family diversity Flashcards

Question

trends in cohabitation

Answer 1

there were 3.5 million cohabitating couples in 2022 with 20% of all unmarried adults cohabitating these numbers are most prominent in 16-29 year olds and 45-60 year olds

Answer 2

decline in stigma changing positions of women secularisation

Answer 3

sex outside marriage is more acceptable - in 1989 44% believed sex outside marriage was okay and this increased to 65% in 2012 showing a change in attitudes young people are more likely to accept cohabitation - 88% of 18-24 year olds thought cohabitation was okay compared to 40% of those over 65

Answer 4

women have broken the glass ceiling and have access to the top jobs meanings they have less need for financial security that comes with marriage liberal feminists would support this view as it shows there has been a march of progress due to legal changes e.g. equal pay act

Answer 5

young people with no religion are more likely to cohabit than those with as they are not influenced by religious teachings religion places high emphasis on marriage so non religious young people don't see marriage as an important life stage

Answer 6

75% of couples who cohabit intended to marry each other, showing that cohabitation is part of the process of getting married many see cohabitation as a trial marriage to see if they are compatible

Answer 7

cohabitation is a permanent alternative to marriage as it represents young people's conscious attempt to create a personally negotiated and equal relationship - women who cohabit tend to do less housework

Answer 8

approximately 3.3% of uk population identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual and more are identifying with these labels - increasing since 2014 since the legalisation of same sex marriage in 2014, more same sex couples are getting married

Answer 9

legal changes decline in stigma secularisation

Answer 10

homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967 for adults over 21, and this decreased to 18 to be equal with heterosexual people since 2002, gay couples have the same adoption rights as married couples civil partnerships act 2004 - gave same sex couples the same legal rights as married couples regarding pensions, inheritance and property marriage act 2013 - first gay marriages took part in 2014

Answer 11

the new right criticise these changes as they go against the four functions of the family and provide inadequate socialisation

Answer 12

there has been an increase in tolerance of homosexuality overtime

Answer 13

many believe it isn't a sin to be homosexual contrary to religious scriptures since there has been a decline in religious influence

Answer 14

homosexual people create family based on 'friendship as kinship' where they choose their family that offer the same security and stability as heterosexual families same sex cohabitation can be seen as a quasi marriage where they cohabit as stable partners, contrasting with the 1970s which favoured casual relationships

Answer 15

due to an absence of a legal framework, same sex couples have to negotiate their commitments and responsibilities more, making their relationships more flexible and less stable though same sex couples welcomed their relationships to be legally recognised, they don't want it to limit the negotiability of their relationship, suggesting they want their relationships to differ from heterosexual ones

Answer 16

divorce patterns marriage patterns creative singlehood

Answer 17

there has been a big rise in people living alone - 3/10 households were one person since 2000 46% of one person households in 2022 were people of pensionable age, with men under 65 being the most likely group to live alone

Answer 18

since after divorce the children often go to live with the mother, the father is more likely to leave the family home and live alone, which explains why men under 65 are most likely to live alone

Answer 19

due to the decline in marriage, many people remain single which has risen by half since 1971 meaning many people will live alone

Answer 20

many people now make the deliberate choice to live alone as they have more freedom and choice liberal feminists would support this view as it shows women can now support themselves due to breaking through the glass ceiling to live alone

Answer 21

some people may live alone as there aren't enough partners available in their age group, especially for older widows as their partner may have died

Answer 22

a couple in a significant relationship but are not married or cohabitating

Answer 23

decline in stigma changing positions of women limited finances

Answer 24

it is now more socially acceptable to live separately, as 20% see living apart togethers as their ideal relationships due to having more financial independence and less arguments

Answer 25

liberal feminists argue there has been a march of progress where women are more financially independent so can afford to live alone due to the equal pay act, overachieving in education radical feminists would support this as it supports separatism

Answer 26

couples may not have enough money to live together e.g. unable to afford a mortgage deposit

Answer 27

some actively choose to live apart so they have their own space

Answer 28

51.4% of children are born outside of marriage, and women have children later at 29.9 years old to focus on their career this means that due to fertility decreasing as women get older, women are having fewer children or are remaining childless

Answer 29

decline in stigma changing positions of women

Answer 30

it is more socially acceptable to have children later, outside of marriage or not at all only 1/3 of 18-24 year olds think children should be born after marriage

Answer 31

women now focus on their career before starting a family, which liberal feminists would support as it shows there has been a march of progress

Answer 32

lone parent families make up 27% of all families with children 85% of lone parent families are headed by women

Answer 33

changing positions of women increase in divorce

Answer 34

women are now financially independent so they can support their children on their own, as well as with welfare benefits

Answer 35

after a divorce children often stay with one parent predominately, perhaps due to the decline in stigma where it is socially acceptable to raise a child alone

Answer 36

women tend to gain custody of children during a divorce as women are naturally suited to the expressive/nurturing role some women choose to limit the father's involvement as the changing positions of women allow them to support their child without his involvement

Answer 37

fathers 4 justice is a charity that campaigns for men to have the same rights as women when it comes to custody of children the new right would support this as it gives children a male role model to be adequately socialised by

Answer 38

the growth of lone parent families is caused by an overgenerous welfare state which they see as an perverse incentive - the welfare state rewards irresponsible behaviour by creating a dependency culture this is referred to as the underclass who choose not to work because they know the government will support them financially anyway the remedy for this is to abolish welfare benefits so people learn to support themselves

Answer 39

many lone parents are women, who earn less than men and a lack of affordable childcare means welfare benefits are essential for some people so abolishing them would lead to absolute poverty

Answer 40

in 2011, reconstituted families made up 11% of couple families

Answer 41

divorce/separation courts

Answer 42

lone parents form new partnerships after divorce

Answer 43

children in stepfamilies are from the women's previous relationships since children are more likely to remain with the mother after a divorce

Answer 44

stepfamilies are similar to first families and the involvement of stepparents in childcare creates a positive childhood experience

Answer 45

stepfamilies are at a greater risk of poverty since parents have to look after more children from the previous relationships stepfamilies may experience divided loyalty and tensions between stepparents and stepchildren, or between stepchildren creating a negative childhood experience HOWEVER mccarthy argues these tensions are not so different from intact families

Answer 46

higher proportion of lone parent households

Answer 47

evidence of family disorganisation - under slavery couples were sold separately and children stayed with their mother, this pattern has arguably persisted until today the high rates of unemployment among black men means they are less able to provide for their families, leading to martial breakdown or desertion so the mother takes over that role

Answer 48

this rather reflects the high value black women put on independence rather than the result of disorganisation many apparently 'lone' parents are in stable relationships but do not cohabit

Answer 49

higher proportion of extended families, especially in sikh, muslim and hindu families

Answer 50

more british asians are in the childbearing age groups so they can have more children asian culture often put high value on extended families

Answer 51

extended families remain an important source of support for asian migrants during the 50s and 60s the family was originally extended and patriarchal, so these strong links were maintained by living close to relatives and starting businesses

Answer 52

willmott - the extended family hasn't fully disappeared as relatives may still maintain frequent contact through visits and phone calls, creating a 'dispersed extended family' chamberlain - caribbean families continue to provide support as multiple nuclear families consisting of siblings, uncles and cousins who provide support in child rearing bell - working class and middle class families relied on wider kin for support, and the beanpole family has become important as it is extended vertically through generations due to longer life expectancy and smaller family sizes

Answer 53

more is expected of women than men - there is a hierarchy where relatives are approached to help for household tasks, daughters and then sons though daughters are more likely to take care of the elderly than sons, not all daughters take an equal role - it depends on how obligated they feel towards their relatives

Answer 54

functionalists the new right

Answer 55

the nuclear family suits the needs of society by providing a geographically and socially mobile workforce, and by performing the functions of primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities the nuclear family also has a gendered division of labour between the husband and wife (instrumental/expressive role) which both are naturally suited for since they believed a gendered division of labour is normal, any diversity could lead to serious social problems as children are inadequately socialised and turn to gangs and crime

Answer 56

radical feminists argue functionalism ignores the dark side of the family where there is always a threat of domestic violence and child abuse lacks contemporary relevance as the uk has become multicultural with religious and ethnic subcultures

Answer 57

the nuclear family is the most functional and natural family and that family diversity is the cause of all social problems e.g. high crime rates, failure in education they see lone parent families as unnatural and harmful to children as they cannot discipline their children properly and are a burden to the welfare state - it discourages men from working and creates a dependency culture parents who are unmarried are more likely to separate suggesting cohabitation is unstable as it allows couples to avoid commitment and responsibility, making society broken the solution is to return traditional values e.g. marriage by making divorce difficult to access, giving tax breaks to married couples and abolishing the welfare state

Answer 58

little or no evidence that lone parents are part of a dependency culture feminists argue the nuclear family is based off of the patriarchal oppression of women by preventing women to work and denying them a equal say in decision making since poorer groups are more likely to cohabit, it may be poverty that causes cohabiting couples to separate rather that not marrying

Answer 59

rapaport and rapaport postmodernism individualisation thesis negotiated family connectedness thesis

Answer 60

the main family type in the uk is no longer the nuclear family as we have a range of family types (organisational diversity) family diversity represents the freedom that people now have to choose and the widespread acceptance of different cultures and way of life

Answer 61

the changes in the position of women has made family types more diverse - many women reject the traditional stay at home role so choose different families that suit their desire to work the 'divorce extended' family type is where members are connected by divorce rather than marriage, female members such as former in laws may help with childcare this shows that it is pointless to make generalisations about the family as it is what an individual chooses to call family and is based on their choices on how they live their life

Answer 62

functionalism and the new right would argue the nuclear family is essential for society to function as it performs adequate socialisation for its members

Answer 63

in the past, people's lives were dictated by social structures and roles e.g. social class, gender, ethnicity which prevented people from choosing their own life course - they were expected to marry and take up either the instrumental/expressive role today, people are no longer tied down by these social structures and have become disembedded from traditional roles giving us more freedom rather than the standard biography, we now have a do it yourself biography which has created more family diversity

Answer 64

our decisions are often made within a social context the structures of class, gender, ethnicity have not disappeared - women may have gained the right to vote, divorce but they don't have total freedom, suggesting it exaggerates the amount of freedom and choice people have in life

Answer 65

the expectations of each family member is based on the needs of each individual family - this shows that family roles are negotiated between themselves and the family's needs for example, a teenager could be a carer for a disabled parent, the role of a father may alter after a divorce this shows there is more freedom in family life but also more uncertainity as family ties become unpredictable and more flexible

Answer 66

the new right argue the negotiated family is a negative thing as it goes against the traditional nuclear family

Answer 67

rather than having unlimited choice and being disembedded, our choices are made within a web of connectedness e.g. social class, gender, family and personal values we live in a network of existing relationships which strongly influence our options in relationships, while some people can negotiate relationships they may be restricted in their choice this challenges the assumption of pure relationships - some may need to stay in a relationship for money rather than love as it is part of their web of connectedness

Answer 68

gender norms tend to dictate that women should take custody and full care of the children leaving men freer to choose their relationships, they are also paid more so they have more freedom the relative powerlessness of women means they are often trapped in abusive relationships - the dark side of the family

Answer 69

functionalists chester weeks weston

Answer 70

despite the increase in divorce and lone parent families, many couples get married or remarried eventually suggesting society as a whole still values the institution of marriage

Answer 71

the new right would look at family diversity with concern as it represent the breaking down of the nuclear family

Answer 72

the importance of family diversity has been exaggerated - the nuclear family has simply changed into the neo conventional family where both spouses work making the division of labour more equal many decide to cohabit but it is merely a stepping stone to marriage

Answer 73

some see cohabitation as an alternative to marriage

Answer 74

same sex relationships are now similar to heterosexual relationships due to increased social acceptance

Answer 75

same sex families are now regarded as quasi marriages - they are similar to heterosexual families as they have the same adoption rights to start a family this doesn't indicate family diversity as they are already similar

family diversity Flashcards

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