The Nuclear Family in Sociology: Perspectives and Challenges
To start with, this is nuclear family essay in which the topic will be considered by an author. The past few decades have seen significant changes in behavioural patterns and lifestyles that have led to new structures and features of households and families. The changes in the family structure can be seen by many people starting families later, having less children and complex relationships. Family structures and roles have progressively adapted to numerous changes according to social and cultural aspects in our lives, as well as each family's set of needs. The model of the family has changed from being of an extended family in pre-industrial society which contained two or more generations living under one roof. In contrast to the industrial society where the nuclear family consists of two adults living together with children. The outcome of industrialisation and modernisation has changed demographic attitudes dramatically towards marriage since the Introduction of divorce. Numerous sociologists claim that cohabitation and sexual relationships outside marriage generally have become more socially acceptable.
Families are perceived by functionalists as a nuclear family structure comprised of the father, mother and two children. The family is understood to be the economic support to enable and meet the needs of the family. Talcott Parsons concluded that the nuclear family is beneficial to society and argues that the family has to fit with the economic needs of its society. Murdock Claims that the Nuclear family configuration can be observed in every society that he investigated, he believed that the family is responsible for four basic essential functions: sexual, reproductive, socialising and economic. It is suggested by functionalists such as Talcott Parsons that there are two key roles within the family termed as expressive and instrumental. The woman being the expressive role giving her the responsibility of raising, discipling and ensuring family morals. The father being the instrumental role, having responsibility for the financial security of the family, this suggests that they have separated Marital Roles. Parsons argues that the separated roles arose instinctively and is important within an organised family. Parsons suggested that a division between the roles of women and men is necessary as it ensures each partner specialises in the role they are suited.
Young and Wilmott suggested that nuclear families have established change and have shared conjugal roles, balancing the family structure. Many sociologists have observed significant changes in conjugal roles, within marriage over the last 50 years, it has been claimed that there has been a change from segregated conjugal roles, to joint conjugal roles, whereby both perform paid work, share tasks at home and enjoy shared leisure and social activities. Young and Wilmot consider this new family structure to have developed within middle class families, and has extended to the working class, they called this the symmetrical family. Functionalist sociologists such as Parsons, Fletcher, Willmott and Young suggest that industrialisation has led to a more equal participation of housework, child-care and decision-making.
The impact of changing gender roles within the family may have affected children’s experience of childhood. With a greater number of women going out to work and a growth in men’s masculinity such as the metrosexual which allows them to be in touch with their feminine side and take a greater responsibility for raising their children, this has been supported by changes in the law such as rights to paternity leave, giving fathers the option to have a more active role within the household. In today’s modern society women often pursue a career before starting a family, girls have overtaken boys in education, and account for the majority at universities, most households are now dual income. This has steered the decline of the traditional role of women as main carers, men and women are more likely to share the caring role. In addition, the decision as to who will stay home with the children has become more of an economic decision rather than one based on tradition. Gershuny and Sullivan both suggest a trend towards equality in the share of domestic work due to the increase in the number of women working full-time. Gershuny’s data suggests that the longer the wife had been in paid work, the more her husband would contribute to the housework. Crompton argues that as women’s earning power increases relative to men’s, so men do more housework. However, so long as earnings remain unequal so too will the division of labour in the home.
Marxists have not undertaken any detailed research on gender roles and relationships in families but see these as shaped by the needs of capitalism. Feminist sociologist Ann Oakley investigated the nuclear family, she looked at the work of other sociologists and considered where the idea that this was the 'normal' way to live came from. Ann Oakley undertook interviews of mothers regarding their families, relationships and household roles; the results identified that women still held the main responsibility for the children and the housework.
Oakley noted in the early 1980s, that the conventional family was being challenged. People were beginning to explore different ways of living that worked for them and did not conform to the conventional family. Ann Oakley believed that there are still existing considerable differences in conjugal roles. Ann Oakley’s research is supported by other feminists EG. Mary Boulton, she also investigated the conventional family ascertaining that domestic division labour was still unequal. The diversity of the family structures has changed over the years and some of the conceivable reasons that have facilitated these changes have been brought about by changes in Law such as the 1975 Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts. These changes increased the number of women going out to paid jobs creating financial independence and reducing the reliance upon the husband earnings.Margaret Benston, a Marxist feminist, believed that women are burdened with jobs, she named it the triple shift, those being daily tasks that women undertake and manage such as a paid job, housework and the emotional needs of the family. Resulting in women adopting the feminist ideas by discarding exhausting family roles, resulting further changes to the family structure. Additionally, changes in divorce laws influenced women to leave unsatisfied relationships this was supported by feminists. Additionally, changes in divorce laws influenced women to leave unsatisfied relationship this was supported by feminists.
Consequently, it could be argued that this idea of independence caused the increase in the numbers of divorce rates, changing the diversities of the family structures allowing new structures to emerge such as reconstituted family, and singletons.
Reconstituted family structure is when a single parent builds a new family, with another person that may or may not have children, they then raise their children together. This has become the most popular family structure in UK. Singletons is also another family structure that has surged as result of divorce. New Right supporters have linked divorce laws as the reason for the high rate of family breakdowns. Claiming that individuals are no longer dedicated to their families as they once were. Increase in divorce, births outside marriage, and new family structures such as same sex family, or cohabitation. However, some still believe, that the basic family traditions are still intact within the majority of society. In Britain in 2019, 14.9% of the families in the UK were lone parent families between 1999 and 2019 there has been a statistically significant increase of 14.5%. There were 242,842 marriages in England and Wales in 2017, a decrease of 2.8% from 2016. Marriage rates for opposite-sex couples in 2017 were the lowest on record.
The decline in marriage is understood to be a weakening of what is referred to as traditional family values. Traditional family values often refer to morality, a way of life that recognises right from wrong and religion. Withing the last century family values have certainly changed together with the change of the family structure. Religious practice was once considered the law of living life; today, however religion is in decline as more people follow a material lifestyle by the influence of a consumer-driven society. The family unit was traditionally responsible for moral guidance, with the older family members passing on their wisdom to younger generations. Although this does still occur in some homes, it is definitely in decline. Poverty, crime, and declining school performance are three of the greatest concern that can be attributed to children being raised in untraditional families
Some sociologists argue that there is no “normal” family, but instead a broad diversity of family and household forms in the UK today. However, some still believe, that the basic family traditions are still intact within the majority of society.
Britain has become a multicultural country as result of international migration. The growth in the ethnicity variety has brought a vast influence on British culture and family traditions. Indian families are more likely live in extended families they have traditional values and tight knit extended families that support traditional family values, whereas Afro-Caribbean tend to form lone parent families. Lately, immigrants have come from European countries such as Lithuania, Romania and Poland. Many of which are young adults this has influenced the number of single person households as many have come for work purposes therefore, they do not follow a typical family structure.
There are a variety of reasons that have influenced and modified the family structures. Families have become more diverse and multicultural, the growth of non-traditional families have led to the increase in complexity of families such as stepfamilies, blended families and influences the structures. These changes may also impact how we care for our older family members, Families are also widely influenced by society and social interactions, media, digital platforms and the working environment.
Lately, sociologists have begun to explore other kinds of intimate relationships such as cohabitation couples and same sex couples, in order to discover how roles are organised in these relationships, homosexuality has existed for thousands of years among human beings, formal marriages between homosexual partners and becoming parents is a relatively recent phenomenon.
