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3.2 Diversity and Social Change

The document discusses trends in marriage, cohabitation, and divorce in modern societies. It finds that people are increasingly delaying marriage and choosing alternatives like cohabitation without legal marriage. This is due to reduced social pressure to marry, greater acceptance of diverse family types, and women's increased financial independence reducing dependence on marriage. Cohabitation is rising as an alternative to or precursor to marriage, though some choose to not legally marry even if having children together. Divorce rates peaked in the late 20th century as legal changes made divorce easier, but have since declined.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
200 views18 pages

3.2 Diversity and Social Change

The document discusses trends in marriage, cohabitation, and divorce in modern societies. It finds that people are increasingly delaying marriage and choosing alternatives like cohabitation without legal marriage. This is due to reduced social pressure to marry, greater acceptance of diverse family types, and women's increased financial independence reducing dependence on marriage. Cohabitation is rising as an alternative to or precursor to marriage, though some choose to not legally marry even if having children together. Divorce rates peaked in the late 20th century as legal changes made divorce easier, but have since declined.

Uploaded by

wambui (nat)
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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3.

2 Diversity and social change


• The causes and consequences of changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, divorce and separation.
Case study
Hard labor: the sociology of parenthood by Caroline Gatrell (2004)
 The research involved unstructured interviews with a sample of heterosexual married or cohabiting mothers of
young children and their male partners
 The aim was to try to understand the lived experiences of parents trying to combine parenthood with paid work.
 All the women were working, some were part-time.
 The study found that the parents found it difficult to combine work and parenthood. For example, most of the
women returned to demanding jobs within 12 weeks of giving birth. They found it hard to give time to their partners
and this could put strain on the relationship.
 The women were also physically very tired and often had physical or mental problems as a result of a poor birth
experience.
 Many new parents said they felt unprepared for the changes in their lives.
 The women wanted to work not mainly for the income, but because they were committed to the work and the job
gave them a part of their self-identity.
 Almost all faced some kind of discrimination at work because of motherhood. For example, a female hospital
consultant was not allowed to switch to part-time work and lost her job.
Marriage
In modern industrial societies the number of marriages and the marriage rate have been falling because people tend to
marry at a later age, reducing the number of marriages in a given year and also because more people choose not to
marry at all.
People are marrying later and the average of first age marriage rose by 7 years between 1971 and 2005 when it was 32
years for men and 30 for women.
Remarriages:
 Balanced the decline in marriage
 Peaked in the 1980s and have since slowly declined over the past 10 years
 Doubled in the past 50 years
 The number of first marriages has significantly declined since the 1970s from 480,000 in 1972 to 306,000 in 2000.
 Increased from 570,000 in 1961 to 126,000 (46% of all marriages) in 2000.
 Most remarriages involved divorced persons rather than widows and widowers. The largest increase occurred
between 1971 and 1972 following the introduction of the divorce reform act of 1969
There has been an increase in serial monogamy because of the death of partners in the past, but today divorce has
become the main cause.
Serial monogamy – when a person has several marriage partners over their lifetime but only one at a time

Causes of marital changes:


1. The general decline can be explained by population (demographic) changes rather than a change in people’s
behavior
Marriage in the UK was most popular just after WWII and during the 1970s.
During these periods there was a baby boom when a greater average number of babies were born over a relatively short
time.
WWII had prevented many couples starting a family and by the 1950s the average time for family competition (from first
to last child) was a historically short 10 years. This produces population growth – a rapid, if temporary increase in
marriage and childbirth during the 1950s and the numbers of children.
This goes some way to explaining both an increase in marriage and childbirth during the 1950s and the numbers
marrying in the 1970s and 1980s as the baby boom generation reached adulthood.
In any society some age groups (cohort) are more likely than others to marry. This means there are ‘peak periods’ for
marriage (the age range at which marriage is more likely to be.
The number of children or elderly in a population affects marriage statistics.
The UK has an ageing population in which there are more older people than young. The size of these 2 cohorts affects
marriage statistics. If we focus on those most likely to marry the marriageable population, we find only a relatively small
decline in marriage rates over the past 30 years.

2. Focuses on wider influences on people’s behavior


There are now fewer issues (stigmas) attached to having children outside marriage and there is also less social pressure
to get married
More freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship they want. The Postmodernist David Cheal argues that
this greater choice over the type of family we create has led to an increase in family diversity.
Women now have more career opportunities which allow them greater financial independence. As a result, there is less
economic pressure for them to marry
Increased female financial career and personal independence means that marriage is now a ‘lifestyle choice’ and women
are less likely to enter a relationship that limits their ability to work and develop a career.
Cohabitation as an alternative to marriage has increased in recent years and although many cohabiting couples
eventually marry many do not.
Cohabitation - couples who live together in intimate relationships without being married.
Self and Zaeley suggest that failing marriage and rising cohabitation are the result of more people choosing to delay
marriage until later in life.
 Secularization – the process in which religious institutions, practices and beliefs have less influence which has led to
changes in the meaning and significance of marriage.
 There is less pressure to marry and the importance of the institution of marriage has declined
Beck 1992 argued that people in postmodern societies increasingly assess the likely risks and consequences of their
actions.
 The likelihood of divorce with its emotional and economic consequences can lead to the avoidance and risk by not
marrying

Cohabitation
A relationship where 2 people who are not married to each other live together as if they were married
Cohabitation, remaining single and having children outside marriage are all now regarded as acceptable.
In 1988 70% of respondents to the British social attitudes survey believed that couples who wanted children should get
married. By 2000 this had dropped to 54%.
Over the past 25 years survey methods have produced more reliable estimates with Hughes and Church (2010)
identifying an increase in cohabitation from 10% of couples in 1986 to 25% in 2006.
Around 25% of young people aged 25 – 29 now cohabit compared with around 18% in the mid 1990s.
The proportion of cohabiting couple families has increased significantly in the past 10 years from 9% to 15% of all
families.
The causes of the increase in cohabitation:
 Reduced social pressure to marry
 Lower levels of stigma attached to living with someone without being married
 The wider availability of both birth control (contraception) and abortion
Smart and Stevens (2000) suggest 4 main reasons for recent upward trends in cohabitation:
 Changing attitudes to marriage: these range from no interest in the institution of marriage itself to uncertainty about
whether a partner is ‘suitable’ for marriage
 For some cohabitation represents a test for their partner to prove they can settle down gain and keep paid work and
interact successfully with the mother’s children. Before marriage, some males and females move into and out of
serial cohabitation – one cohabitation relationship followed by another
 Many cohabiting parents are either unwilling to enter into a legal relationship or they believe it is easier to leave a
cohabiting relationship if it does not work out.
 There may be a philosophical resistance to marriage influenced by feminist ideas with some people believing that
cohabitation leads to more equal relationships.
Criticism:
- Cohabitation is not legally recorded in the UK, so statistics are not very reliable

Divorce and separation


Empty shell marriage – where the couple are married in name only living in the same home as separate individuals. For
example, Couples may continue to live together after the marriage is over especially if they are not able to afford to live
apart
Divorce – the legal termination of marriage
In the early to mid-20th century, there were a relatively small number of divorces
Over the past 50 years divorce has become more common, peaking in the 1990s
In recent years there has been a general decline in divorce
Since 1981 there has been a doubling of ‘re - divorces’ - people experiencing multiple marriages and divorces
A pattern is that divorced people (divorcees) have been getting older which reflects the later average age of marriage
The number of marriages is sensitive to the population changes
The higher the number of marriages the greater the likelihood of them ending in divorce. As a result, it's more reliable to
look at divorce rates which peaked at the turn of the 21st century and have since gradually declined

Causes of divorce
Patterns of divorce are affected by a range of social factors:
Legal change: each time divorce is made easier or cheaper the number of divorces increases.
 Changes to the rules regarding divorce can create reliability problems. For example, the 1969 Divorce Reform Act in
the UK introduced ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ as the only requirement for divorce
irretrievable breakdown of marriage – the ending of a marriage relationship for reasons other than the death of a
partner
 Before 1969 one partner just had to find fault e.g., an affair (adultery) with the other.
 We don’t know how many people before 1969 would have divorces if the new rules applied then.
 Secularization means that many couples no longer regard marriage as a sacred institution that must be preserved.
 There are fewer stigmas attached to divorce
 Life expectancy in modern societies means that a marriage has longer to last which may place greater strain on a
relationship increasing the chances of divorce
Contemporary ideas about marriage are influenced by romantic identity (individualism).
Couples enter a relationship seeking to meet (fulfill) their personal interests in the partnership in 2 ways:
1. Romantic love: where the love given to a partner is unconditional but if one partner ‘falls out of love’ there is nothing
to hold the marriage together
2. Confluent love where love is not unconditional: one partner gives it in return for something else. For example, one
partner may marry because they believe this will enhance their social status. If this fails to happen or changes over time,
there is nothing to keep the couple together
Confluent love – refers to the idea of love being contingent; it is given return for something else
Marriage has increasingly become a search for personal happiness rather than a moral commitment, and this may
explain the increase in re - marriages.
Divorces are not unhappy with marriage they are unhappy with the person they married, so it is more likely to happen
when what someone expects to happen in a marriage doesn’t actually happen. This is because people have romanticized
ideas about love and family life but when they realize these ideas are un - realistic they choose divorce as a way out of
an unhappy experience

Explanations for the increase in divorce


Changes in the law
Divorce was very difficult to obtain in 19thcentury Britain, especially for women. Gradually, changes in the law have
made divorce easier.
There have been 3 kinds of change in the law:

1. Equalizing the grounds (the legal reasons) for divorce between the sexes
2. Widening the grounds for divorce
3. Making divorce cheaper.
The widening of the grounds in 1971 to ‘irretrievable breakdown’ made divorce easier to obtain and produced a
doubling of the divorce rate almost overnight. The introduction of legal aid for divorce cases in 1949 lowered the cost of
divorcing. Divorce rates have risen with each change in the law.
Evaluation:

 Although changes in the law have given people the freedom to divorce more easily, this does not in itself explain
why more people should choose to take advantage of this freedom.
 To explain the rise in divorce rates we must look at other changes too which includes changes in public attitudes
towards divorce.

Declining stigma and changing attitudes

Juliet Mitchell and Jack Goody (1997) note that an important change since the 1 960s has been the rapid decline in the
stigma attached to divorce. As stigma declines and divorce becomes more socially acceptable, couples become more
willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their marital problems.
In turn, the fact that divorce is now more common begins to ‘normalise’ it and reduces the stigma attached to it. Rather
than being seen as shameful, today it is more likely to be regarded simply as a misfortune.
Evaluation:

 Despite these changing attitudes, family patterns tend to be fairly traditional. Most people still live in a family; most
children are brought up by couples; most couples marry and many divorcees re-marry.
 Some sociologists have suggested that these changes have led to a ‘crisis of masculinity’ in which some men
experience anxiety about their role. The result of this could be an increase in domestic violence in an attempt to
reassert their traditional masculinity.
Secularisation

Secularization - the decline in the influence of religion in society.


Due to secularization the opposition of the churches to divorce carries less weight in society and people are less likely to
be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions. For example, according to 2001 Census data, 43% of young
people with no religion were cohabiting, as against only 34% of Christians, 17% of Muslims, 11% of Hindus and 10% of
Sikhs.
At the same time, many churches have also begun to soften their views on divorce and divorcees, perhaps because they
fear losing credibility with large sections of the public and with their own members.
Evaluation:

Some sociologists challenge whether secularisation is occurring, and point to the number of first-time marriages taking
place in a religious context, and the changes made by the Church of England to allow divorced people to remarry in
Church. This suggests that there is still a demand for religious weddings, even amongst those who have been divorced
before.

Rising expectations of marriage

Functionalist sociologists such as Ronald Fletcher (1966) argue that the higher expectations people place on marriage
today are a major cause of rising divorce rates. Higher expectations make couples nowadays less willing to tolerate an
unhappy marriage.
Evaluation:

 Despite today’s high divorce rates, functionalists such as Fletcher take an optimistic view - They point to the
continuing popularity of marriage. Most adults marry, and the high rate of re-marriage after divorce shows that
although divorcees may have become dissatisfied with a particular partner, they have not rejected marriage as an
institution.
 Feminists argue that the oppression of women within the family is the main cause of marital conflict and divorce,
but functionalists ignore this. Although functionalists offer an explanation of rising divorce rates, they fail to explain
why it is mainly women rather than men who seek divorce.
Changes in the position of women

One reason for women’s increased willingness to seek divorce is that improvements in their economic position have
made them less financially dependent on their husband and therefore freer to end an unsatisfactory marriage.
The availability of welfare benefits means that women no longer have to remain financially dependent on their
husbands. These developments mean that women are more likely to be able to support themselves in the event of
divorce.
Evaluation:

Feminists also argue that the fact that women are now wage earners as well as homemakers has itself created a new
source of conflict between husbands and wives and this is leading to more divorces. Feminists argue that marriage
remains patriarchal, with men benefiting from their wives’ ‘triple-shifts’ of paid work, domestic work and emotion work.

Sociological Perspectives on divorce:


Feminism:
- Most divorces proceedings are initiated by women which suggests that marriage works less well for women than for
men.
- They argue that the high divorce rates are desirable because it shows that women are breaking from the oppression
of the patriarchal family.
- Many feminists argue that the fact that women are now wage earners as well as homemakers has itself created a
new source of conflict between husbands and wives and this is leading to more divorces.
New right:
- They see a high divorce rate as undesirable because it undermines the traditional nuclear family.
- Divorce creates an underclass of welfare dependent lone mothers and leaves. Boys without the adult room model
they need.
Postmodernists:

- See high divorce rate as giving individuals the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their
needs and see it as a cause of greater family diversity.
- The decline of marriage and increase in divorce reflect the fact that we are part of a consumer society where
individual choice is central to life.
- The end of the ideology of the nuclear family is seen as good, and Postmodernists tend to reject the idea that the
traditional married nuclear family is better than other family forms, so these trends are not a significant problem for
either the individual or society.
- Judith Stacey (1996) argues that the traditional family has been replaced by several other family types. People no
longer feel bound by traditional ideas and expectations about marriage, lifelong monogamy, parenthood and family
life or traditional sexual identities. People are adopting new lifestyles as a result of rising divorce rates, cohabitation,
multiple partners, serial monogamy and birth outside marriage.
Functionalists:

- Argue that a high divorce rate does not mean that marriage as a social institution is under threat, and it's simply the
result of people's higher expectations of marriage today.

Sociological Perspectives on Declining Marriage


Feminism
Feminists would generally see the decline of marriage as a good thing, because traditional marriage is a patriarchal
institution.
Radical Feminists would point out that the increase in divorce has not necessarily benefited women – as children go to
live with the mother in 90% cases following a divorce, and single parent families (mostly female) suffer higher levels of
poverty and stigma.
Many women are now financially independent from men because of better education and better career prospects, this
gives gem greater freedom not to marry.
The growing impact of the feminist view that marriage is an oppressive patriarchal institution may also dissuade women
from marrying.
Criticism:
- Changes to position of women in society does not necessarily mean that they don’t get married they merely put off
marriage until their careers are established
- Many feminists argue that the fact that women are now wage earners as well as homemakers has itself created a
new source of conflict between husbands and wives and this is leading to more divorces. Feminists argue that
marriage remains patriarchal with men benefiting from their wives ‘triple shifts’ of paid work domestic work and
emotion work

The New Right/ Functionalists


Would interpret these trends in a negative way, as indicating a decline in morality, and a breakdown of social structure
and order – the family is supposed to be the fundamental building block of society, and it is difficult to see what will
replace it. Without the family we risk less effective primary socialisation and more problem children as well as more
anomie for adults.
Blame the decline of marriage on moral decline – part of the broader breakdown of social institutions and due to too
much acceptance of diversity. This results in the inability of people to commit to each other, and they see this as bad for
society and the socialisation of the next generation.
The high rate of re – marriage demonstrates people continuing commitment to the idea of marriage.
Postmodernism
The decline of marriage and increase in divorce reflect the fact that we are part of a consumer society where individual
choice is central to life. The end of the ideology of the nuclear family is seen as good, and Postmodernists tend to reject
the idea that the traditional married nuclear family is better than other family forms, so these trends are not a significant
problem for either the individual or society.
Postmodernists explain the decline in marriage as a result of the move to postmodern consumer society characterised
by greater individual choice and freedom. We are used to being consumers and picking and choosing, and so marriage is
now a matter of individual choice.
Another process associated with Postmodernisation is the decline of tradition and religion (secularisation) – as a result
there is less social stigma attached to cohabiting or remarrying after a divorce.
Criticism:
- Many first-time marriages take place within a religious context suggests that religion still has some influence over
the decision to get married
- Most couples who cohabit tend to get married it's just the average age of getting married has risen.

Late modernism
People still value marriage but changes in the social structure make it harder to start and to maintain stable
relationships – greater gender equality means it’s harder to please both partners, and the fact that both people have to
do paid work doesn’t help with the communication required to keep a relationship going or help with people getting
together in the first place.
People now delay getting married not only because of needing to establish a career first, but also because of the
increased cost of mortgages and weddings, and because of the increased fear of getting divorced – with cohabiting the
new norm before marriage.
New institutions also emerge to help us cope with the insecurities of modern relationships – marriage guidance and pre-
nuptial agreements are two of the most obvious.
Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck – argues that the decline in marriage is because people are less likely to get married
because of structural changes making life more uncertain.
People may want to get married but living in a late-modern world means marriage doesn’t seem like a sensible option.
Ulrich Beck argues that fewer people getting married is because of an increase in ‘risk consciousness’ – people see that
nearly half of all marriages end in divorce and so they are less willing to take the risk and get married.
Beck also talks about indivdualisation – a new social norm is that our individual desires are more important than social
commitments, and this makes marriage less likely.
Giddens builds on this and says that the typical relationship today is the Pure Relationship – one which lasts only as long
as both partners are happy with it, not because of tradition or a sense of commitment. This makes cohabitation and
serial monogamy rather than the long-term commitment of a marriage more likely.

• Different family and household forms, including nuclear, extended, lone-parent, reconstituted, same-sex families,
families of choice and single-person households.
Types of households
Household – 1 or more people living in a particular dwelling
All families are households while not all households are families
4 different types of household structures:
1. Single person households - where an adult lives alone either because of the death of a partner the breakdown of a
relationship or through personal choice
2. Couple households consist of 2 people without children:

 Couples who have not yet started a family


 Those whose children have left home
 Those who have chosen to remain childless
3. Living apart together (LAT) – couples who are married or in a long-term relationship but do not live together
Rose Neil (2006) suggests “couples who live apart”. These are in a stable relationship and spend a significant amount of
time together but do not share a home. Couples do this because work demands and different routines would make it
difficult to live together, but other couples choose this lifestyle because they want to maintain some independence
because they have demanding careers.
4. Shared households - involve a group of unrelated people living together. This may be temporary e.g., when students
live together or permanent e.g., people who live in communes.
Commune - shared household involving a group of unrelated people living together

Family definitions

- Popenoe (1988) suggests that a contemporary exclusive definition of family can encompass both single parents and
homosexual relationships. This can be useful for distinguishing between family and non–family groups
Criticism:

 Excludes household forms e.g., single parent and homosexual (gay and lesbian) households that are families in many
modern societies
 - Anthony Giddens (2006) - late modernist suggests an inclusive definition of family that focuses on kinship and the
general relationships that make families different from other social groups
Criticism of inclusive definition:
If the definition is too broad, it may include groups that most people would not normally consider to be families
Kinship – when the ties between people are related by descent (having a common ancestor, marriage and adoption.
Kin relationships can be based on:

 Biology e.g., mother and child)


 Affinity (2 adults living together)
 Law e.g., marriage
Families are defined through people linked by kin connections where adult members take responsibility for childcare
- Ambert (2003) suggests a definition of family that focuses on both kinship (inclusive) and function (exclusive).
Families involve 2 or more people and bound by ties of mutual consent who assume responsibility for:
 The physical maintenance and care of group members
 Procreation or adoption
 Socialization and social control of children
 The production, consumption and distribution of goods and services
 Affective nurturance (childcare)
Types of family
1. The nuclear family
 Seen as the normal kind of family in the USA and the UK (United Kingdom) and other modern industrial societies in
the 20th century
 Thought to be the most common kind of family and the best
 From the 1970s onwards other types of family became more noticeable

2.Extended families
 More common in the past
 Now in decline because they seem less suited to life in modern industrial societies
 Includes more relatives than the mother, father, and children unit of the nuclear family
 The term can be used for all the relatives sharing a household that is living together under one roof
 Sometimes nuclear families living close to each other in the same street or area can be called extended families
Extended families are a different type of family structure that takes two basic forms:
 Vertically extended family - involves 3 or more generations (grandparents, parents, and children) living in, or close
to, the same household.
 Matrifocal family: family that focused on women E.g., a female grandparent, parent, and children.
 Patrifocal family: family structure focused on men.
 Horizontally extended families: those with branches within generations, such as aunts and uncles, living with/ close
to each other
Both types of extended family exist in contemporary industrialized societies, but Gordon (1972) suggests that the norm
for this type is now the modified extended family.
In this form, wider family members stay connected both physically, through visits or exchanges of help and services, and
emotionally, via telephone and email, without necessarily having frequent personal contact.
Willmott (1988) further suggests 3 variations on the modified extended family:
 Locally extended types involve 'two or three nuclear families in separate households' living close together and
providing mutual help and assistance.
 Dispersed-extended types involve less frequent personal contact between family members.
 Attenuated-extended types include 'young couples before they have children', gradually separating from their
original families.
Modified extended family - contemporary form of extended family: family members maintain contact but rarely live
near one another.

3. Single parent family – one parent and their dependent children/ child living together
 Increase in the number of single parent families in modern industrial societies since the mid 20 th century
Causes of single parent families:
 Divorce has become common, and it leaves one parent looking after the children
 Women have greater financial independence. They are more likely to have qualifications that allow them to work to
support their family and they may be able to receive welfare benefits, so they do not need a man as a breadwinner
 Some women now choose to raise children on their own, without the father around

4. Reconstituted/ stepfamily/ blended family – involves the breakup of one family and its reassembly as a new family
through marriage or cohabitation
Many variations of this family:
 One/ both parents have been married before
 One/ both partners have children who live in the new family/ with a previous partner
New relationships created by re - marriage:
 step - parents
 step - children
 step siblings
 step grandparents
This situation is new so the norms and values are not as clear and may need to be negotiated. For example, a
stepmother may not be sure to what extent she should correct bad behavior in the children of her husband and his
former wife, and the children may be unsure what authority this new person in their lives should have
Common law family – adult couple and children living together as a family without the adults being legally married
Divorce – legal dissolution of marriage

5. Same sex families – when 2 adults of the same sex (male/female) are raising their own adopted children
 In the past same sex families were not accepted
 Increasingly modern industrial societies allow some same sex couples to adopt children and have similar or the same
rights and responsibilities that opposite sex couples have. E.g., property rights and rights to welfare benefits
 In the UK unions of two people of the same sex are formally recognized by a ceremony that creates a civil
partnership
Civil partnership - relationship between 2 people of the same sex that has been formally registered giving them similar
rights to married opposite sex couples
Statistics:
Lesbian couples are more likely to be accepted as parents than male homosexuals because of the perceived importance
of the motherly role that children need.
Women who have left their husband to live with someone of the same sex have found it easier to gain custody of their
child/ children in comparison to the past.
This is because:
 Children raised by lesbian parents are no more likely than others to grow up gay suffering from bullying at school (US
and UK)
 Parents' sexual orientation is seen as less important in deciding who should bring up children
 Children brought up in some families are no different from children brought up in the opposite sex families in their
intelligence, gender roles, identities, and attitude to life

6. A Lone-parent family – involves a single adult and dependent children.


Sometimes called a broken nuclear family when it arises from the break-up of two-parent family (through death,
separation, or divorce).
Single-parent families, while headed by a lone parent, are an important variation because they do not result from a
family break-up.
Lone parenthood is usually distinguished from single parenthood based on factors such as divorce or the death of a
partner, rather than choice.

The consequences of the lone parent family:


single parenthood has increasingly become a contentious issue with some arguing that it has become a serious problem
for society
Deborah chambers (2001):
Discusses what she sees as a moral panic in relation to lone parents
Moral panic - an exaggerated outburst of public concern over the morality or behavior of a group in society
Argues that in the 1990s in the conservative party there was a widespread discourse suggesting that lone parenthood
posed a major threat to the well-being of society. For example, the home conservative politician Michael Howard while
serving as home secretary claimed that family values were under threat from rising lone parenthood.
Michael Howard also suggested that unmarried mothers should give their children up for adoption
John Major when he was prime minister stated that a ‘back to basics’ campaign extolling the virtues of traditional
families
She also notes how the tabloid press repeatedly ran stories portraying lone parents as ‘scroungers’ suggesting that they
deliberately had children to claim benefits encouraging a culture of dependency
New labor politicians were less inclined to condemn single parenthood outright, but the labor governments 1998 Green
Paper called supporting families said ‘’marriage is still the surest foundation for raising children’’
The sociologist Charles Murray claims that single parenthood has contributed to creating a whole new stratum of society
– the underclass
The level of overt hostility to lone parents may have lessened with David Cameroon supporting Gingerbread’s campaign
to tackle the stigma attached to lone parenthood which was also supported by Nick Clegg (labor democratic leader)
prime minister) and Gordon Brown (labor leader and Prime minister)
Gingerbread’s campaign being seen as necessary suggests that some stigma still remains, and the existence of this
stigma can create problems for lone parents. For example, Morgan (1994) argues that teachers are more likely to label a
child as difficult if they have the knowledge that a particular child comes from a single parent household. Single
parenthood can create problems for individual parents, but many sociologists do not see it as a social problem, and
some believe that it is a sign of social progress.
Gingerbread’s campaign - provides information and advice to support parents to work collaboratively with their child's
other parent to make arrangements together in the best interests of their child they provide expert advice, practical
support and campaign for single mums and dads.
Sarah McClenaghan and Karen Booth (1971) argue that some view the mother only family as an indicator of social
disorganization signaling the ‘’demise of the family’’. Others regard it as an alternative family form consistent with the
emerging economic independence of women.

7. Families of choice - close relationships that are chosen rather than being given by blood relationships or through
marriage
The term has been used in situations where people freely choose to create a family like relationship with others
It was first used by Weston (1991) to describe how gay, lesbian and bi - sexual people were using the term family for
their social network

• Dimensions of family diversity, including organisational, cultural and class diversity.

• The debate about the extent of family diversity and the dominance of the nuclear family.
1. In many countries family and household structures are more complex, broken up and diverse than ever before.
2. There is a wider range of family types and more diversity than in the past.
3. This has been exaggerated because many people live in nuclear families and others aim to do so, for example they
may hope to find an ideal partner to marry and have children with
4. Media representations of the family assume that the nuclear family is still the main or only kind of family
5. In many parts of the world cohabitation and same sex couples remain rare because they are still strongly
disapproved of for example for religious reasons
Greater diversity has come about for 3 main reasons:
 Social changes such as relatively easy access to divorce have led to greater numbers of reconstituted/ single parent
families and single person households
 Changing social attitudes such as greater social acceptance of single parent and same sex family structures have also
resulted in structural diversity
 Increased life expectancy, more active lifestyles and changes to the welfare system have created changes within
family structures. These include a new style of grandparenting in which grandparents play a greater role in the care
of grandchildren
Brannen (2003) argues these trends have led to the beanpole family. Beanpole families arise in developed societies that
have low or declining birth rates and increasing life expectancy
With fewer children being born horizontal (intra–generational) family extensions are weak. At the same time higher life
expectancies lead to stronger, vertical extensions between grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren
A feature of contemporary societies is the growth of lone person households. Beaumont (2011) notes that nearly 1/3
(29%) of British households contain only 1 person – the 2nd most common household structure after 2 person
households (35%). Over the past 50 years 1 person households have increased around 2.5 times up from 12% in 1961.
Some of the reasons for growth of lone person households:
1. There are some older people living alone after their partner has died
2. There are more middle-aged people (usually men) living alone who have moved out of the family home after a
divorce
3. More people choose to live alone and can afford to do so. For women it has become acceptable to stay single rather
than marry which at one time would have been extremely difficult for financial and other reasons
4. More people have a university education which can often mean moving out of the family home and not returning
This trend towards more people living on their own may slow down if there is a shortage of suitable cheaper housing

• New Right and postmodernist perspectives on family diversity.


New right and functionalist perspectives on family diversity – AGAINST
The new right perspective is based on the idea that there is only 1 correct/ normal type of family. This is the traditional/
conventional patriarchal nuclear family consisting of a married heterosexual couple and their dependent children with a
clear-cut division of labor between the breadwinner husband and homemaker wife. They see the family as natural and
based on fundamental biological differences between men and women
Criticism: lips - differences between male and female identities are not naturally occurring biological differences they
differ historically and cross culturally which means its learnt and relative
Believe that stable nuclear family relationships provide emotional and psychological benefits to family members and
society as a whole because each adult partner plays a role that involves both personal sacrifice and commitment to
others.
New right approaches argue that family diversity is undesirable and dysfunctional which can lead to moral chaos in
some behaviors e.g., abortion that takes no account of ‘rights of unborn’ which produces morally undesirable results.
They are also the cause of many social problems, such as higher crime rates and educational failure.
They oppose the changes in the family such as cohabitation, gay marriage and lone parenthood
They see lone-parent families, as ‘unnatural’ and harmful to children because:

1. Lone mothers cannot discipline their children properly. They leave boys without an adult male role model resulting
in educational failure delinquency and social instability
2. Such families are more likely to be poorer, becoming a burden on the welfare state and taxpayers. They rely on
high levels of welfare benefits which undermine the traditional family by discouraging men from working to
support their families encouraging a ‘dependency culture’ of living off welfare benefits.
New right argue that only marriage can provide a stable environment where you can bring up children
The new right claims that the cause of lone parent families is the collapse of relationships between cohabiting couples.
For example, Harry Benson (2006) analysed data on the parents of over 15,000 babies and found that over the first 3
years of the baby’s life the rate of family breakdown was much higher among cohabiting couples: 20% compared with
only 6% among married couples.
Harry Benson argues that couples are more stable when they are married because it requires a deliberate commitment
to each other whereas cohabitation allows partners to avoid commitment and responsibility. For example the rate of
divorce among married couples is lower than the rate of breakups among cohabiting couples.
New right and conservative politicians argument to support the view that both family and society are broken:

- Argue that only a return to traditional values including the value of marriage can prevent social disintegration and
damage to children
- They regard laws and policies such as easy access to divorce, gay marriage and widespread availability of welfare
benefits as undermining the conventional family.

Morgan's (2000) suggests cohabitation suffers from important flaws when compared to marriage:
 Cohabiting relationships are more unstable and are less likely to last more than marriages
 Cohabiting people have the same sexual behavior as single people as they may have other partners
 Cohabitants with children who marry are more likely to divorce resulting in many cohabiting women become single
parents
 Both women and children are at greater risk of physical and sexual abuse than they would be in married
relationships
Horwitz (2005) argues that within the traditional family, children and adults learn moral values that they can take into
wider social relationships so, the traditional nuclear families are seen as a vital source of both individual happiness and
social stability because they have a moral core that involves:

 Caring for family members


 Taking responsibility for both their own behavior and that of their children
 The development of stable, successful, interpersonal relationships
 Unconditional economic co–operation
Robert Chester (1985)

 Argues that the extent and importance of family diversity has been exaggerated.
 Chester sees the nuclear family as being dominant, but he recognises that the traditional nuclear family has changed
to what he calls a ‘neo-conventional’ family in which both spouses go out to work and the division of labour is more
equal and shared.
 Chester argues that ‘family diversity’ is more about the lifecycle than people choosing to live in new family
arrangements.
 Most people in single-person households are elderly widows/ younger/ divorced people who aspire to live in a
nuclear family.
Criticisms of Robert Chester:
 The Rappoports (Chester, Rhona and Robert) argue that diversity is of central importance in understanding family
life today and believe that we have moved away from the traditional nuclear family as the dominant family type, to
a range of different types. Families in Britain have adapted to a society in which cultures and lifestyles are more
diverse.
Criticisms of new right:
1. Family life has become very diverse and there is no longer one dominant family type (such as the nuclear family).
This means that it is no longer possible to make generalisations about society in the same way that modernist
theorists such as Parsons or Marx did in the past.
2. There is little or no evidence that loneparent families are part of a ‘dependency culture’, nor that their children
are more likely to be delinquent than those brought-up in a two-parent family of the same social class.
3. Feminists argue that the traditional nuclear family favoured by the New Right is based on the patriarchal
oppression of women and is a fundamental cause of gender inequality. In their view it prevents women working,
keeps them financially dependent on men, and denies them an equal say in decision-making.
4. Rapoports see increasing family diversity as a response to people’s different needs and wishes, and not as
abnormal or a deviation from the assumed norm of the nuclear family.
5. Based on the idealized view of white, middle-class families as the desirable norm
6. Advocates for ‘one size fits all’ family that is no longer appropriate today
7. Ignores the darker side of traditional family life, making divorce more difficult. For example, it persuades some to
try make their marriage work which traps people into a loveless relationship characterized by violence and
abuse

Postmodernist perspectives on family diversity


Postmodern optimism – SUPPORT

Believes a family is whatever people want it to be (family of choice)


Postmodernists rejects the idea of ‘the family’ and argue that people construct relationships in ways they believe are
acceptable and appropriate. Therefore, family groups are seen as structures in which individuals play out their
personal life stories (narratives).
They believe people make behavioral decisions that suit their particular needs, desires and circumstances regardless of
what others may believe or think, the emphasis here is on choice.
In postmodern societies in every family people work out their personal choices and lifestyles as best they can.
Elkins (1992) says the postmodern family was characterized by a family that encompasses many different family forms:
 Traditional or nuclear
 2 parents working
 Single parent
 Blended/ reconstituted/ step – family
 Adopted child
 Test tube
 Surrogate mother
 Co - parent
Post modernists believe that there is no single correct way to be a family, it makes no sense to talk about their
functions or oppressive and explorative structure
They believe that we should celebrate difference and family diversity should be accepted because it points towards an
optimistic change in family roles and relationships, and we are powerless to prevent diversity.
The constant exposure to new ideas e.g., globalization makes people question traditional ways of thinking and
behaving
Customs and tradition, which are the way things have always been done, have less influence than they once had.
The awareness and freedom to make different choices including ones that were not allowed e.g., divorce and same sex
families creates diversity
Traditional types of family relationships e.g., marriage and children co – exist with newer forms such as not having
children or living apart while maintaining family relationships. As exposure to different cultural ideas increases what was
once new and exotic becomes more acceptable.
Different groups of people accept or reject these changes to different degrees, which can be seen in different ethnic
groups in the UK:
 Those who keep to old-fashioned values e.g., marriage as a way of reinforcing a particular ethnic identity in a rapidly
changing and confusing world. In the UK, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnicities are closest to this point.
 Those who embrace modern individualism where single parenthood or divorce are openly accepted. In the UK Black
Caribbean and White ethnicities are closest to this point.
Life course analysis
Post modern sociologists argue that sociological studies of the family should focus on the life courses of individuals
rather than family structures/ units
A method of researh developed by Tamara Hareven (2000) that uses in-depth unstructured interviews
Life course analysis – Focuses on individual family members by exploring the meanings that individual family
members give to the relationships they have and the choices they make at various turning points in their lives. For
example, a decision to have a baby or to come out as gay.
Tamara Hareven (2000) noted that the life course analysis is made up of 10 stages:

1. Birth
2. Early childhood (being a baby)
3. Infancy (being a toddler)
4. Childhood (beginning with compulsory schooling)
5. Adolescence (being a teenager)
6. Young adulthood (18-29)
7. Adulthood (30-50)
8. Middle age (51-64)
9. Old age (officially begins with retirement)
10. Death
Major strengths of the life couse analysis:
1. It focuses on what family members themselves consider important, rather than what sociologist may regard as
important.
2. Looks at families and households from the viewpoint of the people involved and their meanings they give to their
lives, relationships, and choices to it is particularly stable for studying families in today’s postmodern/ late modern
society where there is more choice about personal relationships and more family diversity.
3. Shows how family structures are increasingly just a result of the choices made by their members
David Morgan:

 Morgan argues that family diversity has increased as a response to society becoming more fragmented. He argues
that things like the family, friendships, and other forms of relationship have become less clear-cut and the
boundaries between them blurred because today’s society is more fragmented
 He uses the concepts of family practices to describe how we create our sense of ‘being a family member’ through
actions such as feeding children or doing DIY.
 He sees the family as ‘what people do’ rather than as a concrete ‘thing’ or structure.

Criticisms of David morgan:


 Structuralist sociologists argue that although life courses and family practices are the actions of individuals, they
take place in the context of the wider social structure and norms. For example, gender norms and differences in job
opportunities in wider society may dictate that males will be the major income-earners and women the
homemakers, and this will influence individuals’ expectations of each other within the family

David Cheal:

 Argues that family diversity has increased because we now have more choice over the type of family we create. As a
result, the family life has become more diverse than ever.
 He argues that in today’s postmodern society there is no longer one type of family that is dominant only multiple
families
Criticisms of David Cheal:
- Some sociologists point of the greater freedom of choice in relationships means a greater risk of instability since
these relationships are more likely to break up
Jeffrey Weeks:
 He identifies the long-term shifting attitudes towards sexual and family diversity since the 1950s. These attitudes
have become more favorable towards issues such as cohabitation and homosexuality, so the family diversity has
increased.
Criticisms:
- Despite the changing attitudes towards family diversity, family patterns are still traditional.
- Most people still live in a family, most children are still brought up by couples, most couples marry and many
divorces re marry
Late modernist perspective
The individualization thesis – case study
Anthony Giddens & Ulrich Beck have been influenced by postmodernist ideas about today’s society and have applied
some of these ideas to understanding family life. They explore the effect of increasing individual choice upon families
and relationships and their views have become known as individualization thesis.
Individualization thesis - argues that traditional social structures such as class, gender and family have lost much of
their influence over people. In the past people’s lives were defined by fixed roles that largely prevented them from
choosing their own life course. For example, everyone was expected to marry and to take up their appropriate gender
role but in today’s society fewer people have to follow fixed roles.
According to the thesis we have now become freed or disembedded from traditional rules and structures leaving us
with more freedom to choose how we lead our lives.
Beck (1992) says the standard biography “you all of course” that people followed in the past has been replaced by the
“do-it-yourself" biography that individuals today must construct for themselves.
Postmodern contributions:
 It draws attention to the many changes in family life and relationships in some modern industrial societies unlike the
older theories which still seem to be about times and places where these changes have not happened.
 Open to recognizing the many ways people live their lives and that it can break away from a narrow focus on the
family to the wider subjects of relationships and personal lives
Criticisms of postmodernists:
 They exaggerate the extent of changes and point out that most people for at least parts of their lives live in
conventional types of family
 The nuclear family remains the goal of many, even if for more people than in the past marriage comes later and
does not last for life.
 The greater diversity of family life is also a feature of more industrial societies; there is less diversity on the whole in
developing countries, in many of which strong family ties, often with strong pressure to marry young and for life and
with fairly fixed gender roles, remain strong.

Postmodern - Feminist perspective (SUPPORT)


- Anthony Giddens (1992) argues that family diversity has increased because there’s more equality between men and
women due to:
- Contraception has allowed sex in intimacy rather than reproduction to become the main reason for the
relationship’s existence
- Women have gained independence because of feminism and because of greater opportunities in education and
work
As a result of equality, the basis of marriage and the family has changed.
He argues that in the past, traditional family relationships were held together by social institutions such as:
- The law - governing the marriage contract
- Religion - powerful norms against divorce and sex outside marriage
He argues that today couples are free to define the relationship themselves rather than acting out the traditional roles
that society has given them through institutions such as the law or religion. For example, couples today don’t have to
marry to have children and divorce is easy to access so they don’t have to stay together even when they don’t love each
other anymore.
- Judith Stacey (1998) argues that greater freedom and choice has benefited women and enabled them to free
themselves from patriarchal oppression and to shape their family arrangements to meet their needs.
Through case studies conducted in Silicon Valley, California she found that:

 Women rather men are the driving force behind changes in the family.
 Women had often created new types of family that better suited their needs - many of the women had rejected
the traditional housewife mother role, as they had either worked, returned to education as adults, improved their
job prospects, divorced and re -married.
Stacey identified a new type of family “the divorce-extended family” – family members who are connected by divorce
rather than marriage, for example ex in laws, or former husband’s new partners.
Case study on divorce extended family by Judith Stacey:
Pam Gemma created a divorce extended family as she married young then divorced and cohabited for several years
before re – marrying.
Her second husband had also been married before and by the time the children of Pam’s first marriage were in their 20s
she had formed a divorce extended family with Shirley the woman cohabiting with her first husband. They helped each
other financially and domestically for example by exchanging lodges in response to the changing needs of their
households.
The case study shows how post-modernist families are diverse and that their shape depends on the active choices
people make about how to live their lives. For example, whether to get divorced, to cohabit or come out as gay etc.
Criticisms of post modern feminists:
- Relationships can be ended by either partner as with more choice comes more personal relationships being less
stable
- Contemporary Feminists disagree with Postmodern feminists, pointing out that in most cases traditional gender
roles which disadvantage women remain the norm.
- Even though the traditional patriarchal family was unequal and oppressive, it did provide a stable and predictable
basis for the family by defining each member’s role and responsibly
- The negotiated family may be more equal, but it is less stable, because it is characterised by greater equality.

Late modern feminist perspective


Ulrich Beck: The ‘Risk Society’ and The Negotiated Family
Ulrich Beck argues that we now live in a ‘risk society’ where tradition has less influence and people have more choice
and as a result we are more aware of risk (‘risk consciousness’) because having choice means we spend more time
calculating the risks and rewards of different courses of action available.
Today’s risk society contrasts with the modern society of the past with its stable nuclear family and traditional gender
roles.
The patriarchal family has been undermined by 2 trends:

1. Greater Gender Equality – women now expect equality both at work and in marriage which has challenged male
domination in all spheres of life.
2. Greater individualism – people’s actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest than by a
sense of obligation to others.
The 2 trends have led to the rise of the negotiated family
Negotiated families – families that do not conform to the traditional family norm, but vary according to the wishes and
expectations of their members, who decided what is best for them by discussion. They enter the relationship on an
equal basis.

• The state and social policy as influences on the family.

Functionalist:

Fletcher
New right:
Sees social policy negatively and believes that govts should intervene as little as possible. They are critical of social
policies that provide generous welfare benefits believing that they have undermined the nuclear family structure so they
only support social policies that support the self-reliant nuclear family as it is capable of caring for its own family
members.
Murray:
Argues that these benefits offer ‘perverse incentives’ - they reward irresponsible or anti-social behavior.
Argues that a generous welfare system creates dependency:

Council housing for unmarried teenage mothers – encourage teenage girls to get pregnant.
Welfare benefits families, especially lone parent – encourages some fathers to abandon their financial responsibilities
towards their families. The growth of lone parent families means boys grow up without a male role model and authority
figure which explains increases in juvenile male crime.
Murray advocates cutting welfare spending and placing tighter restrictions on those that are eligible. He is supportive
of the Child Support Agency - make absent fathers financially responsible for their children. He also encourages
polices that supports the nuclear family, e.g. taxes breaks for married rather than co-habiting couples.
Conservative Liberal Democrat Coalition Policy 2010 - 2015
1. Tax breaks for married couples (2010) to encourage this.
2. The Troubled Families Programme (2011) tackled families that had problems and were causing problems for the
community around them.
3. Major cuts in welfare to children’s services and the care of the elderly.

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