Parsons Argue of Marital Breakdowns

Wilmot and young studied that changing the structure of the British family form extended to nuclear, they reckoned that the increase in the nuclear family meant that joint conjugal roles would develop. They predicted that equal and shared responsibilities would be the future norm in British families. Ann Oakley pointed out that their study only required men to do a few things around the house to qualify having joint roles. The methodology overlooked the amount of time spent on households making ten minutes washing up equivalent to one hours hovering, Oakley’s research found it was pretty rare for men to do a lot of housework.

Oakley thinks that the role of the housewife was socially constructed by the social changes of the industrial revolution, for example when people started going out to work in the factories rather than at home. Oakley found that women took in a double burden (doing paid work, working in the house and looking after the children).
From a feminist perspective the family helps to maintain the exciting social orders, feminist call the existing social order patriarchy, patriarchy is the combination of systems, ideology and culture practices which make sure men have power. Feminist theories argue that the family supports and reproduces inequalities between men and women. The real idea is that women are dependent on men.

The three main strands of feminist are Marxist feminist sees the exploitation of women as essential to the success of the capitalism, it is cost free because society accepts housework to be unpaid. Radical feminist theories also highlights housework as an area of exploitation of women as being down to the domination of men in society radical feminist believe men will always oppress women.
Liberal feminist emphasise the culture norms and values which are reinforced by the family and by other institution of the society and believe the family is only sexist because it supports the man stream structure. All strands of feminist theory have been criticised for portraying women as too passive, feminist sociology doesn’t acknowledge the power might be shared in the family.

There are two types of family changes extended and nuclear
American sociologist Talcott Parsons studied the impact of industrialisation on the family structure he thought that the dominate family structure changed the extended to nuclear because it was more useful for industrial society, the nuclear family is best industrial society. The family socialises children into the role values and norms of industrial society. Industrial nuclear family is isolated, meaning it has few ties with the local kind ship and economic systems.
Status of an individual in a preindustrial society was described at birth that the family they were born into Parsons reckoned that in the industrial society or an individual status is achieved by the success in society outside the family. The idea here is the nuclear family is the best for allowing individuals to achieve status and position without conflict. Functionalist are criticised for seeing the modern nuclear family as a superior , something that society have to involve into, they are also criticised for putting for wood a picture of idealised picture of history.

Divorced rates.
Actual divorces in the UK rose from 25000 in 1961 to 146000 in 1997. The average length of a marriage ends in divorce remains the same 12 years in 1963 11 years in 2000 (census 2001 report). There are several social cultural political and social factors about the increase in these levels in the UK. Some of the reasons are that divorce have became more easier to obtain for both men and women, it is more socially accepted , women have high expectations of marriage and the new Right believe that marriage is less supported by the state.
The functionalist Robert Chester admits there has been growth in the family diversity but believes that the nuclear family remains the dominant family structure.
He argues that the statistics show a grater increase in diversity than it is actually hoping. Chester has also suggested that the nuclear family are becoming less traditional and more symmetrical to better fit in the modern living.
Chester was certainly right about the delay in marriage since much of the decline in first marriages does seem to be in people delaying marriages for various reasons, but on the other hand functionalist such as Parsons argue that the rise in martial breakdown system largely from the fact the marriage is increasly valued, people expect and demand more from a marriage especially women and that marriage is consequently are more likely to end a marriage which have been expectable in the past. From a functionalist prospect it can be argued that the adaption of the family to the requirements to the economic system has placed a strain in martial relationships.