ALL Family: Sociology AQA GCSE

predates the emergence of gay/ lesbian households as more open/ accepted feature of society.

Predates civil partnership + same sex marriage

-Oakley rejects evidence (young + wilmott argue washing up once a week is 'helping out') and said there's little symmetry + women in paid employment still had major responsibilities for housework
-Scott + Clery argue there are now more dual earner families but then women do double shift
-little evidence of 'symmetry' (or a move towards family focus amongst working class families.)

-Doesn't recognise benefits of nuclear
ignores many women also having careers
ignores modern family diversity 
assumes no one enjoys as it is and they're all fooled into believing that

-Ignores modern day working family types
-feminists argue that arguing that the family is essential is ideological (disadvantage women)
-other institutions could perform Murdocks family functions

-Focuses on American middle class ignoring ethnic, religious and class diversity
-ignores alternative to nuclear family that can fulfill the functions
-idealised view of family 
-Leach (1967) argues nuclear family intensifies stress as too - much demand from each other
-marxists see nuclear as for capitalists
-feminists see nuclear as female oppression 

Young + Wilmott- More financial partnership 

Delphy + Leonard- family is hierarchical, patriarchal and based on male power

Feminist

Conventional family= nuclear families with legally married couples, voluntarily choosing parenthood of 1+ children

Ideas abt conventional family:

-Members have different roles (based on age, gender, occupation)
-Women do most unpaid domestic labour, men do paid labour outside home
-'strains' of being conventional and social control
-official stereotypes increasingly archaic
-certain groups moving to more open appraisal + other ways of living (both in/ without family)

Functionalist

-Symmetrical family= similar contributions by each spouse to running household eg shared chores/ decisions
-better than past: more child centred 
-principle of stratified diffusion=what happens at top of the stratification system today will diffuse downwards tomorrow
-2000 interviewed in greater London
-Conjugal roles are not interchangeable but they are of equal importance
-work boring/ uninvolving leading manual workers to focus on family life (working class)
-managing director family= work-centred not home-centred, with wife responsible for home and children.

Feminist
-Emphasise importance of work
-men benefit most from women's unpaid labour (opossed to capitalism)
-central role in maintaining patriarchy 
-women oppressed bcos their work is appropriated in family (dual burden)
-economic system involving set of labour relations where men benefit exploiting work of women

Marxist
Family unable to provide for individual psychological/ social needs
Modern capitalist society creates illusion that 'private life' of family separate from economy -prop to capitalist economy (eg relies on domestic labour of housewives who produce next generation of workers + vital unit of mass consumption) 
(Whilst family cushions effects of capitalism it perpetuates system + can't compensate for general alienation)
only socialism can end artificial separation of family + public life

Functions:

-Sexual- regulating sexual activity (society approved sexual relationships + helps married couples maintain relationships)
-Reproductive- reproduction of next generation 
-Economic- economic support through economic cooperation based on division of labour 
-Education- primary socialisation

'society can only exist with the nuclear family'

Functions:

-primary socialisation 
-stabilisation of adult personalities (warm bath theory: family provides warm + loving environment preventing stress from outside world)

5 types of family diversity:

-organisational (eg internal divisions of domestic labour)
-cultural (beliefs and values)
-class (eg how the family's position in the social class system affects the availability of resources)
-life course (stage in the family life cycle)
-cohort (historical period)

-Some elderly care for themselves as healthier than before
-Ginn and Arber challenged view of elderly being frail and independent and diversity (social class etc) later in life effects independence 

-Some believe parent can't control teens (parents didn't socialise them properly)
-some teens are parents themselves

-Duncan researched teen parenthood finding it's not usually disaster but could be opportunity + responsibility 
-Joseph Rowntree Foundation concluded quality of parent child relationship associated with: kids educational achievement + kids social skills and relationships (both being effected by good or bad parent relationship)

-Divorces with young kids want help
-companionship and love
-marriagr still norm 
-people still value marriage

-Remarriage (declining)
-financial hardship 
-relationship breakdown and emotional distress
-chanhed to family structure

-Loss of income after assets divided
-risk of poverty or financial hardship
-difficult for line parent to juggle home life and work

-Conflict may continue after divorce meaning may lose connection with father
-emotional distress around divorce (loss of social network- specifically men)
-extnded family see kids less

-More reconstituted (con having to adjust, pro having more attention and support)
-Kids stay with mother losing contact with father

-Changes in law 
-changing social attitudes and values
-impqct of secularisation (more civil ceremonies not church- no till death do is part)
-changing women status (women less economically dependent on husband, welfare benefits-mother with kids have more security without husband)
-influence of media (emphasises live and marriage- people have high expectations and get disappointed)

1923

-1984
-easier to get divorce in early stage of marriage

-1857
-divorce available for first time (not women or working class)

-1969
-no fault divorce (no particulat reason needed)

legal termination of marriage

decline in religious impact in society

-Cohabiting families
-less stigma and disapproval 

-Helpful during global recession
-less stigma (sex outside marriage)

Same sex couples used to get civil partnerships but now legal to get married so civil partnerships decrease

Declined
-Marry later
-birth outside marriage more acceptable/ women can be sexually active outside marriage
-cohabitation increase (more common in white or mixed ethnic background)
-increased education and employment (women)

Family members help find partner but both give consent (not forced marriage)- traditional in India Pakistan etc

woman has 2+ husbands at once

man has 2+ wives at once (mormons used to be allowed, minority of muslim men)

person has more that one husband or wife at once (illegal in britain

divorced person remarries

marrying when already married

having more than 1 romantic relationship at one time

married to 1 person at a time

-Economic factors (kids used to be economic advantage but now challenging)
-later marriage
-women increased education (increased opportunities outside of home)
-increased use of birth control + abortion
-labour market uncertainty (delay kids)

avg no. of kids that women of childbearing age have

-family life (kids less close to one parent + that side of family, father loses support network, lower quality of life - 1 income)
-welfare state (rely on benefits- expensive)

-Increase in divorce
-changing attitudes (more acceptable for women to be single with child)
-decline in moral standards- fatherless families (many lone parent families are lower class- fathers happier to walk out)
-changes in how people view marriage + family (less important more freedom of choice)

-Increased rate with majority with their mother
-Jewson recognises African Caribbean having higher proportion lone parent and Asian having lower
-Qureshi recognises proportion of Asian lone parent (British) is rising

-Higher amount of economically dependent people, pensions + benefits (smaller proportion working adult)
-more population reliant on health services
-care homes (government funded)

Young people who leave home and return to live at home before leaving permanently 

-Higher rate in global financial crisis (housing not affordable)

-Better healthcare
-better living emvironmemts
-better diets
-help resources
-care/ welfare facilities

Most married couples see wider family regularly, type of support differs based on physical distance (further = emotional support)

Childcare (younger women return to work after maternity leave), financial help

Sometimes involved in caring for grandparents

Care for parents (particularly women)

Often help adult children with home improvements

-Helping with childcare/ housework
-help family business
-emotional support
-translator (immigrant family)
-young carers 

Law
-social values
-less paid employment for youth

Ability to exercise control over one's own life and/or lives of others

Name calling, belittling, demanding, threatening abt children, abusing/neglecting kids

Forcing family into poverty, trying to stop them from making money

Rape, force sex for money, degrading sexual comments

Hitting, slapping, kicking, driving recklessly

Stopping them from having friends, monitoring social activity, using jealousy as a justification 

Form of power + control in which one family member attempts to dominate others

2 main types of control over family income:

-allowance system- men give wife allowance which is budgeted for family needs, man retains surplus for himself
-pooling- both partners have access to income +joint responsibility for expenditure (eg joint bank account)

Traditionally men make important decisions, they demand their interests are more important as he is the main breadwinner

Caring, sharing man getting involved in childcare + housework

-Charter says 'new man' is nowhere to be seen when cleaning needs doing

-Rise of feminism- means rejection of housewife role and more equality
-better contraception- meaning women have less children combining motherhood with paid employment
-women are financially independent + have more freedom, equality + status, inside + outside home
-increased influence in home life (home based leisure like TV)
-fathers play greater role in child's life before but (causes tension as some women don't want traditional maternal role eroded) or (that fathers should also share house work if they want to share )

Segregated conjugal= clear division of labour (male + female), husband and wife spend little leisure time together (separate friends/ interests)

Joint conjugal= no rigid division on household tasks, spend leisure time together (same interests)

Roles/ jobs that husbands + housewives do 

Economic: women carry out unpaid labour which system relies on maintaining daily life, seen as separate from production of commodities + profits in public world of the economy

Class reproduction: each class reproduces itself, bourgeoisie reproduces wealth and proletariat reproduces labour force

Unit of consumption: families buy/ consume products of capitalist system enabling bourgeoisie to make profit, idea that to act higher class people get newer things, family vital unit of consumption for capitalism 

To control population growth, if disobeyed fined +demotion etc

Group of people living together communally + value equality + cooperation between members

-originally children + biological parent separate apart from few hours a day (now stay together till 15)
-families have own apartments but all eat together and children raised + educated together

Group of people sharing living accommodation, possessions, wealth + property

-Adults have own rooms, children share rooms
-members make decisions to achieve equality
-communal households may be based on shared beliefs

Movement of people from one country to another 

Challenge idea of British Asian families being unequal + male dominant, saying it's prejudiced and racist

-British Asians committed to traditional family life (low divorce + lone parent rate)
-Qureshi challenged this saying it's changing

Cultural diversity in Britain associated with different family formation patterns
patterns changing among secondary generation migrants (eg Asian emphasis on full time mother)

Individuals perceived in a certain way + rejected by greater society based on a difference

Way in which people live like leisure + work patterns. The interests, opinions, behaviours of individual, group or culture

Behaviour expected of people based on gender/ associated with masculinity + femininity

Families where both adult partners work in paid employment 

Division of tasks like housework, DIY, childcare between men + women in a home

Bringing up children

-Beanpole/ larger families
-arranged marriages (help family connect + settle if they are new to country

Family centred on mother (men have little significance/ importance). Often in Afro Caribbean families

The course of your life including different life stages (eg child, parent, elderly)

-How individuals are related (blood, marriage, adoption)
-Networks traditionally create family units giving reasons to remain interconnected 

-Most looked after children in short/long term foster home 
-childrens homes provide accommodation +care (some specialise in emotional + drug issues)
-secure units for children committed an offence (can restrict child's liberty + freedom)

-Families less central in our lives, replaced by friends 
-Friends provide emotional support + nurture over family 
-Roseneil + Budgeon found (for those not living with partner) friends more than family provide support with mental health when love relationships ended
-Some researchers say friends help but don't replace family

-Over last 30 years, one-person households increase significantly 
-because changing age structure of population (people live longer, more elderly one person households)+ increase in solo living for younger people
-Examples: remain singles + childless, divorced, international migrants/ students, live apart from partner, live alone before relationship

group of people that live at same address, share at least one meal a day or facilities

Includes relatives beyond nuclear family

Bleneded families/ step-families, both partners have children from previous relationship, includes step-parent

Multiple generations of older people and fewer children (long thin family tree)

One parent with children due to being single, divorced, separated or widowed (most headed by women)

Gay/lesbian couple with children

Parent may be married, dependent children, all in same household 

2 or more people joined by marriage, adoption, birth or cohabitation