3.2.
4:
The debate about the extent of family diversity and the dominance of nuclear family.
Family diversity is a term coined by sociologist Rappaport (1982), who thinks that the
family is taking on many more forms other than the nuclear family, rendering the
Functionalist definition of the family by Murdock outdated.
It describe the numerous family structures which exist outside the traditional family
structure. Greater diversity has come about for 3 main reasons
- Social change
- Attitudes
- Increased life expectancy, more active lifestyle. A new style of grandparenting.
Factors responsible for family diversity
Allan and Crow identify the following demographic changes as contributing to increased
family diversity:
The divorce rate has risen. This has affected most countries in the Western
world.
Lone parent households have increased in number. This is partly due to
increased divorce, but also because pregnancy is no longer automatically seen as
requiring legitimation through marriage.
Cohabitation outside marriage is increasingly common. In the early 1960s only
1/20 women lived with her husband before marriage, now 1/2 do.
Marriage rates have declined. This is partly because people are marrying later,
but lifetime marriage rates also appear to have declined.
A big increase in the number of step families also appears to have increased
family diversity.
Impact of the falling fertility rate on the family
With fertility rates falling, rising life expectancy and falling family size we have seen a
rise in the Bean Pole Family [Brannen 2003]
A bean pole family is one with multiple generations but with fewer people in each
generation.
The growth of Voluntary Childlessness – In 2000, one in five women aged 40 had not
had children compared with one in ten in 1980 and this figure is expected to rise to one
in four.
Reason for the rise of the lone Parent family?
Percentage of lone parent households has tripled since 1971.
1 in 4 of all families with dependent children in 2001
16% of births to parents neither married or cohabiting
2% of lone parents are teenagers
It is argued by the New Right that the rise in lone parent families is a consequence of
the welfare state and decreasing feelings of responsibility.
Another reason for the rise in lone parent families could be due to the changes in
reproductive technology, both men and women are able to have a child without having
to be in a relationship.
Beaumont (2011) research study in UK
76% of dependent children live in dual – parent nuclear family
20% live with a lone mother
3% live with a lone father
1% have alternative living arrangements- children homes or communes
Reasons for increase in one-person households families.
Many older people living alone
More middle-aged people
Choice to live alone
Higher education/university education [moving out of family and not returning]
The dominance of nuclear family
Acc. To Murdock , ‘’The nuclear family is not only the first and most basic but
also the building block of all other types of family structure
A dominance thesis, nuclear family is simply the main family structure in all societies
But, there are alternative views to Murdock’s study.
According to studies on tribal societies, family structures different from the nuclear
norm do exist.
Kathleen Gough’s (1959) – Nayar of Malabar, Kerala.
Complex form of family and marriage type
2 practices
Joint matrilineal family structure(tharavad),
On reaching puberty a woman could have indefinite love relationships.
women took responsibility for raising children within matrilineally constructed
households, focusing on mothers, daughters, and sisters. The domestic group also
included the women’s brother.
Keesing’s study(1976) - The lakker of Burma (mayanmar)
They do not see children as having any blood relationship to
the mother. Mothers role is just to give birth.
Polyandry as marriage form.
Children of the same mother and different fathers are not considered to be
related to each other and sexual relations between them is not considered as incest.
Herndon(2004) – Ashanti of west Africa
Matrifocal family system
Children belong legally to the mother and her clan.
After marriage men do take some family responsibilities, but family assets and
property are owned and controlled along female line.
Two third of couples don’t share common residence
Hillebrand(2003) study on Commune – The shaker/Oneida community, Boston, USA
In 19th century there was Communistic culture based on complex marriage- every man
married to every woman.
2 principles
Male – female cohabitation requires the consent of a third commune member.
No two people could have exclusive attachment with each other.
Israeli kibbutz
5 % of the population involve in Communal living, property ownership and child
– rearing.
Couples could engage in monogamous sexual relationships
They did not share common residence and economic co-
operation characteristics of nuclear families.
The product of their work was shared among the community.
Caribbean and some part of united states
Matrifocal extended family consisting of a single women and her children.
Some are supported by extended family network centered on the grandmother.
Reasons:
Slavery- males were separated from females,
Extreme levels of poverty(males were unable to provide for the family hence lived
away)
Single mother could work n children were taken care by other female kin.
Some family types the father maintained emotional and economic relationship.
Universal dominance
Nuclear families may not be the norm but they are dominant because the structure
fits most easily with the demand of modern industrial society.
Criticism:
The dominance of the nuclear family in industrial societies was not caused
by industrialization but by capitalism.
It came into dominance not because of a functional fit with economic production
but because it was a family structure that fitted more closely with the interests of
powerful social groups.
Upper and middle classes(capitalist male owners) needed patrilineal descent.
To ensure wealth was passed down from generations through legitimate heirs.
Q) Evaluate the view that the nuclear family is universal. 26marks
For
-Murdock’s cross-cultural study
-Parsons and functional fit
-Geographic mobility
-basic and irreducible functions
-Structural convergence
-Dominance thesis
Evidences: Murdock, Parson, Goode, Skolnick
AGAINST:
-Evidence of family diversity used to question the universality of the nuclear family.
-Cross-cultural evidence against the universality of the nuclear family (e.g. the Nayar,
the Lakker, the Ashanti).
-Laslett and Anderson and/or other historical evidence to criticise Parsons.
-Matrifocal families, female-carer core, same-sex families, new world black families,
families of choice
Evidences: Stacey, Gough, Keesing, Herndon, Sheeran
