Families and Relationships: Diversity Today vs 1950s
1. Foundation Society and Culture: Families and Intimate Relationships
Seminar Activity 1: Diversity of family forms
‘We do need to be careful about exaggerating claims about the differences between family
life in the 1950s and today. … [W]e [have] distinguished family life as it was lived in the
1950s from the idealized version so eagerly promoted today. And we have now just seen
how statistical trends describing changes over the past few decades are themselves
somewhat contradictory, showing signs of both continuity and change.
However, in spite of this qualification, we do have evidence which suggests that family life in
the UK today is different from that of post‐war years and that it is its diversity which makes
it particularly different. Each of us throughout our lives may now live in a number of
different family types and our family relationships may take a variety of forms. This suggests
a marked contrast with the 1950s. Just as the 1950s were characterized by the dominance
of one particular type of family consisting of
husband and wife and children living together in the family home (sometimes labelled the
nuclear family), with husband/father as breadwinner and wife/mother caring for children
and home, so the beginning of the twenty‐first century is characterized by a diversity of
family types and a diversity of relationships within families. Lone parent families, step
families, families with unmarried parents,
families headed by same sex couples exist alongside the traditional nuclear family.… We are
probably justified in saying that there did not exist the opportunities in the 1950s that exist
today for people to choose how they want to live. Although the two‐parent family remains
numerically dominant today, this institutional form no longer defines so exclusively what it
is to live in a family or what a family is.’
(Norma Sherratt and Gordon Hughes, ‘Family: from tradition to diversity?’ in Gordon
Hughes and Ross Fergusson (eds), Ordering Lives: Family, Work and Welfare, London:
Routledge/The Open University, 2000, p. 57)
Revision question:
Does the evidence presented in Giddens Sociology support the conclusions reached by
Sherratt and Hughes?
Take notes to find evidence in support, and evidence that may not be in support.
![Foundation Society and Culture: Families and Intimate Relationships
Seminar Activity 1: Diversity of family forms
‘We do need to be careful about exaggerating claims about the differences between family
life in the 1950s and today. … [W]e [have] distinguished family life as it was lived in the
1950s from the idealized version so eagerly promoted today. And we have now just seen
how statistical trends describing changes over the past few decades are themselves
somewhat contradictory, showing signs of both continuity and change.
However, in spite of this qualification, we do have evidence which suggests that family life in
the UK today is different from that of post‐war years and that it is its diversity which makes
it particularly different. Each of us throughout our lives may now live in a number of
different family types and our family relationships may take a variety of forms. This suggests
a marked contrast with the 1950s. Just as the 1950s were characterized by the dominance
of one particular type of family consisting of
husband and wife and children living together in the family home (sometimes labelled the
nuclear family), with husband/father as breadwinner and wife/mother caring for children
and home, so the beginning of the twenty‐first century is characterized by a diversity of
family types and a diversity of relationships within families. Lone parent families, step
families, families with unmarried parents,
families headed by same sex couples exist alongside the traditional nuclear family.… We are
probably justified in saying that there did not exist the opportunities in the 1950s that exist
today for people to choose how they want to live. Although the two‐parent family remains
numerically dominant today, this institutional form no longer defines so exclusively what it
is to live in a family or what a family is.’
(Norma Sherratt and Gordon Hughes, ‘Family: from tradition to diversity?’ in Gordon
Hughes and Ross Fergusson (eds), Ordering Lives: Family, Work and Welfare, London:
Routledge/The Open University, 2000, p. 57)
Revision question:
Does the evidence presented in Giddens Sociology support the conclusions reached by
Sherratt and Hughes?
Take notes to find evidence in support, and evidence that may not be in support.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/seminaractivity1diversityinfamilies-140603104705-phpapp01/85/Seminar-activity-1-diversity-in-families-1-320.jpg)
