Family diversity

Question 1

What do the rapports say?

Answer 1

Britain no longer dominated by one family now epitomized by diversity
- Should celebrate family diversity
- greater choice and variety of life styles in terms of family life (freedom)
- different types of families

Question 2

What are the characteristics of reconstituted families?

Answer 2

• children pulled into 2 directions = likely tense relationships with step families
• further separation thru the birth of non step siblings = rivalry
• significantly different life style

Question 3

What are reconstituted families made up of?

Answer 3

divorced or widowed people who have remarried and their children from the previous relationships

Question 3

Are reconstituted families on the rise?

Answer 3

Yes due to divorce
- 1 in 15 families are step families

Question 4

Are households always families?

Answer 4

Families are households but households aren’t necessarily families
- some households evolve into families or evolve out of them
(according to the Rapoport’s)

Question 5

Are single parent families on the increase?

Answer 5

Yes, accounts for 30% of households in 2010
- surveys suggest an increase of young professional women electing to live alone

Question 6

How do ethnic origins play a role?

Answer 6

• Britain: multicultural (minority ethnic backgrounds accounts for 14% of the population)
• Asian family life: diverse and dependent on various factors: religion, presence of extended kin and cultural beliefs
• Great deal of interracial marriage between whites, African-carribeans and Chinese = increase in mixed children

Question 7

What are different patterns of kinship?

Answer 7

Some modern nuclear families: privatized kin
> structural differentiation
- most nuclear families: modified extended family (obligation to kin, offer emotional and material support for crisis’s)

Question 8

Why are extended families important to upper class families?

Answer 8

Important for heritage, maintains wealth and privilege

Question 9

Who speaks about geographical variations in family life?

Answer 9

Eversley and Bonnerjea

Question 10

What are some of the geographical variations in family life?

Answer 10

• Seaside: large numbers of elderly couple and single person households
• Inner city: large numbers of single parent, reconstituted and ethnic minority families
• Traditional working class areas: more extended families
• Affluent southeast: greater proportion of nuclear families

Question 10

Are same sex couples on the rise?

Answer 10

Yes, increased number of same sex couples cohabiting

Question 11

Why are same sex couples on the rise?

Answer 11

1999: homosexual couples can be legally defined as a family
- government introduced same sex civil partnership
= same sex partners have similar rights to heterosexual married couples (eg: inheritance and next of kin)

Question 12

How is labor divided according to the Rapoport’s?

Answer 12

Nuclear families in Britain: duel career families
- some women have responsibility for the bulk of childcare and housework
- others may have negotiated a greater/equal input from men
- new man: house husband who reverses traditional roles

Question 13

How has feminism affected family diversity?

Answer 13

Led to introduction of equal opportunities, equal pay legislation and women wanting more

Question 14

What do the New right say about the effects of feminism?

Answer 14

Distracted women from their ‘natural’ career as mothers
- few tax or benefits policies aimed at encouraging mothers to stay at home with children
- led to gender confusion about family roles and a rise in divorce and the number of single parent families

Question 15

What do the new right think of working class mothers?

Answer 15

• responsible for social problems (eg: juvenile delinquency and anti social behavior)
• children don’t experience long term nurturing and socialization from their working mothers
• maternal deprivation

Question 16

What do the new right say about sexual promiscuity?

Answer 16

It’s on the increase and the cause of moral decay in society
- government social policy encouraged this decline in morality by decriminalizing homosexuality and abortion

Question 17

What are examples of government social policy causing sexual promiscuity?

Answer 17

Making the contraceptive pill freely available in the NHS and making divorce easier through the divorce reform act 1969 by not doing enough to promote marriage over cohabitation

Question 18

What are the critiques of new right’s insistence on a ideal family type?

Answer 18

1994: 20% of nuclear families contained a division of labors
> father: breadwinner and mother: homemaker/childcarer
- Rapoports argue that family life in Britain characterized by a range of family types

Question 19

What one negative impact of societal laws and policies?

Answer 19

• Tax and welfare policies generally favored and encouraged heterosexual married couples than others

Question 20

What another negative impact of societal laws and policies?

Answer 20

Social policies such as payment of child benefit to the mother and the lack of free universal nursery care, reinforced that women should take prime responsibility for children

Question 21

What’s the final negative impact of societal laws and policies?

Answer 21

Expectant mothers receive paid maternity leave for 6 months and unpaid leave for 12 months
- fathers receive 2 weeks paid paternity leave
- social policies change over time

Question 22

What did Allan say about welfare policies?

Answer 22

Suggests that these policies have actively discouraged cohabitation and single parent families

Question 23

What did the labor government recognize about family diversity?

Answer 23

- Labor government of 1997-2010 recognized few families in 21st century that had a exclusive male breadwinner - Most families rely on 2 incomes and most women work (often part time)

Question 24

Who spoke about the labor movement and family diversity?

Answer 24

Lewis

Question 25

What did Lewis say?

Answer 25

Labor: - invested in subsides for nursery childcare - lengthened maternity care from 14 weeks to 9 months - almost doubled maternity pay - introduced the right for parents of young children to ask for flexible working patterns from employers

Question 26

Why did the new right and feminists critique the labor movement?

Answer 26

New right: created a nanny state (over interference) Feminism: overemphasized motherhood rather than fatherhood or parenting in general

Question 27

Who spoke about family ideology being anti social?

Answer 27

Barret and MeIntosh

Question 28

What did Barret and MeIntosh say?

Answer 28

- familial ideology dismisses alternative family types as irrelevant, inferior and deviant - emphasis on nuclear family and need for fathers - Single parent families seen as cause of social problems such as rising crime rates

Question 29

What feminists spoke about familial ideology?

Answer 29

De Beauvoir and Greer

Question 30

What are statistics about family diversity?

Answer 30

- single parent families make up 23% of all families in britain - 1/3 of british black families headed by a never married woman - 91% of single parent families headed by women

Question 31

What did De Beauvoir and Greer say?

Answer 31

Nuclear family ideology = patriarchal ideology - set of ideas deliberately encouraged by men to endure their dominance in all fields - used to tie women to men through marriage and children = unequal opportunities

Question 31

Why are there single parent families?

Answer 31

- Divorce/separation > 53% of lone mothers divorced - Death of a partner/spouse > 6% of lone mothers widowed - Media/New right focuses on teenage pregnancies' > 5% of lone parents are teenagers (exaggerated)

Question 31

What is 1 critique of new rights views on single parents?

Answer 31

Chester argues that the familial ideology led to negative labelling of single parent families by social agencies such as teachers etc = self fulfilling prophecy = raised children around deviant behavior

Question 32

What do the new right say?

Answer 32

Single parents are at the center of the 'underclass' - socialize children into a dependency culture around unemployment and benefits - high economic costs of single parent families due to welfare payments and social security fraud = child support agency and pursuit of absent fathers for maintenance

Question 33

What's another critique of new right views on single parents?

Answer 33

Marxists argue that single parents (esp teenage ones) are scapegoated by regular moral panics about social problems - caused by unemployment, poverty, racism and decline of the inner city