Families and Households Topic 1 – Defining the family

Brick Lane You guys are ace!!! So many really interesting ideas and thoughts on gender roles....

Feminism views! Some really interesting ideas Always support what you say with examples /evidence

What do you think ? Jenny and Dave have been going out for six months and move in together. They share a mortgage but are not married. Jenny was previously married to Richard and their divorce is about to come through. Jenny remains friends with Richard's mother. Dave hasn’t seen his father for ten years. His parents are divorced and his father lives in Australia with his new wife Rita. They have a baby girl Olivia.

What do you think ? Can you see Jenny and Dave as a family? Justify your response Is Dave part of Jenny’s mum and dad’s family? Is Jenny part of Dave’s mum and dad’s family? Where does Olivia fit into the family ?

Defining the family The previous activity has enabled you to consider people’s perceptions and the issue of remarriage. How does the concept of commitment and the length of the relationship play in part in identifying a unit as a “family”. If someone gets married, divorced and remarried are they still part of the former family? What about if children are involved?

Finch and Mason (1993) Divorce does not always sever relationships between all family members, In step-families it may be the children who do not accept new so called families as their family, however the newly in love adults desire it to be so, This shows that, the ties that are maintained and developed are essentially socially defined.

Jordan et al (1994) Found that what was given prominence in defining family was that of partnership and parenthood, Thus making the key feature enabling a unit to call themselves a family was based on the sort of partnership the adults were engaged in and the blood or marriage ties between the adults and the children.

Bernades (1997) Disagrees with the concept of “the family” and prefers to refer to “families” in the plural rather than privileging one set of arrangements as “the family”. The concept of “Families” thus allows for family diversity and the variety of familial arrangements which exist in contemporary society.

Defining the family is not purely an academic exercise, In conclusion…. Defining the family is not purely an academic exercise, What is in fact considered to be a family has important political implications in terms of social policy and the family.

Social policy: [n] - a policy for dealing with social issues

Family definitions- Culturally specific – how the family and family relations are defined depends upon the culture you come from. IK Tribe Northern Uganda

The nuclear family

The influences of the traditional view of the family Recent changes in the structure of families and the liberalization of attitudes towards family life, we can still see the influence of traditional beliefs about family life in the UK. It can be argued that that they constitute a powerful “ideology” about what families should look like and how family members should behave. I.E. the belief that the main responsibility for parenting lies with mothers is still very much influential. Ideology – a group of ideas that lead to a way of viewing the world

The influences of the traditional view of the family Dominant set of ideas such as the position of women within the traditional nuclear family unit are reflected in government social policy: No need for state provision of free childcare because women are happy to give up work to look after their children. Traditional beliefs are also reflected in the pronouncement of religious leaders, politicians and editors of newspapers which state which types of relationships (homosexuality) and living arrangements (lone parents) are not worthy of being called families.

Social Policy Answer the questions on your handout