Extended Families
...alisation which occurs during the early stages of childhood. - Stabilisation of adult personality – Allows adults to act out ‘childish’ elements by the parent’s personality. Parsons argued this continued through till late industrialisation. In relationship to the question, this shows that the extended family was taken over by the nuclear family presenting that extended kinship doesn’t thrive today. He says due to industrialisation and urbanisation the nuclear family was created and norms and roles changed. Laslett argued that only 10% of families were not nuclear structured. This relates to the question as most the population are nuclear structured. The other 10% could be for a number of reasons e.g. there could have been a late marriage or there could have been an early death of a parent. Correspondingly, Marxist theorist argued the nuclear family maintains capitalism (the economic system associated with modern societies) in two ways – 1. An Economic Role Early Industrialisation and onwards Benston (69) argues that women’s domestic labour contributes to the benefit made by capitalists. I.e. women produce labour power which in turn are exploited by Capitalists. This relates to the question as without the nuclear families around today, there would be no capitalist system in the economic society. 2. Ideological Role Monton (80) argues that the family teaches children to accept ‘authority’ – so as to accept the hierarchy and exploitation of Capitalism. This is suggesting that the nuclear family (as a part of primary socialisation) teach the children that they must earn a wage from bourgeoisies and to except that it is ok to be exploited. Also the stage 3 family argues that the husband and wife should be at home with the children. This way there are wealthier families, money can be spent on the children and there is equality. This relates to the question because these is a very nuclear structure therefore we can see there are a lot of nuclear families rather than extended families. On the other hand, some theorists agree with the statement above providing sociological evidence. We firstly look at Anderson (71). He argues that the extended family strengthened and not weakened in the process of industrialisation. This is because people moved to newly created towns, they, moved in with relatives in order to find comfort and security. This relates to the question as Anderson is saying extended families are more common rather in modern day society. Young and Willmot (57) argued that in pre industrial society the movement towards the nuclear family was not as sudden as Parson suggested, but rather more gradual in nature. Young and Willmot (62) then suggested in early industrial society the kinship patterns in working-class communities tend to be based more upon extended style family structures than isolated nuclear structures, which in turn are more associated with middle class or affluent families. In modern society he believed men would work and women were the centre of domestic life. Families were employed in factories, and after a hard days work (The warm bath theory) men would go to working men’s clubs which were stress free atmospheres to have a drink. The sociologists suggested that as the nuclear family develops, we see a changing in of the roles between partners in the family. They were described as symmetrical which was adapting to change. • Stage 1 – Pre Industrial Families – Families worked together as a unit of production • Stage 2 – Early Industrial Families – The extended family is broken down by geographical mobility due to the rise of towns and urban areas. Traditionally gender roles develop as men become ‘bread winners’ in the home • Stage 3 – Symmetrical Families - As time develops, life in the nuclear family becomes more home centred and the roles become increasing shared, hence the term symmetrical. This theory relates to are original question as its basically saying because people moved to newly created towns, they moved in with relatives in order to find comfort and security. Thus meaning more extended families continued throughout industrialisation. Finch and Mason presented that the family in Modern Society was more of an extended structure. They looked at how families took on and divided up the responsibilities of care and support for ill kin. After presenting a survey around Greater Manchester; interviews with 9...