Assess The View That The Conventional Nuclear Family Remains The Norm

Asess the view that the conventional nuclear family remains the norm in Britain today.
[24 marks]

Sociologist Edmund Leech (1967) defined the nuclear family as the ‘cereal packet norm’ due to often appearing in advertisements for breakfast cereals. This type of family consisted of a male provider, enhancing the patriarchy with a female homemaker, along with their dependent children, originally assumed as the ideal family by Hilary Land.

Talcott Parsons believes that the conventional family type alters depending on changes in society. Structural differentiation refers to the idea that as society changes, institutions change to fit society, they lose functions in the process of them becoming more specialised. The main example of this is through Industrialisation, with the creation of the nuclear family and the end of the extended family. In
modern society, Parsons still believes that family is set out to meet the needs of society as well as performing two vital functions of primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities, contributing to the effectiveness of society.

An overall functionalist view sees the family still performing these essential functions, meaning we can now begin to generalise about the family types that we find in society. The nuclear family we see as an equal division of labour between the husband and wife. This is how other family begin to be considered as abnormal, since they are less likely to perform the functions required of the family.

Throughout society, the majority of people live within these nuclear families, socialising their children into thinking that this is the norm therefore them carrying on the opinion. This present day has evolved from 1940s where a woman pushing a pram down the road would automatically be considered as married and part of a ‘cereal packet’ family unless widowed.

On the other hand, society has reduced the stigma against other types of families, welcoming more diverse types into society. Jeffery Weeks (2000) has noticed the change in attitudes since the 1950s, seeing an acceptance of sexual and family diversity although noticing that most children are still brought up by a couple, but who have divorced and remarried.

A structure that has increased in numbers is lone parent families, making up 24% of all families. This is due to an increase in the amount of divorce and separation, and recently the amount of women who have never been married with children, linked to the reduced stigma on births outside marriage. In the past, the death of one parent was a common cause of lone parent families, but this is no longer very significant and relies on the separation of the two parents. Charles Murray believes that a reason for the increase in lone parent families is due to the welfare state being more generous in providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children. Murray argues that this has caused ‘perverse incentive’, which reflects the rewarding irresponsible behaviour, such as having children without being able to provide for them enhancing more of a dependency culture, putting more stress on society, shown through their taxes.

Reconstituted families account for 10% of all families with dependent children in Britain, formed by a man and women from previous marriages getting remarried, with their children part of the family as well. Elsa Ferri and Kate Smith found that stepfamilies are similar to the first nuclear family, but suffer from poverty in some cases, providing for two families in a sense. As well as causing poverty, Allen and Crow said that stepfamilies may cause problems of divided loyalties and issues such as contact, leaving the parent they don’t live with, with less contact.

The New Right have an anti-feminist perspective on the family, strongly opposing to family diversity. They see the family as ‘natural’ and being based upon vital biological differences between men and women, creating a place of contentment and harmony to which all of the family members can feel relaxed and be themselves. Arguing that the nuclear family is in decline are said to cause many social problems such as higher crime rates and education failure that are linked to children from lone parent families.

Robert Chester (1985) has noticed the increased family diversity in society within recent years, rather than seeing this as a negative aspect within society- he argues that the only important change us a move from the dominance of the traditional or convectional family, describing it as the ‘the neo-conventional family’.
This is defined as a dual-earner family to which both spouses gout to work, similarly described by Young and Willmott as the symmetrical family. Although many people are no longer part of a nuclear family, Chester says this is due to the lifecycle, changing family types that you are involved in throughout the course of your lifetime.

As evidence of his view that little has changed, Chester notices a number of patterns, such as the majority of people live in a patriarchal nuclear family with a married couple and their children. Most marriages continue until death although there has been an increase in divorce, most divorcees remarry. For Chester, the extant and importance of family diversity has been exaggerated, and agreeing with functionalists- he sees nuclear family as dominant within
society.

Using Chester’s point about changing family types within your lifetime is expanded upon within The Rapoports; the fourth one refers to stage in lifecycle | life. This relates to the through different ages, you may belong to different structures, for example- you may be born into a nuclear family, then when moving out to go to university- you will be part of a student household- living with other students before settling into a cohabiting couple, this may lead to having children and starting the cycle again.