In this essay, I am going to be talking about nuclear families not
being the norm anymore. A nuclear family is a family that consists of
the mother, father and the child/children. A heterosexual relationship
between the mother and father, which would be based on love and
compassion. The mother’s role includes cooking for the family and
looking after the children. The father’s role includes providing
for the family and acting as a role model towards the children. The
children are offspring of both the mother and the father.
Years ago, nuclear families were the norm in Britain. It was required
that the relationship between a couple should be armoured by marriage.
Although this point isn’t really believed anymore, some people still
follow it-e.g. -Christians believe that couples should get married
before they have any sort of sexually relationship, or even children.
If your family wasn’t nuclear, you were considered as different to the
society. You would even be treated differently. Not having a nuclear
family would be a single mother with children, or a single father with
children (though in some cases the adult could be a widow/widower).
Another way of not being a nuclear family would even be being
single/not married! In those days they used the word spinster for
single women. (The word is not really used today, as it can be
offensive to single women, although some cultures still choose to use
it.)
Nowadays, nuclear families are NOT the norm AT ALL. In fact, there are
so many different types of families. There are single parent families,
adopted families (where the child/children has been adopted), foster
families (where the child/children has been fostered), gay and lesbian
families, reconstituted (otherwise known as stepfamilies) and many
many more. Personally, I think that the reason why nuclear families
are no longer the norm in modern Britain is because of the different
ways of life people have and the different views to life that people
have. For example, single people could decide to have a child and not
Traditional family in today’s society is rather a fantasy, a fairy tale without the happy ending. Everyone belongs to a family, but the ideology that the family is built around is the tell tale. Family structures have undeniably changed, moving away from the conventional family model. Nowadays more mothers work outside of the home, more fathers are asked to help with housework, and more women are choosing to have children solo. Today there are families that have a mom and a dad living in the same home, there are step-families, and families that have just a mother or just a father. Probably the most scrutinized could be families that consist of two moms or two dads. These are all examples of families and if all members are appropriately happy and healthy then these families are okay and should incontestably be accepted. So why is the fantasy of the traditional family model still so emphasized in our society? This expectation is degrading and misleading. Progressing with times one ought not be criticized or shunned for being true to their beliefs. It is those living falsely, living as society thinks they should that are the problem. Perhaps as a society, if there were more focus and concern for happiness and peace within ones family and fewer worries for the neighbor then there would be less dilemma.
Nuclear Family. Noun. A couple and their dependent children, regarded as a basic social unit (Abate and Jewell, The New Oxford American Dictionary). This definition has changed in both meaning and prevalence over time; it used to signify just a father, a mother, and their children, but now it’s become more inclusive to families who didn 't quite meet that description. Also, this set-up is far less common that it was, since rates of single parents have skyrocketed over the past 50 years (Tenenbaum, “Honor Thy Mother”). Despite this, the nuclear family is still the basic foundation of all familial relationships today. The novel Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns is based on the lives (and deaths) of each member of a nuclear
Family relationships in general are affected by historical events in an obvious way. Gender roles were not in dispute leading up to the 1960s, for wives and husbands were coworkers in the family activity. Children were welcomed as coworkers, and as a source of security in illness and old age. Family relationship changed in the 1920s due to people leaving the farms to work in urban centers. The Industrial Revolution is the reason (cause) the “Joint family” (Encyclopedia) unit broke down when workers moved to cities for jobs. The joint family included Grandparents, Aunts, Uncle, Cousins, etc.. At this time Progressives notice changes (effects) such as: courtship now dating, women smoking cigarettes, Jazz music, perfume, and dress styles, to name a few symptoms of coming change. These changes were not fads. When the ideas of the late 19th and early 20th century found support in business and government law and courts many people departed from the nuclear family ideal in the 1960s because a family relationship if close and loving became
“In the 1950’s, 86 percent of children lived in two-parent families, and 60 percent of children were born into homes with a male breadwinner and a female homemaker” (Conley 451). In contrast, “in 1986, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. families consisted of a male breadwinner, a female housewife, and their children, a figure that has since fallen to 6 percent” (Conley 455). Modern families come in all shapes and sizes. They no longer follow the strict nuclear family layout. There are many reasons why the nuclear family is no longer the most common family type. Some of these reasons include increased divorces, increased acceptance of different sexual orientations, increased amount of couples choosing not to get married/common-law marriages, increased amount of people choosing not to have children (rise of birth control methods), increased amount of families with both parents working/needing to work, etc. Personally, I do not believe the decrease in the nuclear family model is a bad thing. By definition a family is just a group of people who are related or married/in a relationship and it can still be a healthy and well-functioning unit no matter the size or combination of people it is made up
Coming to an understanding of divorce is technically challenging and very emotional. Sociologists examine the macro-level of families to develop different theoretical aspects of divorced families. The structure of families in America today have revolutionized and created diversity within a family due to divorce. How has divorce redefined family composition? Many have different judgment, attitude, and knowledge that will put constraints in how a person will answer this question. Two different people would say divorce has either positively or negatively redefined family composition. However, a neutral person would just accept the fact that it has changed and redefined family arrangements.
Today, in a world of the “postmodern family” the traditional lines of family structure are blurred. Children may come from diverse types of homes, or a couple, married or not may choose to have no children and consider themselves a family. The roots of these modern families may stem from ethnic origins, sexual orientations, or even seen as a rebellion of sorts from traditional ways. Children may live in homes of single parents, which is an exceedingly more common phenomenon as the divorce rate well publicized at around fifty percent. They may also live with homosexual parents either as a biological child of one partner or adopted by both. Also, the traditional married couple may choose to adopt locally or internationally, potentially blending ethnic backgrounds into one household. Whatever the background of the new nuclear family the challenges and experiences follow similar patterns.
The Extent to Which Social Policies Reflect and Support the Traditional Nuclear Family? Social policy is the package of measures taken to solve a social problem. Then there is the problem. I intend to assess the New Right and New Left, the taxation.
Picture a white picket fence surrounding a lovely, suburban home. The working father, young housewife, and the 2.5 children: a nuclear family. A model family perfect in every way, destined to raise the perfect little patriots and send them off in the world. Nowadays, that stereotype has been rejected as family types, and people, shift and grow without bound. Nothing, anymore, can fit within a “model” as people are starting to become whatever they choose. No matter what outside or internal influence,in the end, people ultimately create their own identities.
Families have changed greatly over the past 60 years, and they continue to become more diverse.
World War ǁ was a global military event, the most colossal conflict in history lasting from 1939-1945, it involved most of the worlds nations including Great Britain. WWII had far-reaching implications for most of the world. The following essay will demonstrate the changes the UK family has undergone since World War ǁ, the following essay will also throw light upon the changes in family types, economic activities of women , power distribution, laws and sexuality with respect to disciplines of sociology, economics, history and politics.
This paper will examine sociological theories and how they relate to the social institution of the family. We typically view society as a group of people, but in sociology, society is not a group of people but a social organization. People are molded by society to fit within the accepted societal bounds. Society must be understood using “the meanings that people put on their values and beliefs” (Bartle, 2010). Within sociology there are three major perspectives. These are the Functionalist, Conflict and Interactionist Perspectives. Each perspective views society in different manners, with each being correct and relevant since social institutions are too complex to be defined by any one theory. Each perspective will be used to explain the perspectives’ relevance to the family.
The nuclear family is a married man and women who are raising their biological children. It is better known as the common view of a household. In the 1960’s this family, and religious, view was followed by the majority of the people in the United States that if one had to guess they type of family one live with there would be an eighty percent chance that they live in a nuclear family (Luscombe). This image of a family has been engraved into our brains that anything else is unacceptable. However, over the years that view has been altered by single divorce, single parenting, cohabitation, children born out of wedlock, and gay parenting. In fact, the U.S. has seen drastic rise different types of families over the last fifty years (Castelloe).
Nuclear family consists of father, mother, and children. Extended family is nuclear family with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, and nieces. Single-parent family is a mother or a father living together with children. European-Americans are mostly in nuclear families. They tend to rely on nuclear families because their extended family lives far from them. Euro-Americans have high regards for individualism. The have much more freedom of choice than do people in other cultures. They are encouraged at a very young age, as they are expected to have free will. They view agency as residing within the individual. Their families are more prone to break up than and peasants and hunting families. Peasants and hunting families grew up in a home where everyone works together to provide everyone’s basic needs. In Euro-American culture, individualism is their favorite mentality. This mentality usually starts once they turn 18, when it is legal to support one’s self. Thus, this defies the idea of social
Murdock’s idealised view of the family could now be seen as outdated as it is no longer the most common family structure in Britain today although it can still be used as an argument against other perspectives. While there have been many changes to the structure of the family and the roles performed within it, the nuclear family remains an ideal for the majority of people in society.
Sociologists look at society from either a macro or micro view and the theories that define their work are based on those perspectives. There are several family theories that we learned about this semester. Briefly, Structural-Functionalism and Conflict Theory are “macro” theories in sociology. Structural-Functionalism sees society as a living machine made up of different parts which work together for the good of society. Individuals, as well as Institutions work together, and the family is the key to the well-functioning machine. Emile Durkheim, considered the Father of Sociology argues social solidarity, where people do the right thing, create harmony and have shared values. According to Durkheim the nuclear family is the only type of institution that can achieve that. Conflict Theory sees society as a pyramid with those at the top having more power and influence than those at the bottom. Males in society have more power than females. There is a power imbalance, which could lead to oppression o...