How family life is changing

Last time

Before we start: last time, in Social stratification, class and life chances, you learned these points. Here they are again on one card. Keep them in mind, because today builds on them.

Families today

Compared with fifty years ago, families in many countries are smaller, more divorces happen, and more couples live together without marrying. Roles inside the family are changing too. This lesson covers the main changes and the reasons for them.

Conjugal roles

Conjugal roles are the roles of husband and wife in the home. Segregated roles are separate: the man as breadwinner, the woman as housewife. Joint roles are shared: both work and share housework. Young and Willmott argued families were becoming symmetrical: more equal, with shared roles.

Is the family symmetrical?

Ann Oakley found that women still did most housework and childcare, even when they worked. Women often carry a dual burden of paid work and housework, and the emotional work of caring. Men's share has grown, but most studies find roles are not fully equal.

Rising divorce

Changes in the law made divorce easier and cheaper in many countries. Women became more financially independent through work, so they could leave unhappy marriages. Secularisation, the decline of religious influence, and changing attitudes reduced the stigma of divorce.

Other changes

Families are smaller: contraception, the cost of raising children, and women's careers. More lone-parent and reconstituted families, and more cohabitation. An ageing population means more grandparents caring for children, and more beanpole families.

Changes in childhood

Children today are often seen as precious and protected, with laws on child labour and compulsory schooling. Families are more child-centred: spending more time and money on children. But some argue childhood is disappearing, as children see adult media earlier.

Changes in extended families

Industrialisation was thought to weaken the extended family, as people moved for work. But in many societies, including South Asia, extended families remain important for support and care. Modified extended families keep close contact by phone and visits, though they live apart.

Changes and causes

The main changes in family life and why they happened.

Are families declining?

Some, often the New Right, argue the family is declining, pointing to divorce and lone-parent families. Others argue the family is just changing: diversity is a sign of choice, not decline. Most people still live in families, and value family life.

Mistakes that lose marks

Mistake one: claiming families are fully symmetrical, ignoring the evidence of Oakley. Mistake two: listing changes without the reasons. Mistake three: an 8-mark answer with fewer than three developed points. The fix: change, cause, evidence.

The full-marks tip

The full-marks tip: for each change, give its cause and some evidence or a study. On symmetry, give both Young and Willmott and Oakley.

On one card

So, on one card: changing family life. Keep it for revision.