1. Welcome to Sociology of Human Reproduction
Dr Pam Lowe

2. Introduction to the Module
Conceptualising families
Families in crisis?
What next?

3. Who am I? Pam Lowe Room NW 922 Email p.k.lowe@aston.ac.uk
Telephone (Ext 3807)
Liz Yardley

4. Sociological approaches
Understanding of human reproduction as social and cultural events
Biology is NOT destiny
Consider changes over time and between places
Consider how power relationships shape experiences and understandings

5. Family Discuss with the person next to you what family is.
Do you think your ideas are the same or different to wider society?

6. Family forms The family is often seen as:
Natural
Basis of society
Threats to ‘family’ considered problematic
Social disorder

7. Family as natural
‘I mean by a family a couple, consisting of a husband and wife, with or without children, living together throughout their lives. I include, too, the extended family, that is grandparents and other relatives. And throughout our history, this has been the accepted meaning of the word "family".
Rt Hon Baroness Young
Centre for Policy Studies Lecture
Conservative Party Conference 2000

8. Family as Building
‘There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families’
Margaret Thatcher
Women's Own magazine
October

9. Breakdown of Family
‘The biggest challenge facing Britain today is mending our broken society. That will not happen overnight: long-term social change needs long-term thinking. And the Conservatives are the only party doing it. We are showing how we will do more to support families, because responsible parents give children the secure and loving start they need.’
David Cameron 02/09/2007 Daily Telegraph

10. How do these ideas about family fit with the descriptions you were discussing earlier?

11. Conceptualising Families
The term family can be used in different ways:
As an ideology
Nuclear family, ‘traditional’ values
As a social and economic institution
Defined through law and state policy
As a practice
Lived experience of people in everyday lives

12. Discuss the interrelationships between these three elements?

13. Current debates
The roles of family, mothers, father and parents are constantly a mater of debate
Constant changes in language and attitudes
Mothering to parenting
Ideas linked also linked power relationships

14. Family in Crisis? Common debates about the ‘breakdown’ of the family
Growth of single motherhood
Growth of gay and lesbian families
Often measured against
‘traditional family values’

15. Family causing crisis?
Anti-social behaviour associated with a decline in traditional families
Lack of male role models
to encourage masculine
responsibility
Rise of independent women as a threat to society

16. Rise of the underclass
Murray sees illegitimacy as the cause of the problem
‘In communities without fathers the kids tend to run wild’(p12)
‘Young men are essentially barbarians for whom marriage –meaning not just the wedding vows but the act of taking responsibility for a wife and children – is an indispensable civilising force’ (p23)
Women should be dependent on men for the good of society
Murray C (1994) Underclass London IEA

17. Other(ed) Families
Increasing public awareness of gay and lesbian families has also been seen as problematic
Section 28 Local Government Act 1988 stopped Councils ‘promoting homosexuality’
The Equality Act 2006, debates focused on gay adoption
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill arguments over ‘child’s need for a father’

18. Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill
‘The decision of the state to facilitate the deliberate creation of children who would be prevented from having a father is morally wrong. That is a clear example of the Government prioritising the interests and desires of adults—in this case, would-be same-sex parents—above the welfare and rights of the children’
Baroness O'Cathain Lords Hansard 10 Dec 2007

19. Family types always varied
Historically high mortality rates meant that losing a parent was common
Babies/children were frequently
given to others to care for:
Nannies/boarding schools
Wet-nursing
Apprenticeships/placing
Family fostering

20. Conceptualising Families
Family is not universal or stable
Linked to other social institutions and social trends
Ideas about relationships and responsibilities change over time

21. The rest of the module Week 15 Motherhood and Fatherhood
Week 16 Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Week 17 Infertility and ‘Miracle’ babies
Week 18 Teenage pregnancy
Week 19 Independent Study
Week 20 Genetics and prenatal testing
Week 21 The Politics of Contraception
Week 22 The Politics of Abortion
Week 23 Adoption and surrogacy
Week 24 Revision

22. Summary Examines the family as a social construction
Look at different ways to conceptualise the family
Considered shifting debates on family values