Families and households (Component 1, Section B option): family forms and family diversity in England and Wales; demographic change (marriage, divorce, cohabitation, fertility, life expectancy, singlehood); relationships, roles and power within families; childhood; and perspectives on the family (functionalist, Marxist, feminist, postmodernist, New Right).

What this dot point is asking

Families and households is one of the two options in Component 1, Section B (you study either this or youth cultures). It is assessed by a compulsory question plus a choice of essays. You need to know family forms and diversity in England and Wales, the demographic changes reshaping family life, the roles and power within relationships, the social construction of childhood, and the perspectives that interpret all of this.

The answer

Family forms and diversity

The Rapoports identified several types of family diversity (organisational, cultural, class, life-course and cohort), capturing the idea that there is no single dominant family type. Whether this diversity has replaced the nuclear family or merely added to it is the central essay debate.

Demographic change

Roles, relationships and power

A major theme is the domestic division of labour and power in relationships.

• Joint and segregated conjugal roles - whether couples share domestic tasks and leisure (joint) or keep them separate (segregated). The symmetrical family thesis claims roles have become more equal.
• The feminist critique - women perform a dual burden (paid work plus housework) or a triple shift (paid work, housework and emotional work), so roles remain unequal despite some change.
• Power and decision-making - control of money and major decisions, and domestic violence, reveal inequalities of power within the home.

The social construction of childhood

Childhood is not a fixed biological stage but a social construction that varies between societies and over time. Sociologists debate whether modern childhood is a protected, privileged stage or whether children's lives are increasingly controlled and commercialised. Cross-cultural and historical evidence shows the status of children differs widely.

Perspectives on the family

1. Functionalism - the family meets society's needs: primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities; the nuclear family fits modern society.
2. Marxism - the family serves capitalism by reproducing labour power and transmitting ruling-class values.
3. Feminism - the family reproduces patriarchy through the unequal division of domestic labour and the socialisation of gender roles (strands differ).
4. The New Right - the nuclear family is the ideal; its decline and rising lone parenthood are blamed for social problems.
5. Postmodernism - family life is now diverse and a matter of individual choice; no single form dominates.

Examples in context

The symmetrical family debate. The claim that conjugal roles have become joint and "symmetrical" (couples sharing housework, childcare and leisure) is a useful test case. Time-use evidence shows men do more domestic work than in the past, supporting partial change. But feminists counter with the dual burden and triple shift: women still do most housework, most childcare and most of the emotional labour, even when in paid work. The judgement an examiner rewards is nuanced: roles have become more equal but are not fully equal, and change is uneven across class and ethnic groups. This avoids the trap of either declaring victory or denying any change.

Try this

Q1. Distinguish between a nuclear family and an extended family. [4 marks]

• Cue. Nuclear: two generations (parents and children). Extended: three or more generations or wider kin in close contact.

Q2. Explain two reasons for the rise in divorce in England and Wales. [6 marks]

• What the marker wants. Reasons such as legal reform making divorce easier and cheaper, changing attitudes and secularisation, and women's growing economic independence, each explained.

Q3. Evaluate the view that conjugal roles have become equal. [16 marks]

• What the marker wants. Evidence of more symmetrical roles against the feminist dual burden and triple shift, attention to variation, and a supported judgement that change is real but incomplete.