Understanding Of The Diversity Of Family Sociology Essay

Understanding Of The Diversity Of Family Sociology EssayThe key family types argon Nuclear, Extended, Reconstituted and Lone pargonnt. These atomic number 18 the family types that constitute in contemporary Britain. The basic forgo is that the family structure depends upon genial and economicalal circum spatial relations as such(prenominal) family translation is open to ethnical interpretation, norms and apprises. Whilst the family is adaptable- incessantlyywhere the last Three hundred years in Britain, the family has win overd and adapted, as we bring in moved from an agricultural federation to industrial society.Sociologist George slam Murdoch who delimitate the ecumenical Family concept statedThe thermo atomic family is a linguistic universal human mixer grouping. Either as the sole prevailing unionise of the family or as the basic unit from which more complex contrives compounded, it exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in each societyThe co ncept of the pre industrial extended family is roundwhat of a dissimulation when you contend death rates of working class families. The extended family is referred to as vertical extensions Aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings -grandp atomic number 18nts, children, and grandchildren who each live together, are referred to horizontal extensions the intimate human relationships, and are monogamous indoors the extended and nuclear family. Polygamous relationships do exist deep down extended family, although this is predominately within specific cultures and religions. Examples being in the Muslim faith the act of polygamy are still practised prolong on more there are Christian sects such as the latter day Saints who still practise polygamy, although such relationships are non legal within the European or Ameri jackpot laws.The extended family can similarly be eyeshoted as that of an extension to the nuclear family thru the inclusion of elders, such as grandparents, as ma ny a(prenominal) loan parents are female and they whitethorn well vivification or near their m another(prenominal)s, creating a matriarchal family extended unit. Extended reconstruct family, is considered to be when both opposite sex, or same sex crowings with unfree children, either marry or cohabitate thereby forming a reconstructed family over wise k at a timen as step families. Therefore it is non move that the closely rapidly growing family type is that of the Reconstructed / stepfamily. Statistic in everyy close to children stay with their mothers when their parents either divorce or separate so close children in a reconstructed family arrive at step fathers this brings in to apparent movement the amicable as opposed to the biological care and nurture. It is quite roughhewn in British contemporary society for cohabitation of unmarried parents. The just is 31% of exclusively parents as quoted (http//www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/PO/releases/2004/j une/stepfamilies.aspx)In contemporary society British society today Lone parenting is still predominately female orientated, even so not exclusively as there has been a steady rise in men taking on the theatrical role of solitary parenting estimates are that an aver sequence 11% of lone(prenominal) parents are now men. Attitudes in society give up miscellanead towards the lone parents. Nonetheless they are still passively ostracised from main decant society, by the media and government as being less able, and a bolt on society this is a gather in most commonly associated with conservatism as such in todays society the conservatives plan to introduce a tax that advantages the traditional stereo typical nuclear family which result in effect penalise both cohabiters and lone parents.www.telegraph.co.uk//conservative//Tories-5-billion-tax-breaks-for-married-couples-benefit-rich-most.html thus in verity stigma still exists for lone parents. Single mothers were not social ly satisfactory in pre industrialised Britain, nor early industrialised any off rebound were sent to childrens homes. There are notorious examples of how the mother and children were often treated, and can be found in Irelands History of Catholic unmarried mothers(http//www.catholicherald.co.uk/re regards/r0000523.shtml.Functionalists intendd in a theory that the nuclear family is a positive social institution. Their deal point is one of conservatism, which asserts it meets the needs of a contemporary industrial society. Functionalist underscore that the ideal family type in modern society, is that of a traditional nuclear family. Their view of the nuclear family comprises of a worker husband and stay at home wife and 2.4 children. US sociologists obtain developed this approach, in cross Murdock, Parsons and Goode. The functional perspective on the family identifies a number of functions families will characteristically carry out reproduction, socialisation, nurture, family hierarchy and family emotional deliver.Talcott Parson was a preeminent American sociologist in the 1950s who believed that the family was structured on the stabilisation of the adult family members and the socialisation of children. Based on a series of complex social structures and roles that needed to be adhered to achieve maximum family, social and cultural gaiety -The social musical arrangement consists of three strategys a personality system, a cultural system and a physical environment to which the individual and society must adjust. Parsons model of key systems and sub systems further developed to define quartet functional prerequisites these are adaptation, to a physical environment, goal attainment, the ability to behave one self and resources to achieve its goals and obtain gratification, integration, the ability to form skills and shipway to deal with differences and finally latency to achieve comparative stability. Each system consequently develops four peculi ar(prenominal)ist subsystems to be able to meet these moral and physical requirements. There four systems are cultural, social, personality and biological- these systems are further broken down to four subsystems, these being (in hierarchical order) the socialisation system, the institutions of social control and integration, the political system goal attainment and the economic system adaptation.The libber view on family is diverse, as the feminist school of apprehension has many layers from the liberal to the radical each having very contrastive perspectives on family and the impact of family on fair sex, family and society. In general all feminists have been hypercritical of the effects of family life on women however these views are dramatically polar if not diametrically opposed. Liberal feminists reject the concept that family lives are reflections of the economic structure of society. They believe that the cultural and social aspects of male/female unlikeness are ce ntral to an understanding of the feminist issues.It is fair to say that most feminists believe that the family unit oppresses women and time lags men in contribution. This is based on the teaching that society is patriarchical (male dominate) Patriarchy is defined as the combination of ideologies, cultural practices and systems which keep men in power.The three types of feminism liberal, Radical and redness pack to challenge patriarchy in different ways Liberal feminists believe that the family is in essence institutionalised sexism, because its supports the mainstream culture which is also sexist. They advocate change through legislation and education. Jennifer Somerville a Liberal feminist http//soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/ hook/31/4/673 asserts that the Radical and Marxist feminist have failed to see in to the account the changes in society that have enabled adult female to register the work force as equals to men, nor the social changes that removed the restrictions o n females, such as child care, and the running of the home have changed. Men in society today, are far more likely be involve in the care and nurturing of their loveive children and many men now have sex the shared responsibility of caring for the child and home. The man is no interminable elevated to the top dog of the house as such equality in the home and family is being achieved.The Radical Feminist Kate Millett (Sexual Politics, 1971 argued that Sociology examines the status quo, calls it phenomena, and pretends to take no stand on it, thereby avoiding the necessity to comment on the discriminative character of the relationship amid the sex groups it studies. Yet by indisposed degrees of converting statistic to fact, function to prescription, bias to biology (or some other indeterminate) it comes to ratify and cut down what has been socially enjoined or imposed into what is and ought to be. And through its pose of objectivity, it gains a special efficacy in reinforcin g stereotypesFunctionalists, like other reactionaries, are out to assuage the family. Radical feminists view the family and men as the enemy within, which is both elusive and damaging to woman. Radical feminists believe that patriarchy is the central starting perspective of surgical incision in society. Essentially men exploit women as husbands, partners, sons and brothers. This artful relationship is reflected in the family in which women do all the work for the benefit of men thus reinforcing the capitalist buttoned-down ideology. Men are viewed as the enemy by radical feminists who have created a divide within the feminist ranks, as they believe that no female should be dominated or controlled, and the only way to achieve this, is to not participate in any sexual relationship with men.Valerie Bryson (1992) who bases her feminist philosophy as Marxist, argues all radical feminists see the oppression of women as the most fundamental and universal form of domination whilst t his view is polarised within radical feminist thinking, it cannot be seen as definitive or even based in the feminist combined ideology.The Marxist feminist perspective argues that the principle source of division in society is class therefore the exploitation of women is indispensable to the lengthiness of capitalismThe family produces and nurtures the next generation of workers at no cost pellucid cost to the capitalists system woman doing housework is an unpaid role, which benefits the capitalist, woman were also viewed as cheap labour, before the equality laws were originally implemented in Britain in 19 75 which has gone thru many iterations, and the latest sexual equality act http//www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/equalityimpactassessment.pdf was published in 2007.The earliest view of the family developed from a Marxist perspective is contained in Friedrich Engelss The Origin of the Family, unavowed Property and the State (Engels, 1972, firstPublished 1884) Engels stated thatThe monogamous bourgeois nuclear family developed to help solve the problem of the inheritance of private berth men needed to know who their children were in order to pass on their property to their heirs .The family is therefore designed to control women and protect propertyFreindrich Engles views the nuclear family as a creation of capitalism, specifically designed as patriachical, its primary purpose is to ensure and perpetuate male domination and power through the male only inheritance of land and property It therefore served the interests of capitalism to keep woman economically and socially of less value to society than men. The Marxist feminist view the tasks carried out by woman as reaffirming male dominance therefore house work, child care, preparation and emotional support are seen as detrimental to woman. Women also depict the sexual and emotional support to the husband or partner, in doing so the role is seen as one of submission to the hierarch y of the male head of family. Christine Delphy and Diana Leonard described the everyday situation of family as familiar exploitation however every example could be seen as simply supportive and part of a loving relationship.Todays family in contemporary Britain is made up of different family groups, cultures, ethnicity, class and economic status. There are more isolated nuclear families, which have either migrated to Britain, or moved geographically within Britain families who will have their own norms and value, based on cultural, religious, class or economic science which they will bring with them, and incorporate in to their new life. Lone parents who work, as well as mothers from the traditional nuclear families who work, as a monetary necessity or a career option. Same sex parents, who now have the same marriage and parenting adepts as heterosexual parents. More plenty live together before marriage, children born outside marriage all of these are now norms and values soci ally and culturally. Family and the definition of whats constitutes family and who actually benefits from the family has not changed. We create life and then teach our children. Families provide the care and nurturing native to the learning of who we are, and where we form, what has changed is the is open to personal need and interpretation. Essentially the choices of how family is defined are to fluid in their nature and to diverse, to be able to any other than a personal preference of how to live. Nor should government or society be so prescriptive and controlling to impose.In reviewing the different family types, mainly all have positives and negatives however when reviewing Murdochs assertion that every society had a form of the nuclear family , this was incorrect, as both Nayar and Kibbutz proved that the function of family can be performed equally in a society other than the western defined confines of the nuclear family structure. Different cultures, values and norms, creat e variations of family and also come out of the closet different importance on the family status in society. In todays society we have many variations of family, same sex families, same sex lone parents, and same sex adoption. As such the traditional term of family is utilize incorrectly as an outdated social ideal. The world has changed and the attitudes to parenting specifically in Britain have changed. There have been several world-shaking social developments which have brought about changes in social norms and values.The supporters of the nuclear family believe the benefits of the nuclear family are its conservative core norms, and values which underpin the moral, wellbeing of society. They also consider anything else as a failed form of the nuclear family. The traditional roles of men as the breadwinner, and woman as the happy and fulfilled house wife, staying at home, sounding after the children is the theme they most project. The Media use this image of happy family relat ionship, between all ages groups, every day in concepts and products, actively promoting the nuclear family as the social aspiration to happiness, success and fulfilment- the paradox is that in reality many mothers and fathers in todays society, have no choice, because it not a financially operable option, as they would not be able to house or support their selves or their child/children with just one salary. Moreover the woman may be the chief breadwinner, and the husband would then have to embrace role reversal in the nuclear family and be a stay at home dad there has been an increase in men staying at home to fulfil the role of house husband, however it is still predominately a female responsibility to care for or arrange alternative care, for children in the nuclear family.The pre industrialised class and economic status had a significant effect on who lived or died an example being if the family was wealthy a land owner, they may well have a more good environment in which to increase their chances of survival, although they were still affected by such diseases as the Black Death (Yesinia pestis ) which over a period of two years killed between 30-40% of the entire population of England in both 1348 and 1605. in two ways as many poor children died as rich children the poor in the country were at the mercy of poor harvests, bad weather famine and infections. Also fatalities were higher in the towns where sanitation and overcrowding in poor areas encourage the spread of the virus. Given that the pre industrial pre-plague population of England was in the range of 5-6 one million million people, fatalities may well have exceeded or reached as high as 2 million. Urbanisation or isolation neither could supply the basic needs of the poor, so its unlikely that any child surviving the age of sixteen had an extended family, due to the circumstances that they were born in too.Their functionalist view of the family is ideological and unrealistic, as it does not represent a reality of ever changing family, cultural, economical and demographic factors of life and work If nothing else the functionalist view can be seen as a plausible aspiration for some conservative idealists it is however not a viable option for all family types. as from a Marxist perspective, the fact that its wrapped in grammatical gender and equality issues and that the feminists have such diverse diametrically viewpoints yet have also provided the vehicle for such positives changes in womens rights and social equality, it has to be held up as the champion of woman, yet also recognised as having do its job. Over the last 100 years in England, woman from all classes, ethnicity and culture have gained the right to vote in the last 50 years working class woman gained entry to university, the right to divorce, and the right to birth control. These changes have impacted society to its very core contend the definition of the nuclear family and the society it fits int o.Religion is slower to change its views on the Nuclear and industrial vision of the nuclear family for instance where the Catholic church is politically, ideologically and (possibly) economically powerful, the promotion of marriage, and the ban on contraception have significant consequences for the family, in terms of such things as size, house servant violence, traditional male/female roles. This ensures the women are still disenfranchised and that freedom of woman still exists in contemporary modern society. In todays society family is a hot topic. In last 60 years, there has been significant social and cultural change. There is however multiple issues as the pace of change has not be controlled or understood before being implemented.In conclusion its difficult to blithely wrap family in to one perspective, the reality is that there is no ideal family unit and common sense, pragmatism, social, cultural and economical factors must all be taken in to consideration. The western c apitalist perspective of the nuclear family, extended family, same sex family or lone parent, do not necessarily translate to other cultures or societies. Equally the views of the feminists do not agree on female equality, or the emancipation and disenfranchisement of woman in todays society. Young girls and boys nurtured by their parents will determine the values and norms relating to their roles in latter life. Woman do have self conclusion in Britain today this provides the choices necessary on how they live their lives, be that in a nuclear family, in a same sex relationship or as a lone parent. If is impossible to make a definitive choice, as what benefits to the family as a whole, is to provide equal partnership, respect for both genders and a secure loving environment- in saying that domestic violence, drugs alcohol could all present as negatives. The liberal feminist stance resonant as the most pragmatic and balanced view whilst the radicals and Marxist feminist views are polarised in a gender war.