Introduction

• Family - Sociologists see the family as a major social institution; that is, it is an important feature of human societies. Families involve
patterns of shared, stable behaviour that continue over time, from one generation to the next. There are other ways that people share their
lives, such as households, in which the people are not necessarily related to each other by family ties
• Marriage - union between two people, recognised by law
• Monogamy - having a single sexual or marriage partner at any given time.
• Polygamy - having more than one sexual or marriage partner at the same time.
• Polygyny - when one man is married to a number of women
• Polyandry - when one woman is married to a number of men.
• Kinship network - family relationships, based on biology, closeness or law, that form unique (distinctive) patterns (grandparents, parents,
grandchildren) and networks. Members of kinship groups may feel a special bond with, and responsibility for, other kin
 George Peter Murdock
(1949)
- The family is universal
- It has 4 characteristics:
- Common residence ( same house)
- Economic co-operation and reproduction
- At least 2 adults of both sexes who maintain
a socially approved sexual relationship
- At least one child
George Murdock (1949)
• (Isolated) Nuclear Family – it is the universal social
unit, it consist of two generations, parents and their
children
• 4 functional prerequisites of the family:
- Sexual control
- Reproduction
- Socialization
- Economic provision
Gidden (2006)
• Families are defined trough people directly
linked by kin connections, adult members take
responsibility for childcare
• This definition covers a variety of possible
family forms and relationships
• But this definition may be also too broad and
include groups that most people wouldn’t
consider a family
Parson (1959)
• Bales ( 1956) also argued that families are no
longer multifunctional
• Parson believed that families are focused on 2
essential functions:
- Primary Socialization
- Physical and emotional support
Fletcher (1979)
1. Core functions:
- childbearing, child-rearing
- primary socialization
- physical and emotional home
2. Peripheral functions:
- education
- health care
- recreation
 Neo functionalism

• The economy needs already socialized individuals which is the purpose of the
family
• For Howitz (2005) family is the best at it because children:
- are more likely to learn if they are taught by people, they share emotional
commitment with
- want to please their parents
- can be taught subconsciously by observing adults
Loss of functions

• Extended families Nuclear families

• Parson(1959) Goode (1963), extended families used to be norm in pre-
industrial society because families were:
- Multi-functional
- Kinship based
- Economically productive
Against Parson

• Flinch (1989) argued that the industrial revolution family

obligations were much stronger
• Anderson (1995) argued that there wasn’t a single
dominant family structure during the industrial process but
he also suggested that the working class developed a
broadly extended family structure because it satisfied:
- the lack of government help for the sick or unemployed
-most people could barely read and write
- if both parents worked, relatives helped with childcare
-Orphans could be absorbed into the extended families
-young children could also work
 Functionalists
• The accounts of Parson and others are based on the experience of white middle-class
Americans, when the privatized nuclear family was the most common
• Negative aspects of Nuclear family:
-limitation of women
-the limitation of men's involvement in family life
-abuse of male power
-the lack of support for family members in the privatized nuclear family from wider kin
and communities
-the possibility of the nuclear family contributing to mental problems
Marxist view, family benefits capitalism

Ideological control: families spread ideas favourable to capitalism, Zaretsky (1976) argued that
socialization involves passing on of a ruling-class ideology

Economically: replacing workers who are unable to work, family also has a consumption role and it's
also a great target for advertisers

Politically : families help to maintain the political order needed for companies to function, most men
are powerless in the workplace, but this is disguised by the power they exert over their families.
Privatized nuclear family encourages family members to focus on the private and not on the global
problems
Neo-Marxism
Different types of family capital give advantages and
disadvantages to children of different classes
1. Cultural capital – non-economic resources that can
give some families advantages over others
2. Social Capital – people's connections within a social
network and value they have
3. Symbolic capital – authority, personal charm
(charisma)
Feminist view

• Women are exploited through traditional

gender roles which benefit men
• Liberal Feminism – they argue that the
situation of women can be improved by
changing the law or individuals and families
changing the way they live. Other feminists
criticized this view for not recognizing that the
patriarchy is deeply embedded in the society
and that the equality can be only achieved by
individual changing
• Radical Feminism – they believe that the
society, nuclear family and more is patriachal.
We need radical changes and get rid of
patriarchy; they blame men, and some even
think that woman should live seperetly
 More feminist
views
• Marxist view – Capitalism wouldn’t be possible without women doing the domestic
work for their husbands who could work long hours. Women also experience dual
burden (double shift) or even triple shift, they are exploited in the workplace (public
sphere) and in home(private sphere) as unpaid workers doing domestic labour and
being invested in phycological well-being of family members
• Black Feminists –they don't see men as the "enemy" because they share the same issue,
unlike white feminists they focus more on the issues outside the family
• Difference feminists –it emphasizes the difference between men and women and
between women and women, they disagree with liber feminists who think women and
men can be equal
Social change in
marriage

• There was a drop in the number of marriages lately,

people tend to marry at a later age or not to marry at all
• There has been an increase in serial monogamy
• The causes of martial changes could be the fact that the
population has declined, and we have an ageing
population
• There is no social stigma and pressure to get married
• Women are less likely to enter a relationship that limits
their ability to work and develop a career
 • When two people live together and acts as if
they are married but aren't
• 4 reasons for cohabitation (Smart and
Stevens (2000)) :
- Changing attitudes to marriage
Cohabitation - It can be a test for some if their partners are
okay
- it's easier to leave a cohabitation relationship
- some believe that cohabitation can lead to
more equal relationships
Divorce
• Empty shell marriage
• Irretrievable breakdown of
marriage (1969)
• Couples enter a relationship to
fulfil their personal interests in 2
ways:
-Romantic love, unconditional love
-Confluent love, conditional love
• Marriage has become a search for
personal happiness not moral
commitment, people aren't
unhappy with marriage but with
the person they married :((
 • All families are households, not all
households are families
• Types of household structure:

Households 1. Single-person
2. Couple households
2,5. Living Apart Together (LAT)
3. Shared households
Types of family
• Nuclear family ( reconstituted or stepfamilies, same-sex couples)
• Lone-/Single- parent families
• Extended Families, vertically or horizontally extended
• Matrifocal/ Patrifocal families – a family that is centered on the mother/father
• Modified extended family – family members maintain contact without living close
• Families of choice – relationships which are chosen and not given by blood
relationships or marriage
 • Organisational Diversity
• Social class diversity – middle class are more likely to

Family diversity be symmetrical and to have joint conjugal roles

• Conjugal roles – male and female roles played within
the home
• Cultural and ethnic diversity
Extent of Family
diversity
• Reasons for it:
- social change
- changing social attitudes
- increased life expectancy
• One person households are the most common, some of
the reasons for it:
-older people living alone after the death of their partners
-middle-aged people living alone after the divorce
-more people choose to and can afford to live alone
-more people have to move out because of university
education
 New right
perspective
• Cohabitation is worse than marriage
• They argue that family diversity is undesirable and dysfunctional
• Nuclear family is the best because it has a moral core that involves:
-caring for family members
-taking responsibility for behaviour of their children
-unconditional economic co-operation
-the development of stable relationships
 Postmodrem
optimism
• 'a family' is whatever people want it to be, as Stacey (2002) puts it "Every family is an
alternative family"
• There is no single correct way to be a family and we should celebrate those differences
• Pakistani and Bangladeshi are closest to keeping 'old-fashioned' values and White
ethnicities are closest to embrace 'modern individualism '
• This view exaggerates the extent of changes, the nuclear family is still the norm for
most for at least some parts of their lives
 equality
• Housework and childcare:
-Gershuny (2006) observed that women of all types do
more domestic labour than men, women do routine domestic work while men do
more job such as gardening and repairs
-Kan (2001) women housework was reduced a bit by paid employment
-Ramos (2003) domestic labour is more likely to be evenly distributed when the
male is unemployed, and his partner works full time
• Sullivan (2008) suggests that we experienced a 'quiet revolution'
• New Man – a man who combines the provider role with a greater share of
domestic labour
Age and family life

• Archard (2004) - human society has developed a concept of childhood so

its socially constructed and not biologically determined
• Children in pre-industrial societies used to have more responsibility and
rights, they were encourged to explore their sexuality, adult-child
relationships were more supportive and less strict
• Childhood as we have generally understood it over the last 50 years has
disappeared because of the open admission technologies
Grandparents
• Pivot/sandwich generation – the
generation of people has to care
for their dependent children and
their aging parents at the same
time
• 30% of UK families depends on
grandparents for childcare
• Older people are seen differently
in different cultures
Changes in motherhood
and fatherhood

• In modern industrial societies, mothers are

expected to devote themselves to their children,
to have the "mothering instinct"
• The smaller number of children placed more
expectstion from mothers to be 'good' mothers
• But at the same time working mothers are
something more common
• The traditional view of the father is as head of
the family and as breadwinner which made them
alienated from the family
• The position of men in society has changed over
the years which also influened hwo men behave
as fathers
Thank you