Family_Revision_Booklet.doc

SCLY Families and Households [REVISION GUIDE]
1
SCLY
1:
Families
and
Households
Revision
Notes
201o Name:
This unit includes:
1. Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce,
child-bearing and the life-course, and the diversity of contemporary
family and household structures
2. The relationship of the family to the social structure and social
change, with particular reference to the economy and to state
policies
3. The nature and extent of changes within the family, with reference
to gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships
4. The nature of childhood, and changes in the status of children in
the family and society
5. Demographic trends in the UK since 1900; reasons for changes in
birth rates, death rates and family size

2
Key definitions:
A family is usually a group of people related by marriage or blood.
A household is a person living alone or a group of people living together who may or
may not be related.

3
Theories of the
family
From the specification:
The relationship of the family to the social structure and social change
 Functionalistviews:the importanceof the nuclear family,the universality of the family,
changingfunctions,how the nuclear family ‘fits’modern society.
 Marxistviews:the family as partof the ideological stateapparatus,as an agentof social
control.
 Feministviews: patriarchy;liberal,radical and Marxistfeminism.
Consensus/Positive views of the family

Conflict/critical views of the family

 Functionalisttheories:the family
performs positivefunctions for
individualsand society
 New Right theories: the family is the
cornerstone of society, but it is under
threat
 Marxisttheories:the family provides
important functions for capitalism
 Feministtheories: the family reinforces
gender inequality and patriarchy
Functionalist theories
GP Murdock Evaluation
Murdock argues that the family is a universal
institution (itexists everywhere) that performs
four major functions:
 Stable satisfaction of the sex drivewith
the same partner, preventing the social
disruption caused by sexual ‘free-for-all’.
 Reproduction of the next generation,
without which society would not be able
to continue.
 Socialisation of the young into society’s
shared norms and values.
 Meeting its members’ economic needs,
such as shelter and food.

However, other sociologists have criticised his
functionalist approach. Marxists and Feminists
reject his 'rose-tinted' consensus view that the
family meets the needs of both wider society and
all members of the family. They argue that
functionalism neglects conflict and exploitation:
For example, feminists see the family as serving
the needs of men and oppressing women.
Similarly, Marxists argue that it meets the needs
of capitalism, not those of family members or
society as a whole.

4
Talcott Parsons: the functions of the
family
Evaluation
Parsons believes thatevery family in every
society has two 'basic and irreducible' functions:
the primary socialisation of children and the
stabilisation of adultpersonalities. The initial or
primary socialisation takes placein the early
years of a child's lifewithin the family group.
Duringthis period the child learnsthebasic
elements of the cultureinto which she or he has
been born.
However, Parsons view of the socialisation
process can be criticised for being too
deterministic, with children being pumped full of
culture and their personalities being moulded by
all-powerful adults. He ignores the possibility of
socialisation being a two-way process in which
roles are negotiated or that attempts at
socialisation can be resisted by children.
The second basic and irreduciblefunction is the
stabilisation of the adult's personality. The
family gives the individual adulta 'safety-valve',a
placewhere she or he can relax,escapethe
stresses and strains of the world outside and feel
emotionally secure.
However, the Marxist Zaretsky argues that the
family only provides this emotional support in
order to encourage its members to continue to
work another day under the harsh realities of
capitalism. The family is therefore a servant of
the capitalist state which looks after the needs of
exploited workers at no cost to employers.
Talcott Parsons: the theory of ‘fit’ Evaluation
Parsons argues thatthe dominant structure of
the family best suits the needs of the economy at
the time. This means that nuclear families ‘fit’an
industrial economy because they are
geographically mobileand not relianton wider
kin. This is becausefamily members can easily
move to new centres of production. Parsons
concludes that only the nuclear family could
providethe achievement-orientated and
geographically mobileworkforcerequired by
modern economies.
However, according to Wilmott and Young, the
pre-industrial family tended to be nuclear, not
extended as claimed by Parsons, with parents and
children working together in cottage industries
such as weaving. They also argues that the
hardship of the early industrialised period gave
rise to the mother-centred working class
extended family, based on ties between mothers
and their married daughters, who relied on each
other for financial, practical and emotional
support.
Similarly, Tamara Hareven concludes that the
extended family, not the nuclear as claimed by
Parsons, was the structure best equipped to meet
the needs of early industrial society. Her research
showed how extended migrant families in
America in the 19th century acted as a source of
support and mutual aid, as well as promoting
geographical mobility by helping newcomers to
find work.
Overall evaluation of functionalist theories
1. Functionalist analyses of the nuclear family tend to be based on middle class and American
versions of the family and they consequently neglect other influences such as ethnicity, social
class or religion. For example, Parsons does not consider the fact that wealth or poverty may
determine whether women stay at home to after children or not. Since parsons wrote in the
in the 1950s,many western societies, including the UK, have become multicultural. Religious
and ethnic subcultural differences may mean that Parsons’ version of the family is no longer
relevant in contemporary society.
2. Feminists argue that as a result of this picture of the family, functionalists tend to ignore the
‘dark side’ of the family – conflict between husband and wife, male dominance, child abuse,
and so on. They give insufficient attention to the dysfunctions of the family – the harmful
effects it may have on the wider society.
3. From an interpretivist point of view, functionalists tend to neglect the meanings families
have for individualsand how family members interpret family relationships.

5
Marxist theories
 Marxismis a conflicttheory which sees all society’s institutions,such as theeducation
system, the media, religion and the state, as helpingto maintain class inequality and
capitalism.For Marxists,therefore, the functions of the family areperformed solely for the
benefit of the capitalistsystem. This view contrasts sharply with the functionalistviewthat
the family benefits both society as a whole and the individual members of the family.
Engels: the origin of the family Evaluation
Engels argued that the need for the family arose
when societies started to valueprivateproperty.
With the riseof private property an organised
system of inheritancebecame necessary - fathers
needed to know who their offspringwere in
order to pass their property down the family line.
With this, argues Engels, the need for monogamy
arose- one man married to one woman - and
hence the family was created. Therefore the
family serves the interests of the economy - in
this casethe creation of ownership of property –
whilesubjectingwomen to unequal power
relations in the home.
However, modern research has suggested that
Engels’ interpretation of the development of the
family are historically inaccurate. For example,
monogamous marriage and the nuclear family
are often found in hunter-gatherer groups. Since
humans have spent the vast majority of their
existence as hunter-gatherers, the idea that the
nuclear family emerged as a response to private
property is unlikely.
Functionalists such as Parsons would reject
Engels view of the development of the family.
Rather than being a vehicle for passing down
inherited wealth, the family plays an important
role in socialising the young and stabilising adult
personalities. Moreover, the division of labour in
families reflects the natural expressive, nurturing
and caring roles of women, and the more
instrumental, providing role of men.
Zaretsky: how the family benefits
capitalism
Evaluation
Zaretsky suggests that the family serves
capitalismby offering emotional security from
the oppressiveworld of work, thus allowingsuch
oppression to continue. However, in reality, it
only provides emotional warmth to encourage its
members to continue to liveanother day under
the harsh realities of capitalism.
However, the liberal feminist Jennifer Somerville
argues that Zaretsky exaggerates the importance
of the family as a refuge from life in capitalist
society. She suggests that Zarestsky
underestimates the extent of cruelty, violence
and incest within families. She also argues that
Zaretsky ignores the fact that during the early
stages of capitalism most working class women
had to take paid work in order for the family to
survive, and relatively few stayed at home as full-
time housewives.
Althusser and Poulantzas: the ideological
role of the family
Evaluation
The family can be seen as servingthe functions of
an ideological stateapparatusby socialisingboth
pro-capitalistideology and its own familiar
ideology in order to maintain such family
However, feminists argue that Althusser and
Poulantzas ignore the fact that such a family
ideology supports patriarchy since it suggests
that men and women should have different roles

6
patterns over time. For example the family
socialises itsmembers into accepting gender
roles,into acceptingthat it is 'natural' for men
and women to get married and engage in
separateroles and jobs in the home: an attitude
that is passed down from generation to
generation.
in the family and society - roles that lead to the
subordination of women to men. Similarly,
functionalists reject the view that the family
socialises children into capitalist ideology.
Instead, the family enables children to internalise
the culture of society to enable them to become
effective functioning adults.
Overall evaluation of Marxist theories
 Marxist views of the family follow logically from Marxist theory. If, for example, the family
provides emotional support for workers, then this helps them to accept the injustices of the
capitalist system. This makes sense if capitalism is seen as essentially unjust. However, many
sociologists reject this view of capitalism and, as a result, Marxist view of the family.
 Feminists argue that the Marxist emphasis on social class and capitalism underestimates the
importance of gender inequalities within the family. For feminists, the family primarily serves
the interests of men rather than capitalism.
 By contrast, functionalists argue that Marxists ignore the very real benefits that the family
provides for its members, such as intimacy and mutual support.
 From an interpretivist point of view, Marxists tend to neglect the meanings families have for
individuals and how family members interpret family relationships. For example, Marxists
ignore accounts of family life in which some females suggest motherhood is a fulfilling and
rewarding experience.

7
Feminist theories
 Feminists take a critical viewof the family,arguingthat itoppresses women and reproduces
patriarchy. As such,they have focused on the unequal division of domestic labour and
domestic violenceagainstwomen. They do not regard gender inequality as natural or
inevitable,but as something created by society
Marxist feminist Evaluation
Marxist-feministssuggestthat the nuclear family
meets the needs of capitalismfor the
reproduction and maintenance of classand
patriarchal inequality.Itbenefits the powerful at
the expense of the working class and women.
The Marxist-feminist,MargaretBenston (1972),
argues that the nuclear family provides thebasic
commodity required by capitalism,i.e.labour
power by reproducing and rearingthe future
workforce at littlecostto the capitalistclass.It
maintains thepresent workforce's physical and
emotional fitness through the wife's domestic
labour.Finally,women in families can beused as
a reserve army of labour to be used in times of
economic growth and pushed back into the home
duringtimes of economic slow-down.
However, difference feminists would criticise
Marxist feminists for assuming that all women
are exploited equally under capitalism. For
example, lesbian and heterosexual women, black
and white women, middle class and working class
women have very different experiences from one
another. Black feminists would argue that
Marxist feminists emphasis on women’s role
within capitalism ignores black and Asian
women’s experience of racism which is not faced
by white women.
Radical feminist Evaluation
Radical feministssuch as KateMillett(1970) see
modern societies and families ascharacterised
by patriarchy - a system of subordination and
domination in which men exercise power over
women and children.They argue that the family
is the root of all women’s oppression and should
be abolished. The only way to do this is through
separatism–women must liveindependently of
men.
Diana Gittens refers to the concept of age
patriarchy to describeadultdomination of
children,which may take the form of violence
againstboth children and women. Similarly,
Delphy and Leonard see the family as a
patriarchal institution in which women do most
of the work and men get most of the benefit.
Moreover, this patriarchal ideology stressesthe
primacy of the mother-housewife role for women
and the breadwinner the family as legitimating
violenceagainstwomen.
However, some would argue that this model is
dated in that it fails to consider recent trends
such as the feminisation of the workforce and
women's use of divorce laws. The liberal feminist
Jenny Somerville also argues that separatism is
unlikely to work because heterosexual attraction
makes it unlikely that the conventional nuclear
family will disappear.
Hakim (1995) argues that this model fails to
consider that females might be exercising
rational choices in choosing domestic roles.
By contrast, functionalists argue that radical
feminists ignore the very real benefits that the
family provides for its members, such as intimacy
and mutual support.

8
Overall evaluation of Feminist theories
 Feminist theories of the family have dated fairly badly, because they fail to account for recent
economic and social changes, such as the feminisation of the economy, the educational
success of young females, women’s use of divorce and many women’s rejection of domestic
labour as their unique responsibility.
 Feminist also end to ignore the positive aspects of family life. Critics argue that feminists are
preoccupied with the negative side of family life. They ignore the possibility that many
women enjoy running a home and raising children.
 Feminists tend to assume that families are manipulated in some way by the structure of
society to reproduce and reinforce patriarchy through the gendered division of labour within
families. Postmodernists, for example, would argue that feminists ignore the possibility that
we have some choice in creating our family relationships. In fact, the diversity of family types
found today reflects the fact that we can choose our domestic set up for ourselves.
 From an interpretivist point of view, feminists tend to neglect the meanings families have for
individuals and how family members interpret family relationships. For example, feminists
ignore accounts of family life in which some females suggest motherhood is a fulfilling and
rewarding experience.
 Difference feminists would criticise feminists for assuming that all women share similar
experiences. For example, lesbian and heterosexual women, black and white women, middle
class and working class women have very different experiences of the family from one
another. Black feminists would argue that by solely regarding the family as a source of
oppression, white feminists neglect black and Asian women’s experience of racism. Instead,
black feminists view the black family positively as a source of support and resistance to
racism.

9
Social Policy
 Although sociologists agreethat social policy can havean importantinfluence on family life,
they hold different views about what kinds of effects it has and whether these aredesirable.
We shall examinea range of different sociological views or perspectives on the impactof
social policy on families.
Functionalist Evaluation
Functionalists seethe state as actingin the
interests of society as a whole and its social
policies asbeingfor the good of all.They see
policies ashelpingfamilies to perform their
functions more effectively and make lifebetter
for their members.
For example, Ronald Fletcher argues that the
welfare state supports the family in performing
its functions more effectively. For example, the
existence of the National Health Service means
that with the help of doctors, nurses,hospitals
and medicines, the family today is better ableto
take careof its members when they aresick.
However, functionalists assume that all members
of the family benefit from social policies, whereas
feminists argue that policies often benefit men at
the expense of women.
Similarly, functionalists assume that there is a
‘march of progress’, with social policies steadily
making family life better and better whereas
Marxists argue that policies can also turn the
clock back and reverse progress previously made,
for example by cutting welfare benefits to poor
families.
New Right Evaluation
The New Right criticisemany existing
government policies for undermining the family.
In particular,they argue that governments often
weaken the family’s self-relianceby providing
generous welfare benefits. These include
providingcouncil housingfor unmarried teenage
mothers and cash payments to support lone-
parent families.
Charles Murray (1984) argues that these benefits
offer ‘perverse incentives’ - that is,they reward
irresponsibleor anti-social behaviour. For
example, the growth of lone-parent families
encouraged by generous benefits means more
boys grow up without a male rolemodel and
authority figure. This lack of paternal authority is
responsiblefor a risingcrimerate among young
males.
Feminists argue that New Right views are an
attempt to justify a return to the traditional
patriarchal family that subordinated women to
men and kept them confined to a domestic role.
It wrongly assumes that the patriarchal nuclear
family is ‘natural’ rather than socially
constructed.
Cutting benefits would simply drive many poor
families into deeper poverty.

10
Feminist Evaluation
Feministargue that social policy simply reinforce
patriarchal ideasaboutthe roles and status of
men and women. For example, tax and benefits
policies may assumethathusbands arethe main
wage-earners and that wives are their financial
dependants. This means women can find it
difficultto claimbenefits in their own right. This
then reinforces women’s dependence on their
husbands.
Similarly,Diana Leonard argues that although
maternity leave policies benefitwomen, they
also reinforcepatriarchy in the family,by
encouragingthe assumption that the careof
infants is the responsibility of mothers rather
than fathers.
However, not all policies are directed at
maintaining patriarchy. For example, equal pay
and sex discrimination laws, benefits for lone
parents, refuges for women escaping domestic
violence and equal rights to divorce could all be
said to challenge the patriarchal family.
Similarly, whether or not social policy promotes
patriarchy often depends on the country. Eileen
Drew found that in more equal societies family
policy is based on the belief that husbands and
wives should be treated the same. In Sweden, for
example, policies treat husbands and wives as
equally responsible for both income-earning and
childcare.
Marxist Evaluation
Unlikefunctionalists,Marxists do notsee social
policies asbenefitingall members of society
equally.They see the state and its policies as
servingcapitalism.For example, they see the low
level of state pensions as evidencethat once
workers are too old to produce profits,they are
‘maintained’at the lowest possiblecost.
Similarly,Marxists do notaccept that there is a
steady march of progress towards ever better
welfare policies producingever happier families.
They argue that improvements for working-class
families,such as pensionsor free healthcare,
have often only been won through classstruggle
to extract concessionsfromthe capitalistruling
class.
However, functionalist would disagree that social
policy works in the interests of the ruling class.
They see social policy as benefitting all members
of the family, and allows the family to perform its
essential functions more effectively.
Feminists would argue that Marxists ignore the
detrimental effect of family policy on women in
particular. For example, maternity leave policies
reinforce patriarchal assumptions that childcare
is women’s work.
Jacque Donzelot: Policing families Evaluation
Like Marxists and feminists,Jacques Donzelot
sees policy as a formof state power over
families.He argues that social workers,health
visitors and doctors usetheir knowledge to
control and change poorer families.Donzelot
callsthis ‘the policingof families’.For example,
the state may seek to control and regulate family
lifeby imposingcompulsory parentingorders
through the courts.Parents of young offenders,
truants or badly behaved children may be forced
to attend parentingclassesto learn the ‘correct’
way to bring up their children.
However, Marxists and feminists criticise
Donzeiot for failing to identify clearly who
benefits from such policies of surveillance.
Marxists argue that social policies generally
operate in the interests of the capitalist class,
while feminists argue that men are the main
beneficiaries.

11
Family Diversity
Some important trends:
In the past30 or 40 years, there have been some major changes in family and household patterns. For
examples:
 The number of traditional nuclearfamily householdshasfallen
 Divorcerates have increased
 There are fewer firsttime marriages,but more re-marriages.People aremarryinglater in life
 More couples arecohabiting
 Same-sex relationshipscan belegally recognised through civil partnerships
 Women are havingfewer children and havingthem later
 There are more births outsidemarriage
 There are more lone-parent families
 More people livealone
 There are more stepfamilies,and more couples without children
 All of these upset the New Right
 Good
An Overview:
Family diversity is a bad thing

Family diversity is a good thing

 Functionalistand New Right
commentators believe that family
diversity is notto be encouraged.
 This is becausethey see the traditional
nuclear family consistingof a married
couplewith children and a gendered
division of labour as being‘natural’and
‘normal’.
 They argue that the division of labour
between an ‘instrumental’ maleincome-
earner role, and an ‘expressive’female
housewife role is ‘natural’.
 This is becauseitis based on biological
differences between men and women
which makes them suitablefor each
role.
 Postmodernistand feministsociologists
reject the view of the functionalistand
New Right. They argue instead that a
family is whatever arrangements those
involved chooseto call a family.
 Postmodernists and feminists arein
favour of increasingfamily diversity
because itbrings people the freedom of
choiceto choosewhatever
arrangements best suittheir needs.
 It also frees women from the oppression
of the traditional patriarchal family.

12
Family diversity is a bad thing 
Functionalist theories Evaluation
Accordingto Parsons,thenuclear family is
uniquely suited to meeting the needs of modern
society for a geographically and socially mobile
workforce. It also performs two ‘irreducible
functions’of the primary socialisation of the
children and the stabilisation of adult
personalities,and these contribute to the overall
stability and effectiveness of society.
For functionalists then,the nuclear family with a
division of labour between husband and wife is
best suited to perform its functions effectively in
a modern society. All other types of family are
seen as abnormal,inadequateor deviant because
they are less ableto perform the functions
required by the family.
However, functionalists tend to ignore the ‘dark
side’ of the family – conflict between husband
and wife, male dominance, child abuse, and so
on. They give insufficient attention to the
dysfunctions of the family – the harmful effects it
may have on the wider society.
Also, since parsons wrote in the in the 1950s,
many western societies, including the UK, have
become multicultural. Religious and ethnic
subcultural differences may mean that Parsons’
version of the family is no longer relevant in
contemporary society.
New Right theories Evaluation
The New Right argue that the declineof the
traditional nuclear family and the growth of
family diversity arethe causeof many social
problems, such as higher crimerates and
educational failure.
They see lone-parent families,for example,as
‘unnatural’and harmful to children becausethey
cannot disciplinetheir children properly and are
a burden on the welfare state.
These high levels of benefits undermine the
traditional family by discouragingmen from
working to support their families,and they
encourage a ‘dependency culture’ of livingoff
welfare benefits.
However, there is little or no evidence that lone-
parent families are part of a ‘dependency
culture’, nor that their children are more likely to
be delinquent than those brought-up in a two-
parent family of the same social class.
Feminists argue that the traditional nuclear
family favoured by the New Right is based on the
patriarchal oppression of women and is a
fundamental cause of gender inequality. In their
view it prevents women working, keeps them
financially dependent on men, and denies them
an equal say in decision-making.
Rhona and Robert Rapoport see increasing family
diversity as a response to people’s different needs
and wishes, and not as abnormal or a deviation
from the assumed norm of the nuclear family.
Robert Chester Evaluation
Robert Chester argues that the extent and
importance of family diversity has been
exaggerated.
Like functionalists,Chester sees the nuclear
family as beingdominant, but he recognises that
the traditional nuclear family has changed to
what he callsa ‘neo-conventional’family in which
both spouses go out to work and the division of
labour is moreequal and shared.
Chester argues that the so-called ‘family
diversity’is more about the lifecyclethan people
However, the Rapoports deny that this is the case
and argue that diversity is of central importance
in understanding family life today. They believe
that we have moved away from the traditional
nuclear family as the dominant family type, to a
range of different types. Families in Britain have
adapted to a society in which cultures and
lifestyles are more diverse.

13
choosingto livein new family arrangements.
Most people in single-person households are
either elderly widows or younger or divorced
people who aspireto livein a nuclear family.
Family diversity is a good thing 
 Postmodernistsociologists rejectthe functionalistand New Right view that there is one
‘best’ family type which shapes its members behaviour.
 Instead,they argue that individualsmaketheir own choices aboutfamily lifeand
relationships.
 This has increased family diversity to the extent that it no longer makes sense to talk about a
single‘best’ type.
David Morgan: Family practices Evaluation
Morgan argues that family diversity has increased
as a responseto society becoming more
fragmented. He uses the concepts of family
practices to describehow we create our sense of
‘being a family member’ through actions such as
feeding children or doingDIY.
He sees the family as ‘whatpeople do’ rather
than as a concrete ‘thing’ or structure.
Similarly,heargues that things likethe family,
friendships,and other forms of relationship have
become less clear-cutand the boundaries
between them blurred becausetoday’s society is
more fragmented.
However, structuralist sociologists argue that
although life courses and family practices are the
actions of individuals, they take place in the
context of the wider social structure and norms.
For example, gender norms and differences in job
opportunities in wider society may dictate that
males will be the major income-earners and
women the homemakers, and this will influence
individuals’ expectations of each other within the
family.

14
David Cheal Evaluation
David Cheal argues that family diversity has
increased becausewe now have more choice
over the type of family we create.
As a resultfamily lifehas become more diverse
than ever. In today’s postmodern society,there
is no longer one singletype of family that is
dominant – only families plural.
However, some sociologists point out that greater
freedom of choice in relationships means a
greater risk of instability, since these relationships
are more likely to break up.
Antony Giddens Evaluation
Giddens argues that family diversity has
increased becausethere is more equality
between men and women. As a result, the basis
of marriageand the family have changed into
one in which the couple arefree to define their
relationship themselves,rather than actingout
roles that have been defined in advanced by law
or tradition. For example, they can now choose
whether to marry or cohabit.
However, Giddens himself points out that with
more choice, personal relationships inevitably
become less stable. Relationships can be ended
more or less at will by either partner.
Judith Stacey Evaluation
Stacey argues that changes in the position of
women has increased the diversity of family
types. Stacey’s research found that women have
been the main agents of change in the family.
Many of the women she interviewed rejected the
traditional stay-at-homerole and instead created
new types of family thatbetter suited their
choiceto work, return to education, divorceand
re-marry.
One of these new family types Stacey callsthe
‘divorce-extended’ family whose members are
connected by divorcerather than marriage. The
key members are normally femaleand may
includeformer in-laws such as ex-mother and
daughter in-laws.
Such families illustratethe idea that postmodern
families arediverseand that their shapedepends
on the activechoices people make about how to

15
livetheir lives –for example, whether to divorce,
cohabit,come-out as gay etc.
Jeffrey Weeks Evaluation
Weeks identifies a long-term shiftin attitudes
towards sexual and family diversity sincethe
1950s.These have become more favourable
towards issues such as cohabitation and
homosexuality. As such family diversity has
increased.
However, despite these changing attitudes,
family patterns tend to be fairly traditional. Most
people still live in a family; most children are
brought up by couples; most couples marry and
many divorcees re-marry.
Also, some sociologists have suggested that these
changes have led to a ‘crisis of masculinity’ in
which some men experience anxiety about their
role. As such, the result of this could be an
increase in domestic violence in an attempt to re-
assert their traditional masculinity.

16
Changes within the family
Fromthe specification:
The nature and extent of changes within the family, with reference to gender
roles, domestic labour and power relationships
 Gender roles within families:functionalist,feminist,New Right and other views.
 The domestic division of labour –changingnature of housework and home-related activities
related to changingroles of men and women and to masculinity and femininity,both in and
beyond the home.
 Decision-makingand power relations within households.
 Consequences of unequal power: the ‘dark sideof the family’,domestic violence, child
abuse, mental illness.
Are Domestic Roles Becoming More Equal ?
Yes they are
No they’re not
Willmott
and
Young

Wilmott and Young argue that the extended family has been replaced by a
privatised nuclear family characterised by ‘symmetry’. Modern marriageis
characterised by ‘jointconjugal roles’meaningthat women are now goingout
to work and men aredoing a fairer shareof domestic tasks. Moreover,
couples arenow more likely to shareboth leisuretime and decision-making.
But…
Oakley

Oakley argues that Young and Wilmott’s claimof increasingsymmetry in
based on suspect methodology. Their conclusionswere based on one
interview which was worded in such a way that could exaggerate the amount
of housework done by men.
British Social
Attitudes
Survey 2007

The recent British Social Attitudes Survey found more sharingof child-rearing
than household tasks,although their was some movement towards a more
equal division of labour over time.


17
Ferri and
Smith

Ferri and Smith used survey data to focus on childcare. In almostevery kind of
household – even where the woman was in paid employment outside the
home and the man did not – it was more common for the woman to take the
main responsibility for childcare
Elston

Elston's survey of over 400 couples in which both partners were doctors
found that 80% of female doctors reported that they took time off work to
look after their sick children compared with only 2% of male doctors.Elston
concluded that only a minority of professional couples in her study genuinely
shared housework and child-care.
Hardill

In her study of 30 dual-career professional couples,Hardill found that the
important decisions wereusually taken either by the man aloneor jointly,and
that his career normally took priority when decidingwhether to move house
for a new job.
Pahl and
Vogler

Pahl and Vogler focus on how each partner’s contribution to the family
income affects decision-makingwithin the family.They found that ‘pooling’
incomes through, for example, a jointbank account, was on the increaseand
was more common among couples who both work full-time. However, they
found that men usually madethe major financial decisions.
However…
Burghes and
Beck

Burghes and Beck suggest that fathers are increasingly takingan active
involvement in the emotional sideof bringingup children even when
marriages break down. However, itis importantnot to exaggerate men’s role
in childcare.Research by Gray found that many fathers would liketo spend
more time with their children butare prevented by long workinghours from
bondingeffectively with their children.
Sullivan

Sullivan’sanalysis data collected over a 25 year period found a trend towards
greater equality as men did more domestic labour. In particularthere was an
increasein the number of couples with an equal division of labour and men
were participatingmorein traditional ‘womens’tasks such as childcareand
ironing.
Possible sources of evaluation:
 However, Giddens argues that in recent decades the family and marriagehavebeen
transformed by greater choiceand more equality between men and women.
 As a result, the basis of marriageand the family have changed into one in which the couple
are free to define their relationship themselves,rather than actingout roles that have been
defined in advanced by lawor tradition. For example, they can now choose whether to
marry or cohabit,and who carries outparticular domestic roles within the home.

18
 Beck puts forward a similarviewto Giddens. He argues that we now livein a ‘risk society’
where tradition has less influenceand peoplehave more of a choice.As such, we aremore
aware of risks becausemakinga choiceinvolves calculatingthe risks involved.
 Greater gender equality and greater individualismhaveled to a new type of family which
Beck callsthe‘negotiated family’,which is more equal than the traditional patriarchal family.
These do not conform to the traditional family norm,and who does what domestic task
varies accordingto the wishes and expectations of their members.
Does more women in work mean greater
equality in the home ?
Yes it does
No it doesn’t
Man-Yee
Kan

Found income from employment, age and education affected how much
housework women did. Better paid,younger, better-educated women did less
housework. For example, every £10000 increasein the woman’s income
reduces her weekly housework time by 2 hours.
Schor and
Silver

Housework has become ‘commercialised’.The goods and services that
housewives previously had to produce are themselves now mass-produced
and supplied by supermarkets etc. Freezers, micro-wave ovens, ‘ready meals’
etc all reducethe amount of domestic labour that needs to be done. Working
women can afford these services and, as such,the burden of housework on
women has decreased.
Gershuney

Gershuny found that the husbands of workingwomen continued to do less
than half the total paid and unpaid work of their partners. However, although
the ‘dual burden’ of paid and domestic work remained for women, men did
seem to be doing more housework when their wives were in paid work.
However...
Arber and
Ginn

Greater equality depends on the social classposition women are in.
Arber and Ginn found that middle classwomen were able to afford full -day
childcarewhen they went out to work. However, many working classwomen
cannot, and are therefore stuck in the vicious-cycleof childcare
responsibilitiesand low-paid,part-timework.

19
Gregson and
Lowe

Similarly,Gregson and Lowe’s study of the employment of domestic ‘help’ by
dual-earner middleclass families found thatfor these couples itwas more
economical to employ working classwomen as nannies and cleaners than for
the wife to stay at home. Unlikethe middle class,mostworking classwomen
cannot afford to employ domestic ‘help’ and so have to carry a dual burden of
paid and unpaid domestic work.
Dunne

Despite the number of working women increasing,Dunneargues that there
has been littlechange in the domestic division of labour. This is becauseof
deeply ingrained ‘gender scripts’. These are expectations or norms that set
out the different gender roles of men and women in heterosexual couples are
expected to play.
Dunscombe
and
Marsden

Dunscombe and Marsden identify another element of women’s domestic
work – ‘emotion work’. Many women in their study expressed dissatisfaction
with their partner’s emotional inputinto the relationship and thefamily.
Most men did not acknowledge that emotion work needed to be done to
make the relationship work. They also found that many women ended up
doinga tripleshift:havingcompleted their paid employment they not only
have to do most of the housework, they also haveto do the emotion work.
Hardill

In her study of 30 dual-career professional couples,Hardill found that the
important decisions wereusually taken either by the man aloneor jointly,and
that his career normally took priority when decidingwhether to move house
for a new job.
Pahl and
Vogler

Pahl and Vogler focus on how each partner’s contribution to the family
income affects decision-makingwithin the family.They found that ‘pooling’
incomes through, for example, a jointbank account, was on the increaseand
was more common among couples who both work full-time. However, they
found that men usually madethe major financial decisions.

20
Domestic Violence
Many commentators argue that the rosy picture of nuclear family lifetransmitted by functionalism
and the New Right obscures the contradictions thatpermeate family lifein reality.
Domestic Violence
 A common view of domestic violenceis that itis the behaviour of a few sick or disturbed
individuals,and thatits causes arepsychological rather than social. However, s ociologists
have challenged this view.
 Domestic violenceis far too widespread to simply bethe work of a few disturbed individuals.
Accordingto the British CrimeSurvey (2007), domestic violenceaccounts for almosta sixth
of all violentcrime.Mirrlees-Black’ssurvey of 16000 people estimates there are about 6.6
million domestic assaults a year,abouthalf involvingphysical injury.
 Both Marxists and radical feminists havedrawn attention to the problem of domestic
violence. This is usually defined as the power of men to control women by physical force,
although Davidson argues that men are also the victims of female domestic violence.
 Official statisticsreportthat violenceby men againsttheir female partners accounts for a
third of all reported violence. Stanko’s survey in 2000 found that one incidentof domestic
violenceis reported by women to the policeevery minute in the UK.
Explanations for domestic violence
Dobash and Dobash Evaluation
Dobash and Dobash (1992) argue that in
patriarchal societies thereis still cultural support
for the view that men have a 'right' to 'discipline'
their wives or partners.Furthermore, there has
been littleinstitutional supportoffered by society
to the battered wife.
Dobash and Dobash found that one of the major
factors precipitatingassaultswas the husband’s
perception that the wife was not performing her
domestic duties to his satisfaction. Insofar as our
society still accepts a domestic division of labour
which allocates themajority of domestic duties
to women, this leaves them vulnerableto this
sortof criticism,and possiblesubsequentassault.
The study also showed that many women are
economically dependent on men, sincemany
women are in poorly paid employment. As such,
many women who leaveabusivehusbands are
However, Elliot rejects the radical feminist claim
that all men benefit from domestic violence. Not
all men are aggressive and most are opposed to
domestic violence. Similarly, radical feminists fail
to explain female violence, including child abuse
by women and violence against male partners.
For example, it would be difficult to explain the
actions of Vanessa George who systematically
sexually-abused children in the nursery where she
worked by claiming that society is patriarchal.

21
forced to return for economic reasons and
because of the stigma surroundingthe break-up
of marriage.
These findings havebeen interpreted by radical
feminists to suggest that widespread domestic
violenceis an inevitablefeature of patriarchal
society and serves to preserve the power that all
men have over women.
Wilkinson – domestic violence, inequality
and stress
Evaluation
Wilkinson sees domestic violenceas the resultof
stress on family members caused by social
inequality.He argues that families on low
incomes or livingin overcrowded housingare
likely to experience higher levels of stress. This
reduces their chances of maintainingstableand
caringrelationshipsand increases therisk of
conflictand violence.
The findings of studies by Wilkinson and
Mirrlees-Black showthatnot all peopleare
equally in danger of sufferingdomestic violence:
those with less power, status,wealth or income
are often at greatest risk.
Wilkinson’s approach isuseful in showinghow
social inequality produced stress and triggers
conflictand violencein families. As those in
lower social classes facegreater hardships and
hence stress,this helps to explain the class
differences in the statisticson domestic violence.
However, unlike the radical feminists Wilkinson
does not explain why it is women, rather than
men, who are at greatest risk of domestic
violence.

22
Family Patterns
From the specification:
Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, child-bearing
and the life-course, and the diversity of contemporary family and household
structures
 Marriage:fall in number of marriages,later age of firstmarriage.
 Cohabitation:growth of cohabitation,greater acceptability of cohabitation,types (eg trial
marriage,longterm partnership).
 Separation and divorce: legal position,increasein divorceafter 1969, reasons for divorce;
remarriages and reconstituted families.
 Child-bearing:number of children,age at which women have firstchild,changes in parenting
practices;loneparent families;beanpolefamilies.
 Life course: consideration of range of possibilities,includinglivingalone(singletons),
grandparents.
1. Marriage
Trends
 The number of firstmarriages has significantly declined sincethe 1970s:from 480000 in
1972 to 306000 in 2000.
 Remarriages increased from 57000 in 1961 to 126000 (46% of all marriages) in 2000. Most
remarriages involvedivorced persons rather than widows and widowers. The largest
increaseoccurred between 1971 and 1972 followingthe introduction of the DivorceReform
Act of 1969.
 People are marryinglater: the average age of firstmarriageroseby seven years between
1971 and 2005 when itwas 32 years for men and 30 for women.
Reasons for changing patterns of marriage
Changingattitudes to marriage Evaluation
There is less pressureto marry and more
freedom for individualsto choose the type of
relationship they want. .The postmodernist David
Cheal argues that this greater choiceover the
type of family we create has led to an increasein
family diversity.
However, some sociologists point out that greater
freedom of choice in relationships means a
greater risk of instability, since these relationships
are more likely to break up.

23
The declineof religious influence Evaluation
The declinein influenceof the Church means that
people no longer feel they should get married for
religious reasons. Peopleare freer to choose
what type of relationship they enter into.
However, the majority of first-time marriages
take place within a religious context, which
suggests that religion still has some influence
over the decision to get married.
The decliningstigma attached to alternatives to
marriage
Evaluation
Cohabitation,remainingsingleand having
children outsidemarriageareall nowregarded as
acceptable. In 1989 70% of respondents to the
British Social Attitudes Survey believed that
couples who wanted children should get married.
By 2000 this had dropped to 54%.
However, despite this, most couples who cohabit
do tend to get married. It is just that the average
age of getting married has risen.
Changes in the position of women Evaluation
Many women arenow financially independent
from men becauseof better education and
better career prospects. This gives them greater
freedom not to marry.
The growing impactof the feministview that
marriageis an oppressivepatriarchal institution
may also dissuadewomen from marrying.
However, changes to the position of women in
society does not necessarily mean that they don’t
get married, they merely put off marriage until
their careers are established.
Many feminists also argue that the fact that
women are now wage earners as well as
homemakers has itself created a new source of
conflict between husbands and wives and this is
leading to more divorces. Feminists argue that
marriage remains patriarchal, with men
benefiting from their wives’ ‘triple-shifts’ of paid
work, domestic work and emotion work
Fear of divorce Evaluation
The fear of divorceand the experience of seeing
or goingthrough a divorcehas led to some
women rejectingmarriage.

24
2. Divorce
Changing patterns of divorce
 Sincethe 1 960s,there has been a great increasein the number of divorces in the United
Kingdom.
 The number of divorces doubled between 1961 and 1969,and doubled again by 1972.The
upward trend continued, peakingin 1993 at 180,000.
 Sincethen, numbers have fallen somewhat, but still stood at157,000 in 2001 — about six
times higher than in 1961.This rate means that about 40% of all marriages will end i n
divorce.
 About 7 out of every 1 0 petitions (applications) for divorcenowcome from women. This is in
sharp contrastto the situation in the past.For example, in 1946,only 37% of petitions came
from women — barely half today’s figure. The commonest reason for a woman to be granted
a divorceis the unreasonablebehaviour of her husband.
 Some couples are more likely than others to divorce. Couples whose marriages areat
greatest risk includethosewho marry young, have a child before they marry or coha bit
before marriage,and those where one or both partners have been married before.
Theoretical approaches to divorce
 Sociologistsdisagreeas to what today’s high divorcerate tells us aboutthe state of marriage
and the family:
 The New Right see a high divorcerate as undesirablebecauseitundermines the traditional
nuclear family.Divorcecreates an underclass of welfare-dependent lone mothers and leaves
boys without the adultrolemodel they need.
 Feminists disagree.They see a high divorcerate as desirablebecauseitshows that women
are breakingfrom the oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family.
 Postmodernists see a high divorcerate as givingindividualsthe freedom to chooseto end a
relationship when itno longer meets their needs. They see it as a causeof greater family
diversity.
 Functionalists arguethata high divorcerate does not necessarily provethat marriageas a
social institution is under threat. It is simply theresultof people’s higher expectations of
marriagetoday. The high rate of re-marriagedemonstrates people’s continuing
commitment to the idea of marriage.

25
Explanations of the increase in divorce
Changes in the law Evaluation
Divorcewas very difficultto obtain in 19th-
century Britain,especially for women. Gradually,
changes in the lawhave made divorceeasier.
There have been three kinds of change in the
law:
Equalisingthe grounds (the legal reasons) for
divorcebetween the sexes ;
Wideningthe grounds for divorce;
Makingdivorcecheaper.
The widening of the grounds in 1971 to
‘irretrievablebreakdown’ made divorceeasier to
obtain and produced a doublingof the divorce
rate almostovernight. The introduction of legal
aid for divorcecases in 1 949 lowered the cost of
divorcing.Divorcerates have risen with each
change in the law.
Yet although changes in the law have given
people the freedom to divorce more easily, this
does not in itself explain why more people should
choose to take advantage of this freedom. To
explain the rise in divorce rates we must
therefore look at other changes too. These
include changes in public attitudes towards
divorce.
Decliningstigma and changingattitudes Evaluation
Juliet Mitchell and Jack Goody (1997) note that
an important change sincethe 1 960s has been
the rapid declinein the stigma attached to
divorce.As stigma declines and divorcebecomes
more socially acceptable,couples become more
willingto resortto divorceas a means of solving
their marital problems.
In turn, the fact that divorceis now more
common begins to ‘normalise’itand reduces the
stigma attached to it. Rather than being seen as
shameful,today it is more likely to be regarded
simply as a misfortune.
However, despite these changing attitudes,
family patterns tend to be fairly traditional. Most
people still live in a family; most children are
brought up by couples; most couples marry and
many divorcees re-marry.
Also, some sociologists have suggested that these
changes have led to a ‘crisis of masculinity’ in
which some men experience anxiety about their
role. As such, the result of this could be an
increase in domestic violence in an attempt to re-
assert their traditional masculinity.
Secularisation Evaluation
Secularisation refers to the declinein the
influenceof religion in society.As a resultof
secularisation,thetraditional opposition of the
churches to divorcecarries less weightin society
and people are less likely to be influenced by
religious teachings when makingdecisions.For
example, accordingto 2001 Census data, 43% of
young people with no religion were cohabiting,
as againstonly 34%of Christians,17%of
However, some sociologists challenge whether
secularisation is occurring, and point to the
number of first-time marriages taking place in a
religious context, and the changes made by the
Church of England to allow divorced people to
remarry in Church. This suggests that there is still
a demand for religious weddings, even amongst
those who have been divorced before.

26
Muslims,11%of Hindus and 10% of Sikhs.
At the same time, many churches havealso
begun to soften their views on divorceand
divorcees,perhaps because they fear losing
credibility with largesections of the public and
with their own members.
Risingexpectations of marriage Evaluation
Functionalistsociologists such asRonald Fletcher
(1966) argue that the higher expectations people
placeon marriagetoday are a major causeof
risingdivorcerates.Higher expectations make
couples nowadays less willingto tolerate an
unhappy marriage.
Functionalistsociologists such asRonald Fletcher
(1966) argue that the higher expectations people
placeon marriagetoday are a major causeof
risingdivorcerates.Higher expectations make
couples nowadays less willingto tolerate an
unhappy marriage.
However, despite today’s high divorce rates,
functionalists such as Fletcher take an optimistic
view. They point to the continuing popularity of
marriage. Most adults marry, and the high rate of
re-marriage after divorce shows that although
divorcees may have become dissatisfied with a
particular partner, they have not rejected
marriage as an institution.
Feminists argue that the oppression of women
within the family is the main cause of marital
conflict and divorce, but functionalists ignore this.
Although functionalists offer an explanation of
rising divorce rates, they fail to explain why it is
mainly women rather than men who seek
divorce.
Changes in the position of women Evaluation
One reason for women’s increased willingnessto
seek divorceis thatimprovements in their
economic position havemade them less
financially dependent on their husband and
therefore freer to end an unsatisfactory
marriage.
The availability of welfarebenefits means that
women no longer have to remain financially
dependent on their husbands. These
developments mean that women are more likely
to be ableto supportthemselves in the event of
divorce.
However, many feminists also argue that the fact
that women are now wage earners as well as
homemakers has itself created a new source of
conflict between husbands and wives and this is
leading to more divorces. Feminists argue that
marriage remains patriarchal, with men
benefiting from their wives’ ‘triple-shifts’ of paid
work, domestic work and emotion work.

27
3. Cohabitation
 Cohabitation involves an unmarried couplein a sexual relationship livingtogether. Whilethe
number of marriages has been falling,thenumber of couples cohabitingcontinues to
increaseand is the fastest growingfamily type in the UK.
 There are over two million cohabiting couples in Britain.About a quarter of all unmarried
adults under 60 are now cohabiting — double the number in 1986.
 The number of cohabitingcouples is expected to doubleagain by 2021.
Reasons for the increasein cohabitation
 Increased cohabitation rates reflectthe declinein stigma attached to sex outside marriage.
In 1989, only 44% of people agreed that ‘premarital sex is notwrong at all’,butby 2000, 62%
took this view (British Social Attitudes,2000).
 The young aremore likely to acceptcohabitation:88% of 18-24 year olds thought ‘it is airight
for a couple to livetogether without intendingto get married’, but only 40% of those over 65
agreed (Social Trends 34,2004).
 Increased career opportunities for women may also mean that they have less need for the
financial security of marriageand arefreer to opt for cohabitation.
 Secularisation:accordingto the 2001 Census,young people with no religion were more likely
to cohabitthan those with a religion.
The relationship between cohabitation and marriage
 Although cohabitation isincreasingas marriagedecreases,the relationship between the two
is not clear-cut.For some couples,cohabitation is justa step on the way to getting - married,
whereas for others itis a permanent alternativeto marriage.
 Robert Chester (1985) argues that for most people, cohabitation is partof the process of
getting married. For example, accordingto Ernestina Coast(2006), 75% of cohabitingcouples
say they expect to marry each other.
 Many see cohabitation as a trial marriageand intend to marry if it goes well.Most cohabiting
couples decide to marry if they have children.In some cases,cohabitation is a temporary
phasebefore marriagebecause one or both partners areawaitinga divorce.
 On the other hand, some couples see cohabitation as a permanent alternativeto marriage.
André Bejin (1985) argues that cohabitation amongsome young people represents a
conscious attempt to create a more personally negotiated and equal relationship than
conventional patriarchal marriage.For example, Shelton and John (1993) found that women
who cohabitdo less housework than their married counterparts.
 Clearly,then, cohabitation does not mean the same thingto every couple. Eleanor MackIm
(1980) argues that the term covers a diverserange of partnerships,and that the relationship
between marriageand cohabitation is a complex and variableone.

28
4. Same-sex relationships
 Stonewall (2008), the campaign for lesbian,gay and bisexual rights,estimates thatabout 5-
7% of the adultpopulation today have same-sex relationships.Itis impossibleto judge
whether this represents an increasebecausein the past, stigma and illegality meant that
such relationships weremore likely to be hidden.
 There is evidence of increased social acceptanceof same- sex relationshipsin recentyears.
Male homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967 for consentingadults over 21 More
recently the age of consent has been equalised with heterosexuals.Opinion pollsshowmore
tolerance of homosexuality.
 Social policy isnowbeginningto treat all couples moreequally,whether homosexual or
heterosexual, cohabitingor married.For example, since2002,cohabitingcouples havehad
the same right to adopt as married couples.Since2004, the Civil Partnership Acthas given
same-sex couples similarlegal rights to married couples in respectof pensions,inheritance,
tenancies and property.
 Jeffrey Weeks (1999) argues that increased social acceptancemay explain a trend in recent
years towards same-sex cohabitation and stablerelationships thatresemblethose found
among heterosexuals.
 Weeks sees gays as creatingfamilies based on the idea of ‘friendship as kinship’,where
friendships become a type of kinship network. He describes these as ‘chosen families’and
argues that they offer the same security and stability as heterosexual families.
 Similarly,Kath Weston (1992) describes same-sex cohabitation as ‘quasi-marriage’and notes
that many gay couples are now decidingto cohabitas stablepartners. She contrasts this with
the gay lifestyleof the 1970s,which largely rejected monogamy and family lifein favour of
casual relationships.
 Others sociologists havenoted the effect on same-sex relationships of a legal framework
such as civil partnerships.For example,Allan and Crow argue that, because of the absenceof
such a framework until recently, same-sex partners have had to negotiate their commitment
and responsibilities morethan married couples.This may have made same-sex relationships
both more flexibleand less stablethan heterosexual relationships.

29
5. One-person households
 Fewer people today are livingin couples.Therehas been a bigrisein the number of people
livingalone.In 2006,almostthree in ten households (6.8 million peopl e) contained only one
person — nearly three times the figure for 1961.
 Half of all one-person households arepeople of pensionableage. Pensioner one-person
households havedoubled since1961,whilethose of non-pensioners tripled.Men under 65
were the group most likely to livealone, with a particularly largeincreasein the number of
young men livingalone.
Reasons for the changes
 The increasein separation and divorcehas created more one-person households,especially
among men under 65. This is because,followingdivorce,any children aremore likely to live
with their mother; their father is more likely to leave the family home.
 The declinein the numbers marrying,and the trend towards people marryinglater,mean
that more people areremainingsingle.The proportion of adults who are singlehas risen by
about half since1971.
 Peter Stein (1976) argues that a growing number of people are opting for ‘creative
singlehood’ — the deliberatechoice to livealone.
 However, whilemany of these chooseto remain singleand livealone,some arealone
because there are too few partners availablein their age group. These are mainly older
widows
‘Living apart together’
 Research by Simon Duncan and Miranda Phillipsfor the British Social Attitudes survey
(Thomson et al,2008) found that about one in 10 adults are‘livingaparttogether’ or ‘LATs’
— that is,in a significantrelationship,butnot married or cohabiting.Ithas been suggested
that this may reflect a trend towards less formalised relationships and ‘families of choice’.
 However, Duncan and Phillipsfound that both choiceand constraintplay a partin whether
couples livetogether. For example, some said they could not afford to. However, a minority
actively choseto liveapart,for example because they wanted to keep their own home.
 Public attitudes towards LATs are favourable.A majority believethat ‘a coupledo not need
to livetogether to have a strongrelationship’,while20%sawLATs as their ‘ideal
relationship’(morethan the number who preferred cohabitation).
 Duncan and Phillipsconcludethat, whilebeing a LAT is no longer seen as abnormal,it
probably does not amount to a rejection of more traditional relationships.

30
6. Child-bearing
 Over four in every ten children arenow born outside marriage:five times more than in 1971.
However, nearly all thesebirths are jointly registered by both parents. In most cases,the
parents are cohabiting.
 Women are havingchildren later:between 1971 and 2005,their average age atthe birth of
their firstchild roseby more than three years to 27.3 years.
 Women are havingfewer children than in the 20th century, though the number increased
slightly in theearly 21stcentury. The average number of children per woman fell from a peak
of 2.95 in 1964 to a record low of 1.63 in 2001,risingsomewhat to 1 .84 by 2006.
 More women areremainingchildless:itis predicted that a quarter of those born in 1973 will
be childless when they reach the age of 45.
Reasons for these changes

Reasons for the increasein births outsidemarriageincludea declinein stigma and increase
in cohabitation.For example, only one-third of 18-24 year olds nowthink- marriageshould
come before parenthood.
 The riseis largely theresultof an increasein births to cohabiting couples rather than to
women livingalone.
 The later age at which women arehavingchildren,smaller family sizes and the factthat
more women are remainingchildless,all reflectthe fact that women now have more options
than justmotherhood. Many areseeking to establish themselves in a career before startinga
family,or instead of havingchildren atall.
7. Lone-parent families
 Lone parent families nowmake-up 24% of all families. Onein four children nowlivein a
lone-parent family.
 Over 90% of lone-parent families areheaded by women
 Until the 1990s,divorced women were the biggest group of lonemothers. From the 1990s
single(never married) women became the biggest group of lonemothers.
 A child livingwith a loneparent is twice as likely to be in poverty as a child livingwith two
parents.

31
Reasons for the patterns
 The number of lone-parent families has increased dueto the increasein divorceand
separation and more recently, the increasein the number of never-married women having
children.This is linked to the declinein stigma attached to births outsidemarriage.
 In the past,the death of one parent was a common causeof lone-parent families,butthis is
no longer very significant.
 Lone-parent families tend to be female-headed for several reasons.These includethe
widespread belief that women are by nature suited to an ‘expressive’ or nurturing role; the
fact that divorcecourts usually givecustody of children to mothers and the fact that men
may be less willingthan women to give up work to care for children.
 Many lone-parent families arefemale-headed because the mothers are singleby choice.
They may not wish to cohabitor marry,or they may wish to limitthe father’s involvement
with the child.Jean Renvoize (1985) found that professional women were ableto support
their child withoutthe father’s involvement.
 Equally,as EllisCashmore(1985) found,some working- classmothers with less earning
power choseto liveon welfare benefits without a partner; often becausethey had
experienced abuse.
 Feministideas,and greater opportunities for women, may also haveencouraged an increase
in the number of never-married lone mothers.
Lone parenthood, the welfare state and poverty
 The New Right thinker Charles Murray (1984) sees the growth of lone-parent families as resulting
from an overgenerous welfare state providingbenefits for unmarried mothers and their children.
 Murray argues that this has created a ‘perverse incentive’; that is,itrewards irresponsible
behaviour,such as having children withoutbeing ableto providefor them. The welfare state
creates a ‘dependency culture’ in which people assumethat the state will supportthem and their
children.
 For Murray,the solution is to abolish welfarebenefits.This would reduce the dependency culture
that encourages births outsidemarriage.
 However, critics of New Right views argue that welfare benefits are far from generous and lone-
parent families aremuch more likely to be in poverty. Reasons for this include:
1. Lack of affordablechildcareprevents lone parents from working: 60% of them are
unemployed.
2. Inadequate welfare benefits.
3. Most lone parents are women, who generally earn less than men.
4. Failureof fathers to pay maintenance, especially if they have formed a second family that they
have to support.

32
8. Stepfamilies/reconstituted families
 Stepfamilies (often called reconstituted families) accountfor over 10% of all families with
dependent children in Britain.
 In 86% of stepfamilies,atleastone child is from the woman’s previous relationship,whilein
11 % there is atleastone child fromthe man’s previous relationship.In 3%of stepfamilies
there are children from both partners’ previous relationships.
 Elsa Fern and Kate Smith (1 998) found that stepfamilies arevery similarto firstfamilies in all
major respects, and that the involvement of stepparents in childcareand childrearingis a
positiveone. However, they found that in general stepfamilies areatgreater risk of poverty.
 However accordingto Graham Allan and GrahamCrow (2001), stepfamilies may face
particularproblems of divided loyalties and issues such as contactwith the nonresident
parent can causetensions.
 Jane Ribbens McCarthy et al (2003) concludethat there is diversity amongthese families and
so we should speak of ‘stepfamilies’plural rather than ‘the stepfamily’.Some have few
tensions,whilefor those that do, the tensions are not so different from those in ‘intact’
families.
Reasons for the patterns
 Stepfamilies areformed when lone parents form new partnerships.Thus the factors causing
an increasein the number of lone parents,such as divorceand separation,arealso
responsiblefor the creation of stepfamilies.
 More children in stepfamiliesarefrom the woman’s previous relationship than the man’s
because, when marriages and cohabitationsbreak up,children aremore likely to remain
with their mother.
 Stepparents areat greater risk of poverty because there are often more children and
because the stepfather may also haveto supportchildren from a previous relationship.
Some of the tensions faced by stepfamilies may be the resultof a lack of clear social norms
about how individualsshould behavein such families.

33
9. Ethnic differences in family patterns
 Immigration into Britain over the last60 years has helped to create greater ethnic diversity.
Analysis of the 2001 Census shows that 92.1% of the UK population (54 million people) were
White.
 Of the 7.9% belonging to an ethnic minority,the main groups were Indian,Pakistani or
Bangladeshi (3.6%);mixed ethnicity (1.2%); Black Caribbean (1 %); Black African (0.8%) and
Chinese (0.4%). Greater ethnic diversity has contributed to changingfamily patterns in the
UK.
Black families
 Black Caribbean and Black African peoplehave a higher proportion of lone-parent
households.In 2002,justover half of families with dependent children headed by a black
person were lone-parent families.This compared with one in 11 Indian families and just
under a quarter for the population as a whole.
 The high rate of female-headed, lone-parent black families hassometimes been seen as
evidence of family disorganisation thatcan be traced back to slavery or,more recently, to
high rates of unemployment among black males.
 Under slavery,when couples were sold separately,children stayed with the mother. It is
argued that this established a pattern of family lifethat persists today.
 It is also argued thatmale unemployment and poverty have meant that black men areless
ableto providefor their family,resultingin higher rates of desertion or marital breakdown.
 However, Heidi Safia Mirza (1997) argues that the higher rate of lone-parent families among
blacks is notthe resultof disorganisation,butrather reflects the high valuethat black
women placeon independence.
 Tracey Reynolds (1997) argues that the statisticsaremisleading,in thatmany apparently
‘lone’ parents are in factin stable,supportive but non-cohabitingrelationships.
Asian families

Bangladeshi,Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger than those of other ethnic
groups, at4.5, 4.1 and 3.3 persons per household respectively,compared with 2,3 for both
Black Caribbean and WhiteBritish households,and 2.4 for the population as a whole.
 Such households sometimes contain three generations,but most are in fact nuclear rather
than extended. Laiger household sizes arepartly a resultof the younger age profileof British
Asians,sincea higher proportion arein the childbeanngage groups compared with the
population as a whole
 Larger Asian households also to some extent reflect she valueplaced on the extended family
in Asian cultures.However, practical considerations,such asthe need for assistancewhen
migratingto Britain,arealso important.For example, Roger Ballard (1982) found that

34
extended family ties provided an important sourceof supportamong Asian migrants during
the 1950s and 1960s.
 In this early period of migration,houses were often shared by extended families,Later,
although most Asian households were now nuclear,relatives often lived nearby.There was
frequent visiting,and kinship networks continued to be a sourceof support. Today, Sikhs,
Muslims and Hindus arestill morelikely than other ethnic or religious groups to livein
extended family units.
10. The extended family today
 The existence of the extended family amongminority ethnic groups raises the question of
how widespread this kind of family is in the UK today. According to functionalists such as
Parsons,the extended family is the dominantfamily type in pre-industrial society,but in
modern industrial society itis replaced by the nuclear family.
 For example, as NickieCharles’(2005) study of Swansea found, the classic three- generation
family all livingtogether under one roof is now “all but extinct”. The only significant
exceptions shefound were among the city’s Bangladeshi community.
 However, whilethe extended family may have declined, ithas not entirely disappeared.
Instead,as Peter Willmott(1988) argues, itcontinues to existas a ‘dispersed extended
family’,where relatives aregeographically separated but maintain frequent contact through
visits and phonecalls.
 Similarly,Mary Chamberlain’s(1999) study of Caribbean families in Britain found that, despite
being geographically dispersed,they continueto providesupport. She describes them as
‘multiplenuclear families’with closeand frequent contact between siblings,uncles,aunts
and cousins,who often make a bigcontribution to childrearing.
 NickieCharles found that contactremains high between mothers and daughters. However in
the caseof brothers and sisters,there had been a sharp declinein both supportand contact.
This affected who counts as ‘family’- those who don’t keep in touch or providesupportmay
cease to be defined as family.Conversely,friends may become ‘family’if they are seen often
and help one another.
 As Charles shows,there is some variability in whatcan be expected of different relatives.For
example, Janet Finch and Jennifer Mason (1993) found that more is expected of females than
males.However, people do continue to feel some obligation towards their extended kin.
 In Finch and Mason’s study,over 90% had given or received financial help,and abouthalf
had cared for a sick relative.
 Overall,evidence suggests that the extended family continues to play an importantrole for
many people today, providingboth practical and emotional supportwhen called upon.
 However, this is very different from Parsons’classic extended family,whose members lived
and worked together and were bound by strongmutual obligations.Nevertheless,some
sense of obligation does remain,at leastto some kin and as a lastresortin times of crisis.

35
Childhood
The major issues covered here are:
 How childhood is socially constructed – how itis created and defined by society
 Is the position and status of children better now than in the past?
 What is the future of childhood likely to be ?
The social construction of childhood
 Sociologistsseechild hood as socially constructed;in other words, as something created and
defined by society. They argue that what people mean by childhood,and the status of
children in society,is notfixed but duffers between different times, places and cultures. This
can be illustrated by comparingthe western idea of childhood with childhood in the pastand
in other cultures.
The modern western idea of childhood
 Jane Pilcher argues that the most important feature of childhood is separateness. Childhood
is seen as a distinctlifestage,and children in our society occupy a separate status from
adults.
 This can be illustrated in several ways,for example, through laws regulatingwhatchildren
are allowed,required or forbidden to do. Their difference from adults is also illustrated
through differences in dress,especially for younger children, and through products and
services specially for children,such as toys,food, play areas and so on.
 Related to this separatestatus is the idea of childhood as a ‘golden age’ of happiness a nd
innocence. However, this innocence means that children areseen as vulnerableand in need
of protection from the dangers of the adultworld and so they must be separated from it. As
a result, children’s livesarelived largely in thesphere of family and education,where adults
providefor them and protect them.
 However, this view of childhood as a separateage-status is not found in all societies.
Stephen Wagg argues that because childhood is socially constructed there is not one single
universal experienceof childhood. This means that, whileall humans go through the same
physical process of ageing,different societies constructor define this process differently.
Historical differences in childhood
 Philippe Aries (1960) has argued that in pre-industrial society,children as weknow them did
not exist. Instead, children were ‘littleadults’who would take on adultresponsibilities as
young as 7 or 8. At this age, children would be expected to help out in productive activities

36
in the household (remember that households atthis time are more units of production than
consumption) and may well be apprenticed out to learn a trade.
 In the eyes of the law, 7 and 8-year-olds were seen as beingcriminally responsible. This
means that they could be tried and punished for crimes such as stealingon a similar basisto
that of adults. Aries argued that two factors explain why society did not regard children as
objects of love and devotion:
 There was a very high level of infantmortality.
 Life was very ‘hand to mouth.’ Children had to work in order for the family unitto
survive,which in turn meant they were given adultresponsibilities ata younger age.
 Aries argues that the view of children as ‘littleadults’remained common well into the 19th
century, with young children frequently being employed to work in mines and factories.
 However, around the middle of the 19th century, Aries argued that the infantmortality rate
started to decrease with improvements in sanitation and diet. With the increasingaffluence
of the middle classes,the attitudes of middle classparents started to change and children
started to become regarded as objects of love and devotion.
 Aries also notes that the working classes tended to still viewtheir children as littl eadults,as
working classfamilies tended to be dependent on their children’s incomefor survival.
Reasons for the changes in the position/statusof
children
 Laws restrictingchild labour and excludingchildren frompaid work. Children became an
economic liability by being financially dependent on their families rather than an economic
asset.
 The introduction of compulsory schoolingin 1880 had a similar effect,especially for children
of the poor. The raisingof the school leavingage, and recent government policies to keep
children in fulltimeeducation or traininguntil the age of 18 has extended this period of
dependency.
 Child protection and welfare legislation,such as the1889 Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Act. Exactly a century later, the 1989 Children Act made child welfarea fundamental
principleunderpinningthework of agencies such as social services.
 The growth of the idea of children rights.For example, the Children Act defines parents as
having‘responsibilities’rather than ‘rights’ in relation to children.
 Decliningfamily sizeand lower infantmortality rates.These have encouraged parents to
make a greater financial and emotional investment in the fewer children that they now have.
.
 Laws and policies thatapply specifically to children,such as minimumages for a wide range
of activities fromsex to smoking.have reinforced the idea that children aredifferent from
adults and so different rules must be applied to their behaviour.
 Most sociologistsagreethat the process of industrialisation - the shiftfrom agricultureto
factory production as the basis of the economy - underlies many of the above changes. For
example, modern industry needs an educated workforce and this requires compulsory
schoolingof the young. Similarly,the higher standards of livingand better welfare provision
that industry makes possiblelead to lower infantmortality rates.Industrialisation isthus a

37
key factor in bringingaboutthe modern idea of childhood and the changed status of
children.
Has the status of children improved ?
 As we have seen, childhood is socially constructed and varies between times, places and
cultures.There areimportant differences between childhood in western societies today as
compared with both present-day Third World countries and European societies in the past.
For example, in the MiddleAges, child labour was a basic factof lifefor almostall children,
whileschoolingwas availableonly to the wealthy.
The march of progress view
 These differences raisethe question of whether the changes in the status of childhood that
we looked at earlier represent an improvement. The ‘march of progress’view argues that,
over the past few centuries, the position of children in western societies has been steadily
improvingand today is better than it has ever been.
 Writers such as Aries and Shorter hold a ‘march of progress’view. They argue that today’s
children aremore valued,better cared for, protected and educated, enjoy better health and
have more rights than those of previous generations.
 For example, children today are protected from harm and exploitation by laws againstchild
abuseand child labour, thefamily has become child-centred,with parents investinga great
deal in their children emotionally as well as financially.
 However, conflictsociologists such as Marxistsand feminists disputethis.They argue that
society is based on a conflictbetween different social groups such as social classes or
genders. In this conflict,some groups have more power, status or wealth than others.
Conflictsociologists seethe relationship between groups as one of domination and
subordination,in which the dominantgroup act as oppressors.
The conflict view
 Conflictsociologists arguethatthe ‘march of progress’view of modern childhood is based on
a falseand idealised imagethat ignores importantinequalities.They criticisethe ‘march of
progress’view on two grounds:
o There are inequalities among children in terms of the opportunities and risks they
face: many today remain unprotected and badly cared for.
o The inequalities belween children and adults are greater than ever: children today
experience greater control, oppression and dependency, not greater care and
protection.
 Inequalities amongchildren
Not all children sharethe same status or experiences:
o children of different nationalities are likely to experience different childhoods and
different lifechances.90%of the world’s lowbirth-weight babies areborn in the
Third World.
o There are also gender differences between children.For example, accordingto
Mayer Hillman (1993),boys aremore likely to be allowed to cross or cycleon roads,
use buses,and go out after dark unaccompanied

38
o Similarly,there are ethnic differences: Julia Brannen’s (1994) study of 15-16 year
olds found that Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict
towards their daughters.
 There are also importantclassdifferences between children:
o Poor mothers are more likely to have lowbirth-weight babies which may delay
physical and intellectual development
o Accordingto Woodroffe, children from manual backgrounds aremore likely to be
hyperactive and suffer long-standingillnesses than children of professionals.
Child liberationists – inequalities between children and adults
 Child liberationists seethe need to free children from adultcontrol. This adultcontrol takes
a number of forms:
o Neglect and abuse,either physical,sexual or emotional
o Controls over children’s space –children aretold to play in some areas and are
forbidden to be in others such as some shops and hotels
o Controls over children’s time – adults in modern societies control children’s daily
routines,includingwhen they get up, eat, go to school,go to bed etc
o Controls over children’s bodies,includinghowthey sit,walk and run, and what they
wear, whether they can be picked-up, cuddled, or even smacked.
 Diana Gittins usethe term ‘age patriarchy’to describethe inequalities between adults and
children.Today this power may still assertitself in theform of violenceagainstboth children
and women. For example, accordingto Cathy Humphreys and Ravi Thiara (2002),a quarter of
the 200 women in their study left their abusingpartner becausethey feared for their
children’s) Such findings supportGittins’viewthat patriarchy oppresses children as well as
women.
 However, critics of the child liberationistviewarguethat some adultcontrol over children’s
lives is justified on the grounds that children cannotmake rational decisionsand so are
unableto safeguard their interests themselves.
 Critics also arguethat, although children remain under adultsupervision,they are not as
powerless as the child liberationists claim.For example, as we sawearlier,the 1989 Children
Act and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child establish the principlethat
children havelegal rights to be protected and consulted.
The disappearanceof childhood
 Neil Postman (1994) argues that childhood is ‘disappearingata dazzlingspeed’. He points to
the trend towards givingchildren the same rights as adults,the disappearanceof children’s
traditional unsupervised games, the growing similarity of adultand children’s clothing,and
even to cases of children committing ‘adult’crimes such as murder. In his view, the cause
both of the emergence of childhood,and now its disappearance,lies in theriseand fall of
printculture and its replacement by television culture.

39
 Television blurs thedistinction between childhood and adulthood by destroyingthe
information hierarchy.Unlikethe printed word, TV does not require special skillsto access it,
and it makes information availableto adults and children alike.The boundary between adult
and child is broken down, adultauthority diminishes,and the ignoranceand innocence of
childhood is replaced by knowledge and cynicism.
 However, unlikePostman, lona Opie(1993) argues that childhood is notdisappearing.Based
on a lifetime of research into children’s games,rhymes and songs,conducted with her
husband Peter Opie, she argues that there is strongevidence of the continued existence of a
separatechildren’s cultureover many years.
 Their findings contradictPostman’s claimthatchildren’s own unsupervised games are dying
out Their studies show that children can and do create their own independent culture
separatefrom that of adults.
Toxic childhood ?
 Some writers suggest that children in the UK today are experiencingwhat Sue Palmer (2006)
calls‘toxic childhood’. She argues that rapid technological and cultural changes in thepast
25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development.
 These changes range from junk food, computer games, and intensive marketing to children,
to the longhours worked by parents and the growing emphasis on testing in education.
 Concerns have also been expressed about young people’s behaviour For example, Julia
Margo and Mike Dixon (2006),drawingon recent studies,report that UK youth are ator
near the top of international leaguetables for obesity, self-harm,drug and alcohol abuse,
violence,early sexual experience and teenage pregnancies.A UNICEF survey in 2007 ranked
the UK 21’ out of 25 for children’s well being.
 Such concerns reveal an anxiety that the modern notion of childhood as an innocentand
protected stage is under threat. However it is hard to draw firm conclusionsaboutthis,for
two reasons.
o Firstly,notall children areaffected equally by these negative trends. There are
clusters of young people, namely those growing up on the poorer end of the social
scale,who livedesperate lives,whileothers do not.
o Secondly, itdepends on which aspect of childhood we look at, Some aspects suggest
the continuation of childhood as a separateage-status,while others suggest itmay
be disappearingor changing.

40
Demography
1. Births
 The birth rate is the number of livebirths per 1000 of the population per year.
 There have been fluctuations in births,with three baby booms’ in the 20tb century.
o The firsttwo came after the two world wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) as returning
servicemen and their partners started families thatthey had postponed duringthe war
years.
o There was a third baby boom in the 1960s,after which the birth rate fell sharply during
the 1970s.The rate rose duringthe 1980s,before fallingagain after the early 1990s,
with a recent increasesince2001.
The total fertility rate
 The total fertility rate(TFR) is the average number of children women will haveduringtheir
fertile years.
 The factors determining the birth rate are, firstly,the proportion of women who are of
childbearingage(usually taken to be aged 15-44) and, secondly,how fertilethey are - that
is,how many children they have.
 The UK’s TFR has risen since2001,but itis still much lower than in the past.
 These changes in fertility and birth rates reflect the fact that:
o More women areremainingchildlessthan in the past.
o Women are postponinghavingchildren:the average age for givingbirth is now 29.6,
and fertility rates for women in their 30s and 40s are on the increase.Older women
may be less fertileand have fewer fertileyears remaining,and so they produce
fewer children.
Reasons for the decline in the birth rate
 Sociologistshaveidentified a number of reasons for the long.4erm decline in the birth rate
since1900.These reasons involvea rangeof social,economic,cultural,legal,political and
technological factors.
1 Changes in the position of women
 There were major changes in the position of women duringthe 20tb century. These include:
o Legal equality with men, includingthe rightto vote.Increased educational
opportunities — girls nowdo better atschool than boys

41
o More women in paid employment, plus laws outlawingunequal pay and sex
discrimination.
o Changes in attitudes to family lifeand women role.
o Easier access to divorce.
o Access to abortion and reliablecontraception,givingwomen more control over
their fertility.
 As a resultof these changes,women now see other possibilities in lifeapartfromthe
traditional roleof housewife and mother. Many are choosingto delay childbearing,or not to
have children atall,in order to pursuea career. For example, in 2006,one in five women
aged 45 was childless—doublethe number of 20 years earlier
2 Declinein the infantmortality rate
 The infantmortality rate (IMR) measures the number of infants who die before their first
birthday,per thousand babies born alive,per year. Many sociologists arguethata fall in the
IMR leads to a fall in the birth rate. This is because,if many infants die,parents have more
children to replacethose they have lost,thereby increasingthebirth rate. By contrast,if
infants survive,parents will havefewer of them.
 Duringthe firsthalf of the 20th century, the UK’s IMR began to fall.This was dueto several
reasons:
o Improved housingand better sanitation,such as flush toilets and clean drinking
water, reduced infectious disease.
o A fall in the number of married women workingmay have improved their health
and that of their babies.
o Improved services for mothers and children,such as antenatal and postnatal clinics.
 However, whilemany sociologists claimthatthe fallingIMRled to a fall in birth rates,others
reject this view. For example, Brass and Kabir (1978) arguethat the trend to smaller families
began not in rural areas,where the IMR firstbegan to fall,but in urban areas,where the
1MB remained higher for longer
3 Children havebecome an economic liability
 Until the late 19th century, children were economic assets to their parents becausethey
could be sent out to work from an early age to earn an income. However, sincethe late 191h
century children have gradually become an economic liability:
o Laws banningchild labour,introducingcompulsory schoolingand raisingtheschool
leavingage mean that children remain economically dependent on their parents for
longer and longer.
4 Child centredness
 The increasingchild centredness both of the family and of society as a whole has encouraged
a shiftfrom ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’ — parents now have fewer children and lavish more
attention and resources on these few.
Effects of changes in fertility
 Changes in the number of babies born affect several aspects of society.These includethe
family,the dependency ratio,and public services and policies.
The family

42
 Smaller families mean that women aremore likely to be free to go out to work, thus creating
the dual earner coupletypical of many professional families.However, family sizeis only one
factor here. For example, better off couples may be able to have larger families and still
afford childcarethatallows them both to work full-time
The dependency ratio
 The dependency ratio is the relationship between the sizeof the working or productive part
of the population and the sizeof the non-working or dependent part of the population.The
earnings,savings and taxes of the working population mustsupport the dependent
population.Children make up a largepart of the dependent population, so a fall in the
number of children reduces the ‘burden of dependency’ on the working population.
 However, in the longer term, fewer babies being born will mean fewer young adults and a
smaller workingpopulation and so the burden of dependency may begi n to increaseagain.
Public services and policies
 A lower birth rate means fewer schools and maternity and child health services may be
needed. It also has implicationsfor the costof maternity and paternity leave, or the types of
housingthat need to be built.
 However, we should remember that many of these are political decisions.For example,
instead of reducingthe number of schools,the government may decide to have smaller class
sizes instead.
2. Deaths
 The death rate is the number of deaths per thousand of the population per year. In
1900,the death rate stood at 19, whereas by 2007 ithad almosthalved,to 10.
Reasons for the decline in the death rate
 There are several reasons why the death rate declined duringthe 20th century.
Improved nutrition
 Thomas McKeown (1972) argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the
reduction in death rates, and was particularly importantin reducingthe number of
deaths from TB. Better nutrition increased resistanceto infection and increased the
survival chances of those who did become infected.
 However, others have challenged McKeown’s explanation.For example, it does not
explain why females, who receive a smaller shareof the family food supply,lived longer
than males,nor why deaths from some infectious diseases,such as measles and infant
diarrhoea,actually roseata time of improvingnutrition.
Medical improvements
 However, after the 1950s,improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation did
help to reduce death rates.
 More recently, improved medication, bypass surgery and other developments have reduced
deaths from heart diseaseby one-third.

43
Public health measures and environmental improvements
 In the 20th century, more effective central and local government with the necessary power
to pass and enforcelaws led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of
the environment.
 These included improvements in housing(producingdrier,better ventilated, less
overcrowded accommodation),purer drinkingwater and laws to combat the adulteration of
food and drink.
Other social changes also played a partin reducingthe death rate duringthe 2Qth century. These
included:
 The declineof more dangerous manual occupations such asmining
 Smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infection
 Greater public knowledge of the causes of illness
 Higher incomes, allowingfor a healthier lifestyle.
The ageing population
 The average age of the UK population is rising.In 1971,itwas 34.1 years. By 2007,it stood at
39.6. By 2031, itis projected to reach 42.6. There are fewer young people and more old
people in the population.The number of people aged 65 or over is projected to overtake the
number of under-16s for the firsttime ever in 2014.
The effects of an ageing population
Public services
 Older people consume a larger proportion of services such as health and social carethan
other age groups. This is particularly trueof the old old’ (usually defined as 75 or over) as
againstthe ‘young old (65-74).
 However, we should beware of overgeneralising,sincemany people remain in relatively
good health well into old age.
 In addition to increased expenditure on health care,an ageing population may also mean
changes to policiesand provision of housing,transportor other services.
One-person pensioner households
 The number of pensioners livingalonehas increased and one-person pensioner households
now accountfor about 14% of all households.Mostof these are female, both because
women generally livelonger than men, and because they are usually younger than their
husbands.
The dependency ratio
 Like the non-workingyoung, the non-working old are an economically dependent group who
need to be provided for by those of working age, for example through taxation to pay for

Family_Revision_Booklet.doc

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Family_Revision_Booklet.doc

Similar to Family_Revision_Booklet.doc (7)

More from PhillipsFaloyeKuti1

More from PhillipsFaloyeKuti1 (9)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Family_Revision_Booklet.doc