch, the sociologist who defined the universal family concept: "The nuclear family is a universal human social grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of the family or as the basic unit from which more complex forms compounded, it exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every society" (Understanding of the diversity of family, 2015).
As for nuclear families, they frequently live separately from other generation, having their primary responsibility to raise their children. As for extended families, they are often made up of several generations, typically living together or rather close to each other. Members of extended families are likely to strongly support each other and perceive themselves as «one larger familial unit». A common type of the extended family is when a child who's got married ends up living with the parents, which means that at least three generations live under one roof – vertically-extended family. There's another type of the extended family is when two or more siblings with their families live together in one household – horizontally-extended family. There's also an opinion that nuclear families are more typical for societies with individualistic cultures, who give value to autonomy and independence, while the extended families are more typical for collectivist societies, emphasizing common interests over their individual interests and having a high degree of interdependence among members of the family. According to some research findings, in Westerns societies, single parent families are likely to gravitate towards the collective family interests. It probably can be explained by a necessity in the provision of economic, childcare, and emotional support (Cohen et al., 2007; Family and Household Changes, no date).
Family Diversity
However, these definitions no longer fully describe today's family, as there are single-parent families, families where parents have decided not to get married and they just cohabit, there are child-free families, and, finally, there are families with parents of the same sex. What is more, today there's not necessarily common residence of financial cooperation within the family. New reproductive technologies make the process of defining family, even more, complicated, as nowadays it is possible for women to give a birth to a child without a father through sperm donors. Moreover, infertile couples may have a child with the help of a surrogate mother (Cohen et al., 2007).
In this regard, we can speak about family diversity if we look at the historical understanding of this phenomenon, which means that there is no best type of family and that all other types of family are deviant and dysfunctional. However, it should be mentioned that today this phenomenon has other shades of meaning, as according to the contemporary view, family diversity implies numerous characteristics, or in other words, dimensions of which families may vary. Moreover, there's a recognition that other types of families function effectively. Therefore, family diversity refers to variations in demographic or structural characteristics, including race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status etc, and in family processes either, that include parenting behaviors and communication patterns. (Family diversity, definition(s) of, 2010)
Differences in British Family Today and in the 1950s and 1960s
Obviously, we live in a completely different society than it was, for example, in the 1950s, which means that there were some structural changes in the type of families too, as since that time new types of families have appeared and now are perceived as normal.
Main Characteristics and Social Trends in British Family in 1950s and 1960s
As it was already mentioned ‘traditionally’ people lived in stable families, with two married parents and usually marriages were life-long. In such traditional families, boys looked at their fathers as role models, who taught them discipline, and everyone looked after and respected the older generation. There were few divorces and women stayed home taking care of their children, giving the role of the breadwinner to their husbands. Then came the 1960s and «permissiveness», which gave a start to divorces, a child born outside the marriage, cohabiting and complex families with step-relatives (Thane, 2014).
As it was highlighted, divorces were not typical for that times, as in 1950 the divorce rate was only 2,8 couples compared to 12.9 couples by 1999. In 1950, there was only 5,6% of births occurred outside the marriage compared to two-fifths of births outside the marriage by the year 2000 (Cook, 2003).
Needless to say that within family pregnancy is one of the most desirable outcomes of sexual behaviour. However, until the 1960s, it was not that acceptable due to the economic risks. In this regards, for the first time reasonably safe and effective contraception became widely available. Fertility rate started to fall from the peak of a 2.94 total fertility rate in 1964 and by 2001, the total fertility rate was 1.64, which is the lowest point recorded in the history (Cook, 2003).
One can hardly say that is is a coincidence that both the 'traditional' family and sexual morality started to change in the second half of the 1960s as prudential marriage finally came to an end. Census in 1971 illustrated the first time 10%-fall of the proportion of women at the age of 45-49 with single status (Cook, 2003).
However, a closer look at the sexual behavior of young women from the 1950s to the 1970s illustrates that the institution of marriage was also dissolving from within. In 1976, survey results showed that by the 1950s pre-marital sexual intercourse rates were increasing among all classes of young women but young manual-class women were still dating men who they were going to marry, rather than marrying at a young age and creating larger families (Cook, 2003).
We are used to that historical marriage meant the birth of a child for women, however, more and more women wanted to prolong childless period after their marriage, which contributed to «further blurring the boundaries between sexual activity within marriage and outside of it». The lengthening of the period between marriage and he birth of the first child continued, making boundaries between single and married women thinner (Cook, 2003).
Definitely, the demand for female labour from 1955 to 1965, only encourage women not to give up their paid work in favour of marriage and postponing the childbirth. However, during the period 1961-1971, there was the greatest increase in a number of married working women (Cook, 2003).
As a result of all above mentioned changes, families have become fragile and less stable than it was earlier. It's not a surprise now that many children grow up with different parents - in stepfamilies, one-single families or heterogeneous families. These children, unfortunately, are more exposed to poverty and poor health and are likely to practice antisocial behaviour. Moreover, many people now marry later, often living with a partner, as a ‘trial marriage’ before making a formal commitment. (Jenkins and Evans, no date). Other experts confirm this fact saying that «over the past four decades we have seen a dramatic decline in marriage rates and a massive increase in the incidence of cohabitation either before or instead of marriage. This has contributed to a situation in which almost 50% of children are now born to unmarried parents» (Richardson, 2014).
Thus, summing up all above-mentioned facts and comparisons, it should be said that e modern day family differs a lot from the traditional family existing fifty or sixty years ago. One can not state for sure that earlier family was better, like, for example, Dr. Woolfson says that it is impossible to understand if children raised outside the marriage are unhappier and he adds: “You have to ask what sort of families will today’s children create. Where will they go?” (Wallop, 2009).
Social Changes Contributing to Family Diversity in Britain
Obviously, family diversity cannot develop from nothing. The increase of family diversity in Britain can be explained by several aspects, factors, and social changes. As it was already mentioned, family diversity describes a family structure, or structures, that exist outside the traditional family structure.
Types of Family Diversity
For example, the Rapoports identify five types of family diversity: 1) organizational diversity that includes the notion of "reconstituted families" as consequence of remarriage, divorce, etc.; 2) cultural diversity that is rooted in "the indigenous population to migrant households from diverse regions"; 3) social class diversity, reflecting material status of the family and relationships between both couples and parents and children; life cycle diversity is typical for families that were born in different time periods and have a big age difference; 4) family life course diversity that is about the time period between a moment a family has a child and a moment he or she reaches his or her teens and, finally, leave home (Understanding family diversity, 2013).
Different Views on Family Diversity: Factors and Changes Contributing to Family Diversity
The family diversity in British society is often considered to be influenced by the multi-cultural nature of the British society with 11% of the population represented by the ethnic minorities, which means that families with different ethnic origins have different lifestyles determined by religion, kinship, etc. What is more, the number of marriages between Whites and representatives of minorities has increased, which resulted in the increased number of mixed-race children (Family diversity, 2007).
Among other factors are 1) patterns of kinship, which have a certain importance for the upper class who try to maintain status, wealth and privilege; 2) the possibility of same-sex couples to adopt and raise a child, meaning that same-sex families have the same rights as heterosexual families to inheritance and next of kin status; 3) geographical variations, e.g. elderly couples and single-person households are typical for seaside areas; 4) internal division of labour within families, e.g. in Britain most nuclear families have become dual-career families and in some families a man and woman have equal input into the domestic duties (Family diversity, 2007).
It's interesting to mention, that Chester, for instance, thinks that the Rapoports view exaggerate the existing family diversity in the British society and assure that the basic features of the British family remained unchanged since the 1950s. At the same time, New Right Sociologists claim that there's a vivid decline of he nuclear family due to feminism tendency, social problems related to anti-social behavior and juvenile delinquency as a result of mothers' working, permissiveness and promiscuity, and the Divorce Reform Act (Family diversity, 2007).
Conclusion
Family is a complex phenomenon and the typical understanding of family types limited to the nuclear and extended family has been changed due to various social changes reflected in changes to marriage (fewer people make official commitment and get married, they marry later in life, etc.), to partnerships (more couples are cohabiting, same-sex couples have got the legal recognition, etc.), to children and families (more births outside marriage, more lone parents, etc.) (Changing family patterns (family diversity), 2015). All these changes make a modern British family from the family that was in the 1950s and 1960s and introduce the family diversity concept that implies that other, not traditional, families can function effectively. The family diversity, like any other complex social phenomenon, is explained by different factors and different sociologists obviously have different views and theories regarding the concept of family diversity.
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