What is the family? - group of people related through a kinship of ties - social institution - basic unit of social organisation - importance role in socialisation and forming identities Key concepts: - Nuclear family > parents and children living together - Extended family > several nuclear families joined by kinship relations (living on the same road, keep in touch by phone etc) - Lone-parent family > single parent and children in the home - Reconstituted family > both or one partners have been previously married, and bring children from that marriage to the new relationship - Gay and lesbian families >same-sex couples with children - Symmetrical family > husbands and wife's roles become more alike - Monogamy > form of marriage where you can have only one partner - Arranged marriage > marriages organised by parents - Polygamy > marrying a second partner whilst already married (illegal in Britain) -Ascribed status > born into it - Achieved status > status you achieve within your life (through job etc) - Pre-industrial family > family at this stage was a unit of production, producing societies goods - Segregated roles > separated roles in a partnership/marriage - Integrated roles > flexible and interchangeable roles in a partnership/marriage - Women's triple shift > paid work, domestic and child labour and emotional work - Divorce > separation within a marriage - Life expectancy > age you are expected to live too -Birth rate > number of babies born at a period of time -matriarchy > a system ruled by women -patriarchy > a system ruled by men
Key research - emergence of the privatised nuclear family and the modified extended family - (privatised nuclear family =isolated from extended kin - the nuclear family has become the modified extended family) -roles between men and women have become more equal starting in the second half of the twentieth century within relationships (The Office for National Statistics >in the late 1990s a rising number of men were choosing to become house-husbands leaving their partner to become the breadwinner) - child centred families have been researched as much more common - why?. Families have gotten smaller/working week has got shorter/higher standards of living have benefited children/welfare state provides support for children/further education means children are dependent on parents for longer/growing parental fears/children have more legal rights -average family size has dropped > from 6 children per family in the 1870's to around 1.8 in 2003 - why?...effective and cheaper contraception/compulsory education/changing position of women/decline in infant mortality (parents don't need to have lots of children for security) - lone parent families tripled since 1971 - why?...independence of women/contraception/reproductive technology available/changing social attitudes - violence in the family > each year around 150 people are killed by their partner and 80% of these are women. Around 650,000 incidents are recorded by the police each year
Key theoretical perspectives Consensus approach = Functionalist -the family is what holds society together -this is done through primary socialisation, providing food and shelter, emotional security, social stability -socialising children into shared norms and values -helps to keep humans stable Conflict approach = Marxist - family reproduces social inequality -the family is concerned with teaching its members to work alongside the values and beliefs of the wealthy upper class Conflict approach = Feminists -family reproduces gender inequalities -look at domestic abuse within families -family serves men's needs better than women's -family oppresses women and exploits them
Pedagogy 1) ask the students to talk in groups about what type of family they are linked to (talk to learn) 2) split the classroom into groups and ask each to act out a certain type of family e.g nuclear, single parent and then use the picture below for pupils to name the different types 3) design a mood board identifying the different types of families > underneath each a reason why the family may be this way 4) men and women's roles becoming more equal > show a clip of a man carrying out the women's roles - ask the pupils what they believe is wrong with this? 5) give students a number of scenarios within the home and get them to identify whether they are typically associated with the male or female of the home 6) children centred families > give each of the original groups a secret scenario of why families are children centred - get them again to act out why and get the rest of the class to guess 7) after learning about the theoretical perspectives split the class into opposing theories and get them to debate (1 group-Marxists, 1-group functionalists and 1-group feminists) 8) Homework task -speak to three generations within your family for example, younger sibling, parent and grandparent, and ask them how they experienced growing up in their family - bring the notes back into lesson and this will form part of an essay around the change within families and why this may be