Family DiversityFamily Diversity

What is meant by diversity?

family life in the UK is diverse – this means there are a range of family types

Write down what in your head constitutes a ‘normal’ family

Why Has Cohabitation increased?

Giddens (a post modernist) suggests marriage is less relevant in modern society and less important in terms of economic security.

Giddens also suggests that female attitudes to sexuality is responsible – fidelity less important because of women's movement and contraception

Lone Parent Families The lone parent family is one of the

most common family structures in modern society – 1 in 5 children now live in one parent families.

Only 10% of lone parent families are headed by the father

Between 1970 and 1990 the numbers of lone parent families doubled in the UK

lone parent families cont. …

One parent families Carole smart- 1 parent families

encourage bad relationships with absent parent

Effect on education and family ties in future.

Dennis and erdos- fatherless families become disadvantaged and lower attainment etc. lack of father means anti social behaviour- is this fair?

Reconstituted Families

These are families in which children from former relationships are brought to a new family relationship

Over 1/3rd of all families are now Reconstituted mainly as a result of rising divorce rates

Ethnic Minority Families There is considerable diversity

amongst ethnic minority families Afro Caribbeans have a high rate of

female headed lone parent families Pakistani, Chinese and Bangladeshi

origin families are more likely to be extended.

Homosexual Families

The numbers of homosexual families (where parents are either gay or lesbian) is rising.

It seems inevitable that as society becomes more tolerant this trend will increase

Bill recently passed for same sex marriage in 2014

Robert Chester ("The Rise of the Neo-Conventional Family", 1985)

it is misleading to simply use “snapshot” statistical figures

People are likely to experience a diverse range of “family experiences”

Causes of diversity Industrialisation Leete ("Changing Patterns of Marriage and

Remarriage", 1977)- more marriages now(in 1977) but an increasing age for first marriage

A decrease in family size Abercrombie and Warde note that "one of

the most significant changes in the labour market in the 20th century" is the “rising proportion of married women returning to work after completing their families

Less stigma if not a nuclear family

Rhona and Robert Rapoport ("Families in Britain", 1982

identify five main types of family diversity in contemporary Britain

Organisational diversity e.g dynamics Cultural diversity e.g religion, ethnicity Class diversity- Goldthorpe and Lockwood et al (The

Affluent Worker in the Class Structure) argue, that this type of family involves both partners sharing a home-centred approach to family life

Life course e.g under 30 couple compared to 60 year old couple

Cohort e.g generational inks e.g children leave for higher ed or grandparents live next road

Reconstituted families

2002- 68% were reconstituted families

Means to live with a step parent.]in 2001 Childline received 1500 calls about problems in step family arrangement- why?

Can step families be a good thing?

Same sex families

0.3% same sex families Less taboo now- Elton john Civil partnership act 2004 helped this

Census 2011

In 2011, 47 per cent (21.2 million); this was a decrease from 51 per cent (21.2 million) in 2001.

In 2011 cohabiting people (both same and opposite sex couples) accounted for 12 per cent (5.3 million) compared to 10 per cent (4.1 million) in 2001.

In 2011 there were 14.4 million one family households3,4, 7.1 million one person households and 1.9 million ‘other households’. The largest percentage increase was for ‘other households’ (including households of unrelated adults or more than one family), which rose 28 per cent between 2001 and 2011.

(7.2 per cent) consisted of lone parents with dependent children; this increased from 2001 when comparable figures were 1.4 million (6.5 per cent).

Around 9 in every 10 lone parent households were headed by a woman, both nationally and across English regions and Wales.

London also had the highest proportion of lone parent households with dependent children and the highest proportion of families with at least one dependent child. Conversely, London had the lowest proportion of older people living alone

Is working class extended family around- Young and Wilmott said decline in this type in 60’s, but only focused on English East End- what about other cultures?

Lots of ethnic families such as Cypriot and Asian live nearby each other still.

2000- Essex uni conducted survey and found that 39% black British people in marriage- high divorce rate among black community

Black women likely to be employed than black men, especially in working class areas so maybe want to be single parent.

Exam questions assess the view that the nuclear

family is no longer the norm. (24 marks)