Family Diversity-Changing Family Patterns

One very clear change=British family life=decrease=average number=children people have

People=having fewer children,women=having children later+more people=not having children at all

Social changes=influenced=tends. Contraception=more readily available+women's roles=changing

Emphasis=individual=post industrial society=key factor Children=expensive+time consuming

Couples=choose=spend=time+money=other ways conflict between wanting=successful working life+being=mum=made many women put off having children until later

Macionis+plummer(1997) highlighted=ability=new fertility treatments=allow family structures=previously impossible

Treatments=IVF allow=egg=fertilised=test tube+medically implanted into=womb=surrogate mother who may not have been=original egg donor

Family treatments=allowed gay+lesbian couples+single+older women=have children when they wouldn't have been able=before.Family structures exist=impossible=past

Eversley+Bonnerjea(1982) found=some types=family structures=more likely=found=certain types= areas:

Inner cities=higher concentrations=single parents+ethnic minority family

Southern England=high number=two parent,upwardly-mobile families

Coastal areas=home=large numbers=etired couples without dependant children

Rural areas tend=characterised=extended families+strong external patterns of kinship

Declining industrial families=large number=traditional families+also show=high amount=diversity

New right theorists believe=family diversity=result=decline=traditional values

See it=threat=traditional nuclear family+blame it=antisocial behaviour+crime

Murray(1989) suggests=single mother families=principle cause=crime+social decay=lack =male role model+authority figure=home

New Right believe=state benefits=cut+social policy targeted=discourage family diversity+promote marriage+nuclear family

Functionalist Robert Chester(1985) admits=there has been some growth=family diversity+believes=nuclear family remains=dominant family structure

Argues=statistics show=greater increase=diversity than=actually happening=UK society=ageing population

Death rates=decreasing=distribution=ages=society=changing=proportion=older people=increasing

Number=people who are at=stage=life when they're not=nuclear family=increases

Chester=also suggested=nuclear families=becoming less traditional+more symmetrical=better fit modern living

Postmodernists claim=no longer=single dominant family structure-postmodern society=highly diverse+diversity=increasing

Improvements=women rights+availability=contraception=resulted=people having far more choice=type=relationship

people now tend=create=relationships=suit=own needs rather than following=traditional values=religion+government

Relationships only last=long=needs= met creating even greater instability+diversity

Jeffrey Weeks(2000) believes=personal morality=become individual choice rather than=set=values influenced=religion/dictated=society

Modern liberal attitudes towards marriage,divorce,cohabitation+homosexuality=major cause=irreversible diversity