Family Trends since 1900 Flashcards
(14 cards)
Industrilisation - 1760s
The movement that moved away from agriculture and into factories due to scientific and agricultural breakthroughs. Led to new jobs and opportunities and to urbanisation.
Urbanisation
Large increase in proportion of population living in towns and cities.
Urbanisation - population in Manchester (Cottonopolis)
1700: 10,000
1800: 89,000
1850: 400,000
1900: 700,000
The pre-industrial family
- 9/10 families lived in rural areas. They lived in and worked their small towns and villiages, very little travel.
- Majority of the population was poor, only a small % were high class (no middle or working class existed)
- Shorter life expectancy due to poor diets and health, resulting in families having many children
- Family members took on duties to educate the young, usually on farm hand work
- Far slower and quieter way of life
- Everyone worked, may not have been specific gender roles, possible age assigned work
Talcott Parsons - the family
There is a functional fit between the extended family and the rural economy - seen through the cottage industries = the family lives together and works together. They are units of production and all is made at home.
Talcott Parsons - The Impact of Industrilisation on Family Life
Industrilisation began to replace the cottage industries that once dominated Britian. Urbanisation took place as people moved from the countryside to newly-emerging towns. This was essential for work, and usually it was an individual who left rather than the whole extended family. According to Parsons, this societal change had a massive impact on family life, especially on the extended family (the need for geographical mobility increased). Industrialisation led to structural differentiation, where a loss of functions began for the family. Hospitals replaced family members having to care for one another, schools replaced the need for family members to teach. People’s status was something that was now achieved rather than ascribed. Because of industrialisation, isolated nuclear families are a common family type. The need for extended families declined and is continuing to decline today - it is a more functional fit for modern society.
Talcott Parsons - The Impact of Industrilisation on Family Life - criticisms
Multi-generational, extended families are still present in modern, contempary Britian. This is seen through families who migrated to the UK who all moved and live together in the same household or have regular contact - due to cultural norms, economic stability. A lot of British-Asian families stay together and have that strong, multi-generational ties.
Talcott Parsons - The Impact of Industrilisation on Family Life - criticism - Julia Brannen - The Beanpole Family
- Beanpole = long and thin with a few beans = multi-generational family with few extended family members.
- Long-life expectancies lead to people having fewer children. However, due to later pensions and the rising costs of living, grandparents are expected to do more childcare whilst the parents work, showing there’s still a connection with extended family. The pivot generation are under pressure to care for both elderly parents (20%) and grandchildren (10%), causing a lot of stress.
- The nuclear family is still the norm: 2001 = 79% of children lived in a household consisting of a mother and father.
- Advance inheritence to grandchildren is usually more common now, as their children are usually in their most comfortable stages of life.
- Grandmothers are often unvaliable for childcare due to the greatest growth in waged work being among the 50-59 age rage, which is where women are most likely to become grandmothers. As the new generation of people delay parenthood, the age of women becoming grandmothers rise, affecting the willingness to provide childcare.
- Lone mothers are more likely to need informal help from their own parents. When they enter the workforce, they typically work part-time, low-wage jobs that cannot keep up with the rising costs of formal childcare and often have severed ties with their previous patner’s parents.
- The principle that sustains informal family support is reciprocity.
Demography
Study of population characteristics.
Factors affecting population size
- Birth rates
- Death rates
- Migration patterns
Fertility trends - England and Wales
1870s - women had 4 children on average
Today - women have 2 children on average
2023 - record low birth rates, 1.44 children per woman
2024 - slight increase, 1.76 per woman
Fertility trends - Scotland
- Birth rates steeply increased from 1918 and again from 1945 - the world wars. So many died and the return of men and safety allowed repopulation to occur immediately.
- Birth rates fallen from late 1960s until today:
- healthcare increased, infant morality was not as common or dangerous
- contraception was being introduced and became more reliable with time
- feminism became more prominent, women were not just forced into domestic settings, and given a choice on what to do with their lives - abortion laws are changing
Why are current birth rates so low?
- Healthcare: infant morality rates are currently 3.9/1,000 live births, contraception is avaliable and reliable to all, life expectancies are longer
- Feminism gave women the rights to choose whether to have children or not
- World-changing events can discourage people from having children: economic falls (young people cost about £180-190k and childcare is very expensive), wars and huage social changes (LGBTQ+ rights coming in, cohabitation becoming normalised, generational changes overall)
- Laws regarding divorce had changed, easy access as seen in the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, where a ‘no fault’ divorce is avaliable
- Women delay motherhood, this lowers the total fertility rate
BBC News article, 2020 - Fertility rate: ‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born
The world is ill-prepared for the global crash in children being born.Falling fertility rates means nearly every country will have shrinking populations by the end of the century. 23 nations, including Spain and Japan, are expected to see their populations half by 2100. Countries will age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born.
