family revision ppt (extras)

Family revision ppt(extras)

Conjugal roles debate

Diversity Social policy Social construction

of childhood

Development of the family

Demography Marriage, divorce and cohabitation

Conjugal Roles Debate

Typical Questions• Explain what is meant by the ‘dual burden’ (Item 2A). (2 marks)

• Explain the difference between the expressive role and the instrumental role (Item 2A).(4 marks)

• Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of feminist sociologists to an understanding of family roles and relationships. (24 marks)

• Examine the factors that have affected the domestic division of labour and power between couples (24 marks)

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Focus:The extent to which couples have become more equal – especially in terms of housework and power in the family home.

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What you need to consider…

Power inside relationships takes different forms:• Housework• Childcare• Decision making• Hours worked (at work/in home)• Emotion work• Domestic violence

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What you need to consider...• Functionalists stress a ‘march of progress’ (and

greater symmetry).

• Feminists stress patriarchy and how women still do most housework.

Be aware of different studies and factors that may have led to greater equality OR helped to maintain inequality.

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What you need to consider…Domestic Violence• Hidden/dark side of family• Hard to research• Declining since 1996

Why happen?• Radical feminism – patriarchy/women seen as

property/control by men/masculinity + macho• New Right – ‘dysfunctional families’, unstable• Giddens – emotional intensity, strong emotions in isolated

family unit – depend on each other too much

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Marriage, Divorce, Cohabitation

Typical Questions• Suggest three reasons for the increase in the divorce rate since 1969. (6 marks)

• Suggest two reasons for the decline in the number of first marriages over the past 40 years or so, apart from those referred to in Item 2A. (4 marks)

• Suggest two reasons why there has been an increase in cohabitation (Item 2A). (4 marks)

• Examine the reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage and cohabitation in the last 40 years or so. (24 marks)

• Examine the reasons for changes in the divorce rate since 1969. (24 marks)

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Focus:What are the trends in these areas of family life? What has caused the increase/decrease? The effects of these

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What you need to consider..The decline in marriage rate:• Why are less people marrying?

The rise in divorce rate:• Why are more people divorcing?

The rise in cohabitation:• Why has there been an increase in cohabitation?

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What you need to consider..

Measuring marital breakdown:• Rise in divorce• Separation • Empty shell marriages

Divorce:• Which groups are most likely to get divorced (and why)?• What are the consequences of divorce?

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What you need to consider..

Reasons for increase in divorce?• Value of marriage• Conflict between spouses• Opportunity to escape marriage (includes ease

of divorce)

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Social Policy

Typical Questions• Suggest two ways, apart from those mentioned in Item 2A, in which

government policies and/or laws may shape the experiences of children today. (4 marks)

• Examine the ways in which government policies and laws may affect the nature and extent of family diversity. (24 marks)

• Examine the ways in which social policies and laws may influence families and households. (24 marks)

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Focus:How policies have affected the family. Consider how policies have supported or undermined the nuclear family.

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Policies – government intervening in family life

(education, taxation, housing, welfare)

Cross-curricular examples• China (1 child policy)• Soviet Union (abolish family)• Nazi Germany (increase birth rate)

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What you need to consider…Theories on family & policy

New Right• Pro-nuclear family• Anti-single parent family• Welfare cutbacks

Feminism• Anti-nuclear family• Women need to escape patriarchal oppression• Gender regimes

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Pro-nuclear Anti-nuclear

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• Child benefit paid to mothers (assumption)

• School hours (assume) that one parent will be at home in the afternoon (this makes it hard for dual earner families)

• Limited state provision of care for elderly (and encouraging families to look after them)

• Housing policies (Fox & Harding, 1996) assume that nuclear families get priority over lone-parent families

• Child support policies have emphasised the importance of absent fathers to pay for children

• Gradual liberalisation of divorce laws

• Recognition of gay/lesbian relationships

• State funding for childcare

• Domestic violence treated more seriously by police and authorities

Also look at the policies of different parties:

• New Right (1979-1997)• New Labour (1997-2010)• Coalition (2010 – present)

Demography

Typical Questions• Identify three reasons why the birth rate has fallen since 1900. (6 marks)

• Explain what is meant by ‘net migration’ (Item 2A). (2 marks)

• Suggest two reasons why people may migrate to the United Kingdom, apart from that referred to in Item 2A. (4 marks)

• Suggest two ways in which the position of children could be said to have improved over the last one hundred years. (4 marks)

• Explain the difference between the ‘birth rate’ and the ‘fertility rate’ (4 marks)

• Suggest two reasons why women might delay having children. (4 marks)

• Suggest three effects on society of an ageing population. (6 marks)back

Focus:What changes in the population have happened? What has caused these? What are their consequences for family life?

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What you need to consider…• Birth rate (and factors affecting this decline)• Fertility rate (and why fewer births)

Reasons:• Changes in gender roles (careers etc)• Equal opportunities• Contraception• Cohabitation• Dual-earner families• Falling infant mortality rate• Children as economic burden• Changing attitudes (child centred family with less children)• Individualization (personal choice)

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Effects of changes in fertility:• Changes in dependency ratio• Effect on public services (closing schools,etc)• Changing gender roles – more focus on

careers for women• De-stabilizing families – no need to stay

together ‘for the kids’

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What you need to consider…• Death rate (why falling?)• Life expectancy (why increasing?)

Reasons:• Developments in medicine• Better nutrition• Improved living standards (better housing, etc)• Welfare benefits and health services• Improved environment• Improved working conditions

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What you need to consider…• Migration (and why increasing?)

Reasons:• Legislation and border control• Globalisation• Push/pull factors• Employment• Fleeing war/oppression/disaster etc

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• Ageing population (why increasing?)

Reasons:• Falling death rate• Falling birth rate

Effects of ageing population:• Dependency ratio• Pressure on families (+ extended family)• Government spending/welfare• Poverty (for the elderly)• Prejudice against elderly• Disengagement/isolation

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Development of the family

Typical Questions• Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the

growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family. (24 marks)

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Focus:How has the family changed in structure over time? What has led to the rise of the nuclear family? Is kinship dead?

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What you need to consider…Parson’s View • Extended to nuclear• Impact of industrialisation• Isolated nuclear family• Geographic & social

mobility

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Laslett’s View • Nuclear family before

industrial revolution• Only 10% kin• Late marriage/early death

Anderson’s View• Industrialisation led to

growth of extended family

What you need to consider…Willmott & Young• Stage 1 – Preindustrial – Nuclear• Stage 2 – Industrial – Extended• Stage 3 – 1960s – Nuclear

Reasons for rise of stage 3:• Rising wages• Welfare state• Geographic mobility/transport• Slum clearance/new housing estates• Home leisure

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Bethnal Green London

Stronger conjugal bond

SYMMETRICAL FAMILY


Kinship still important since 1980s:

• McGlone (kinship and support – childcare, financial, advice, emotional)..mainly middle class

• Willmott – ‘dispersed extended family’• Brannen – ‘beanpole family’

KINSHIP STILL IMPORTANT!

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Modernity & Postmodernity

Modernity = rational action = instrumental (rather than by tradition)…less predictable

Postmodernity = decline in rationality• Identity is less fixed – uncertainty – pluralism

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Modernity & Postmodernity

• Giddens – plastic sexuality/confluent love/self as a project

• Beck et al – individualization/choice and conflict

• Stacey – heterosexual norm being replaced by a diverse form – no set form

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Social Construction of Childhood

Typical Questions• Examine different sociological views on changes in the experience of

childhood in the past 50 years or so. (24 marks)• Suggest two ways in which childhood has become .a specially protected and privileged time

of life. (4 marks) • Suggest two ways in which the position of children could be said to have improved over the last one hundred years. (4 marks)• Suggest two ways in which the position of children could be said to have

improved over the last one hundred years. (4 marks)• Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the

modern family has become more child-centred. (24 marks)• Explain what is meant by the ‘social construction’ of childhood.(2 marks)• Examine different sociological views on changes in the experience of

childhood in the past 50 years or so. (24 marks)back

Focus:How has the experience of childhood changed? What factors have led to the rise of childhood? Is childhood a positive of negative experience?

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• Childhood is ‘socially defined’ (changes between cultures and over time)

• It is a social role – learned through socialisation

• Aries – small adults/working in medieval times

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Childhood emerged because..Aries – attitudes changed:• ‘fragile creatures of God’ –needed safeguarding• Removed from work• Expansion of education• Family became child-centred• Development of specialist services• Separate leisure interests

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Childhood emerged because..Shorter - Linked to development of ‘motherhood’ role:• Increase in romantic love (child was special)• Idea of children born good• New ideas about how to ‘raise children’• The idea of ‘the good mother’

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Other explanations for development of childhood:• Postman – technology/communications – printing press

and schooling

• Jencks – growth of idea of children born good and needing guidance (birth of education)

• Changing laws – factory acts banning children

• Donzelot – children’s services and protection

• Less children born – family child centred – treated special/protection

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What you need to consider…The rise of childhood views children as being protected and the family becoming more valued.

Some see childhood as ‘disappearing’-

Postman:• Mass media – access to adult culture/lifestyle• Blurring of childhood/adulthood – clothing, decline of youth culture• Children and consumption (marketing at children)

Opie – childhood is not disappearing

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Childhood as a negative experience:• Experience of divorce/family breakdown• Isolated families and hidden abuse• Greater surveillance and control (Donzelot)• Toxic Childhood (Palmer)• Consumerism – pressure to ‘fit in’

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Family Diversity

Typical Questions• Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the


• Identify three ways in which greater ethnic diversity has contributed to family diversity (Item 2A). (6 marks)

• Examine the extent of, and reasons for, family and household diversity in Britain today. (24 marks)

Could form part of the answer..• Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the


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Focus:The extent to which there is no longer a typical family in the UK. What types of diversity are there and what has caused them to increase?

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Nuclear family as norm• Cereal packet image

Rise of diversityRapoports• nuclear not norm• different types of diversity (organisational,

cultural, class, life cycle, cohort)

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Other forms of diversity:• Reconstituted families• Lone parents• Living alone/singletons• Childless couples• Dual earner families• Apartners• Gay/lesbian households

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What you need to consider…Reasons for increase in diversity:

• Contraceptive pill• Equal opportunities/women’s careers• Immigration• Divorce easier• Changing social attitudes/decline in stigma• Decline of religion• Expansion of welfare state• New reproductive technologies (IVF)

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Allen & Crowe


Single parent families

• Why increased?– Increase of divorce– Rise in births outside marriage– Changing social attitudes

• Effects of single parent families– Chance of living in poverty– Children doing less well in education– Children lack discipline/role models

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New Right agenda


Ethnic diversity

• Why increased?– Immigration

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Afro Caribbean Families Asian Families• Lone parent• High rate of single (never married)• Matrifocal

Why?• Tradition of absent fathers • Polygamy (Africa)• Poverty

• Extended• Low cohabitation• Low single parenthood• High marriage rate• Low divorce rate

Why?• Traditional/culture & family• Male ‘breadwinner’ expectation


BUT…nuclear family is still important:

Robert Chester• Neo-conventional family• Statistically most of life in nuclear family• Most people still marry• Most children raised by natural parents• Most people live in a household headed by married

couple• Most people stay married

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family revision ppt (extras)

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