Sociology Family and Households Key Terms

Bean Pole Family
A family with a long, thin structure. For example, there might be 4 generations alive, but each generation hasn’t had many children. This is a 21st century example of an extended family, but its members are more likely to live apart than in the past.

Birth Rate 
The number of babies born per thousand per year.

Civil Partnership
The legally or formally recognised union of a man and a woman (or in some countries two people of the same sex) in a committed relationship.

Co-habitation  
Two people living together in the same household in an emotionally intimate, committed relationship without being officially married.

Commercialisation of Housework 
Where new technologies lead to new products which people can buy which reduces the amount of domestic labour people have to do at home – e.g. hoovers, washing machines, microwaves and microwave meals reduce the amount of time spend cleaning, washing and cooking.

Death Rate 
The number of deaths per thousand members of a population per year.

Dual Burden 
When someone does both paid work and a significant amount of the domestic labour, such as housework at home. According to radical feminists, it is mainly women who suffer this.

Economic Factors 
Refers to things to do with money – for example how wealth a society is and the amount of wealth and income an individual or family has.

Emotion Work 
Thinking about the emotional well-being of other members of the family and acting in ways which will be of emotional benefit to others. For example, hugging and reassuring children when they have nightmares, organizing Christmas and birthday parties so that everyone feels included and has a good time.

Extended family  
Family beyond the traditional nuclear family, incorporating aunts, uncles, and grandparents. In the traditional extended family, members live in the same household, in more modern extended families

Gender Norms 
The ‘expected’ patterns of behaviour associated with masculinity and femininity – for example, femininity = caring, masculinity = competitive.

Gender Roles 
The social positions and occupations we associate with men and women –…