Family and Households Evidence

“Regulated by an externally imposed public moral code”

“Age of Tradition” - married woman referred to as Mrs, Husband and wife were the parents, family surnames were the father’s

VS

“Age of Individualisation” - women can now be Ms, anyone can be a parent, can now be any surname

identified what contributes to secularisation (decline in religious thinking, religious customs and religious institutions)

1983 - 31%

2015 - 48%

2017 - 53%

Summary - over half now don’t believe in God

1980 - 1 in 3

2011 - 1 in 10

1980 - 11%

2005 - 6%

2015 - 5%

Summary - decreased by half

1966 - 65% got married in a church, 35% married in a registry office

2011 - 30% got married in a church, 10% married in a registry office, 60% got married anywhere (legal in 1995)

Summary - church weddings decreased by half

14 million women work - equal to 14 million men working

fewer stay at home mums

1970s - 20%

1990s - 12%

2011 - 10%

Summary - decreased by half

75% of mothers with dependent children work

NHS - 21% gender pay gap

28.9 - average age of women having their first child

4% of children born to over 40s

twice the number of women choosing to remain childless

2011 - 12.5%

2015 - 25%

Summary - doubled the amount of female board members

1970s - teen girls prioritised love and marriage

1990s - teen girls prioritised careers and jobs

Equal Pay Act (1970) - Men and Women have to be paid the same amount for the same job or jobs of equal effort

Sex Discrimination Act (1975) - You cannot deny a woman or a man an opportunity purely on their sex

Divorce Law Reform Act (1970) - less limits on reasons why you can leave a marriage

Contraception Pill (1961) - only available to married women

Contraception Pill (1974) - available to all women

Abortion Act (1967) - abortions can be done safely and professionally

Working class roles are more segregated conjugal, due to the close knit community, whereas middle class roles are more joint conjugal, due to the loose knit community

found that 72% if men did housework each week, however didn’t state how much or what they did, believing that couples were becoming more equal

women spent twice as many minutes doing housework while in full time work compared to men.

• 38% of men think housework is a woman’s job

• 7% don’t know where the cleaning supplies are kept

• 80% of men don’t clean at all

• Men tend to put the bins out (59%), change lightbulbs (56%) and DIY (69%)

• Women tend to do laundry (77%), general cleaning (73%), and heavy duty kitchen cleaning (67%)

• The only thing that is shared equally is sorting recycling (38%)

During lockdown, working mothers would get one hour of uninterrupted work, compared to working fathers getting three hours of uninterrupted work.

There was a massive decrease in the death rates from TB in the late 19th/early 20th century, but the NHS was not introduced until 1947. He found that improvements in nutrition (transport revolution [trains], food laws) and improvements in sanitation (sewage system in 1850s, invention of WCs)

• 1848 Public Health Act - any new house had to have some form of waste disposal

• 1875 Public Health Act - medical officers in charge of public health, local sanitary inspectors, local authorities had to cover sewers, keep them in good condition, supply fresh water, collect rubbish and provide street lighting.

• 1858 ‘The Great Stink’ - gave 3 million pounds to sort out a sewer system

• Food Safety Acts at the start of the 19th century

Found that WW1 had improved the health of the home population in Britain, even though doctors were sent to France and the vulnerable were left at home (children and elderly). This was due to:

• Rations - everyone given the same amount of food

• Minimum wage and Full Employment

• Rent control - cannot increase rent

1901 - 4%

1996 - 16%

2031 (prediction) - 25%

Summary - ¼ of our population will be over 65 by 2031

50% of hospital bed time spent on over 65s

60% of annual £1 billion NHS drugs bill spent on over 65s

An 85 year old man costs the NHS 7 times more on average than a man in his late 30s

Area of expenditure

State pensions - 12%

Health - 10%

Welfare - 17%

Total - 40% (17% are over 65s)

Pension average

£168.60 a week

Yearly sum of £8750

From the age of 67

Opt Out scheme

- 10% of over 65s describe themselves as “lonely”. Main form of company being TV or pet.

- 40% of grandparents over 50 provide regular childcare

“the global village”

38% of immigrants are from the EU

Between half a million and 1 million immigrants are illegal immigrants (estimation)

5% of migrants are asylum seekers

3.3% of UK population are Black (African and Caribbean)

7.5% of UK population are Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi)

87% of Asian couples are married - Asian families are much more traditional

48% of Black families are lone parent families

Muslim (Pakistani and Bangladeshi) families more likely to have more than 3 children

• found that British Asian families tend to be larger than any other families in the UK

• Half of black men have a white female partner

• A third of black women have a white male partner

• Only ¼ of Black children live with two black parents

• Slaves couldn’t marry, so fatherless families were established centuries ago

• Men would migrate to work as they would be unable to support their families, so women would raise the kids alone

• UK welfare system supports Lone Parenthood, so migrants would come to the UK for the welfare system

• Much less likely to be high earners in jobs due to racism, so marrying the state is sometimes the only choice

“Childhood is a social construct”

suggests that the idea of childhood didn’t exist in the Middle ages and children were instead seen as “little adults”

made the use of child chimney sweeps illegal

49% of Britain’s workforce was under 20

⅕ of children globally do not attend basic primary school

in 2018, children are involved in active conflict in 11 countries

30% of children in the UK live in poverty

- made education compulsory up to age 12

NSPCC - founded in 1889

theories of child development had already begun in 1800s. The idea of children needing “supervision and protection” was well established by the beginning of the 20th century

punish children differently to adults

most important feature of modern childhood is separateness

middle class children have a different experience of childhood compared to those in poverty, as middle class families could afford music lessons, dance classes and enrichments, whereas those in poverty would hang out with friends or watch TV

boys were more likely to do outdoor jobs such as taking the bins out (61% : 40%)  and mowing the lawn (23% : 8%) , compared to girls doing chores such as the laundry (39% : 20%) and washing the dishes (59% : 43%)

girls were less likely to be allowed to 

• Cross roads on their own

• Go out after dark

• Use public transport

• 5% score below 5 

• 7.89 average, dropped from 8.21 in 2011

• Unhappiness reasons include friends (2.8%), school (11.6%) and looks (boys 7.7%, girls 13.8%)

• 33% worried about money in the future

• 29% worried they won’t find a job

• 42% worried about crime

• 41% worried about the environment

• 24% worried about Brexit

Toxic Childhood caused by 

• Schoolification - less time to play before starting school

• Decline of outdoor play - less independence, less risk-taking and self reliance

• Commercialisation - exploited by advertisers, become consumers at young age, identity based on products

• Sexualisation - primark having a young girls padded bikini top, tesco having a pole dancing set aimed at kids

Mental health drops at 14, low self esteem at 17 as a result

Makes body images worse in 1 in 3 teen girls

• children under 14 with sleep disorders has tripled in 10 years 

• Sleep deprivation costs £40bn a year

children are less interested in tree climbing than in the past, meaning there is less risk taking and less knowledge on how to handle themselves in unexpected circumstances

1 in 5 children severely maltreated in their childhood (mostly from parent/guardian)

⅕ of girls are hit by parents

opened in 1986. helped 3.5 million children

1950s - 20/21

1990s - 16

believes that childhood has gone full circle and children are becoming little adults again, thus the end of modern childhood.

Childhood is not disappearing, it’s just more complicated

Childhood is not disappearing, it is just changing

You used to have loads of certainty, however now those certainties have disappeared, and therefore childhood has to adapt.

• **** ID checks

• Ban on under 11s advertising

• Sexting lessons