Outline and Evaluate Postmodern Views on the Diversity of Family Life

The other part of item 2B talks about the New Right’s view on social policy. The new right argue that social policies interfere with the family too much, they stop it from being self-reliant. As they argue that the nuclear family is the natural family, supported by the idea of the biological gender division of labour, if the roles of this family type are carried out accordingly, then the family is able to be self-reliant and not need the government to support it. This idea was mainly highlighted by Murray who created to proposals about social policy. The first one is the ‘dependency culture’. This is the idea that social policies are making people assume the state will provide for them, in forms such as providing houses for pregnant teenagers or assuming that the state will look after children. Therefore,

However, there are also policies which have been introduced that support family diversity. An example of a policy is the Civil Partnership Act which was introduced to allow couples of the same sex to have a legal relationship, similar to that of married couples. This promotes same sex relationships and also makes their rights more equal to those of heterosexual couples, which supports and encourages family diversity. Another key example of a policy which supports family diversity is the change made to adoption laws in 2002, which allowed gay couples to now adopt children, again making the rights of gay couples and heterosexual couples more equal. The New Labour approach recognises that due to social change, social policies cannot be introduced to support nuclear families because the reality is that most households in the UK are not nuclear. They recognise that nowadays, both parents tend to act as dual earners in the family and it is now less common for women to be the long-term housewife and child carer.

In the main body of the text, the author makes clear that in recent years, there has been a lot of social stigma emerging around young, single mothers who are on benefits.

The new labour has introduced laws which benefit the family, one of the laws being allowing adoption amongst cohabiting couples and gay couples. In effect this will mean other family types will be able to have children this will lead to a decline in nuclear families because couples will not have to marry to have to adopt children. For example a cohabiting couple are unable to pay the expenses of a wedding and they cannot have babies due to fertility issues therefore the new law will help them adopt a child without marriage. In addition to laws introduced by the new labour, they have also increased welfare by re-distributing income to increase welfare to help lower income families afford food and clothing. For example a mother with three children cannot finically support herself with one job and benefits, but due to the increase in welfare benefits, she is now able to support herself. Although other sociologist would disagree with these introductions of social policies,

Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.

Historically, one of the most economically vulnerable groups in New Zealand and other Western countries are sole-parent families (Family Commissions, 2010). When examining historical influences in New Zealand on sole-parenting, one must consider the influential changes the Second World War era had on families and family structures. Sole-parenthood was not particularly common during the this period, as most women married young and went on to have children while the men worked to provide for their families or went off to war. (Families Commission, 2008, June). Unmarried women who fell pregnant were scrutinized as being unfit mothers and shamed for getting pregnant outside of marriage. These women were heavily encouraged to give their babies up for adoption to allow their children to live a “normal” life and were seen as selfish if they chose to keep the baby (Else, A., 2012).

In this unbalanced piece, Garibaldi unfairly conveys his opinionated and biased arguments by revealing only his personal first-hand point of view. He informs the reader about some of the background information about Nicole and her family history, which leads him to conclude that single teen parents are at a higher risk of having their own child be a single teen parent, with no other statistics or opposing views to back his claim. The teen shelter organization for teen mothers supports Garibaldi’s interest by divulging, “Teen pregnancy is closely linked to single parenthood, and the growth in single parent families” (ask for citation). Other statistics from well-known sources would help balance his single sighted view. He does, however, reveal

They have abolished anything that may threaten their carefully engineered social order, including traditional family structures. Parenthood is viewed as utterly disgusting and morally wrong. When the director was talking to a group of students, he exclaimed, “And ‘parent’? [...] There was an uneasy silence.

More so, it implicates people who may fall under a category that the society feel uncomfortable with. The reading comes up with its conclusion from the investigation with 60 participants to come up with the argument. The respondents are categorized into classes, namely, working-class and middle-class backgrounds to reflect the importance of class in the tussle for sexual citizenship in the perspective of the United Kingdom Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Taylor 588). It further states that while parenting is different from matters of collaborating they are associated with, not least in the methods that such strategies themselves appear relations, offering new potentials for public appreciation, legitimate option, and access to well-being services. The subject of money matters is important, resourcing – or repudiating – numerous prospects whereas class and sexuality also interconnect in the structure of ‘normal’, ‘ordinary’ residents now ready for inclusion (Taylor 589). Moreover, the article’s arguments are based on the numerous interviewees who experienced fluctuating topography uncertainty. The benefits of middle-class parents are re-constituted and re-embedded in altering legal perspectives (Taylor 593). To sum it up, the section clearly illustrates the argument and explanations related to it.

Rapoport and Rapoport agreed that there are five types of diversity in a contemporary family, these are: Organisational, Cultural (ethnic), Class, Cohort and Life Course. Organisational diversity refers to kinship patterns and the domestic division of labour, adding to this it is also the structure of the family-whether it is reconstituted or

Talcott Parsons’ (1956, pg. 309) believed that “the nuclear family is a social system” which consists of a straight married couple and around two to five children, “can be distinguished, and does function as a significant group” (1956, pg.308). Parsons believed that the family benefitted society in ways such as the teachings of gender roles and the overall structure of society: the male going to work and being the breadwinner, while the wife stays at home and cooks and nurtures the children. After the Second World War, the nuclear family was the most common type of family making the structure easily “distinguishable”. However, when we look at the postmodern society, we can see that there are many different types of families nowadays such

New Right- was introduced in the 19th and 20th century, it was usually referred as Thatcherism after Margaret Thatcher and also influenced by Milton Friedman. In the 1980’s, the new right theory was developed to support the idea of traditional nuclear family and its values which are best for society (SOTF, 2009). The new right theorists believe that children should have a secure home with married mother and father, they recommend the women should stay home to look after the children instead of working outside (Revisesociology, 2014).

Many further studies into the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy and parenthood, such as Moffitt’s 2002 “Teen-aged mothers in contemporary Britain” conclude that “young mothers encountered more socio-economic deprivation, had significantly less human and social capital, and experienced more mental health difficulties. Their partners were less reliable and supportive, both economically and emotionally, and were more antisocial and abusive” (Moffitt, 2002). This perpetuates the idea that having children does not alleviate poverty or the conditions of it in any way, and in fact shifts the responsibility on to the individual by implying that these women don’t have the motivation to aspire towards more, and delay pregnancy for that reason. What studies such as this one does is that it ignores the idea that pregnancy can actually be used effectively

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

The social deviance that interests me is single parenting, one who chose to have a child out of wed-lock. The stigma attached to being a single parent is rising anew. Many media commentators blame America's uptrend in violence and other social problems on family breakdown - on single parents. This stigma is based on myths and stereotypes that have been promoted by half-truths and, often, by prejudiced viewpoints. Many in our society still regard single parenthood as a unwelcome status. I as a single parent myself, I am often admired, but at the same time looked upon with pity, disgust, sympathy, and perhaps with uneasiness. In defense of single parent families I would argue to