An Investigation Looking at Nuclear Families and the Roles and Responsibilities of Each Member in Britain Today
This investigation seeks to identify whether the changes in our
society have affected the roles and responsibilities of the members of
nuclear families or not, and if so, then how and to what extent.
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The conventional nuclear family is seen as the best type of family for
modern life by functionalists and the New Right. However the number of
nuclear families in Britain has been in decline as there has been a
massive rise in other families such as lone parent families. The roles
of nuclear families are often stereotyped in media and politics. The
stereotype contains two ideas:
1. that a family should be made up of father, mother and children
2. that the father and mother should have different roles. It is
assumed that men are naturally better suited for the world of work,
and that women are better at doing domestic work, looking after the
home and family.
For functionalists, the conventional nuclear family is the ideal
family for modern society because it fits the needs of society so
well, and makes the best use of men and women's different natural
abilities. Functionalists like Parsons who were writing some years ago
before the rise of feminism made assumptions that women should not go
out to work. Recently a new set of ideas have arisen. The New Right
View is concerned by the decline e of the nuclear family. It is argued
that the stable environment children need has been undermined by a
whole series of changes beginning in the 1960s.
In this investigation, I am going to look at whether these stereotypes
are proven to be right or wrong. Also, I will look at how the
conventional nuclear family is portrayed in society by the media as
well as other members of society.
I chose this topic to research because I find it interesting and it is
a topic that has always raised a few questions in my mind.