Assessing the Claim that the Nuclear Family had the Best Fit for Industrial and Modern Society

Assessing the Claim that the Nuclear Family had the Best Fit for Industrial and Modern Society

The relationship between the structure of the family and the related

processes of industrialization and modernization is a major theme in

sociological study of the family. Industrialization refers to the

growth in the mass production of goods in a factory system which

involves mechanical production which started in the late 19th century

and continues still today and modernization is the development of

social, cultural, economic and political institutions which are

thought of as typical in a modern society. These developments include

the replacement of religious belief systems with scientific ones, the

growth of bureaucracy and the replacement of Monarchies with

representative democracies.

The claim that the nuclear family was the best fit for

industrialization and modernization has weighted arguments for and

against. Where some sociologists regard industrialization as the

central process involved in changes in western societies since the 18th

century; others attach more importance to broader processes of

modernization. However, there are a number of problems that arise from

relating the family to industrialization or modernization: they are

not fixed states but constantly developing processes, they do not

follow the same course in every society and some writers believe we

are in a stage of post-modernity. Further difficulties arise from the

fact that there are many forms of pre-industrial and pre-modern

families. So it is not always clear what the family in modern

industrial society is being compared to.

During industrialization the family went under many changes. It ceased

to be a unit of production as people started going to work for other

people in return for wages; there was no welfare state and therefore

unemployment, widespread poverty and ill-health which lead to high

infant mortality and death rates and extended families formed as

mutual support networks for security against hardship. These all meant

that the family would have to adapt more to survive in the

ever-changing social structure. At this time many people now lived in

extended families to support each other.