The structure of a family has been divided into a nuclear and joint family, where in the case of the former is a small unit where the family is composed of traditionally married parents of opposite sex with their adopted or biological children in a state of conjugal harmony. A Nuclear family is a concept came into existence around Industrial Revolution in U.K and symbolized a more self-sufficient way of leading a family. The requirements of a traditional joint family was catered by the emerging social institutions and their strengthening grip on the society like the schools, factories and healthcare clinics. Since the last 200-300 years the society of UK has witnessed a massive change in the structural elements of family due to a number of factors like urbanization resulted from the mass flow of workers in the city (Bales and Parsons 2014). The institution of family was traditionally supported by law and customs and prohibited the cohabitation of gay or same sex partners, single parenthood. Family served a set of values in the U.K society and was essentially interdependent with other social institutions like government, church and religion and educational institutes. It is only in the last three decades that the notion of family structure has evolved and has come to accumulate gay and lesbian lifestyle as found documented in data. The functionalist theory enumerated that in a nuclear family, the female gender had the burden of extending the family and the duties within the periphery of household whereas the male member was responsible to look after the need of the household (Cooke 2017).
The structure of a nuclear family was constructed to adjust to the shifting trends of a modernized society and formed a significant part of the industrialized working class of British society. According to Parsons, nuclear family emerged to fit into the complex network of an industrialized society and satiated the tow core functions, Primary Socialization which entails educating the children about the norms and values pertaining to society. The second function is the stabilization of adult personalities that is the emotional security and affinity that an adult gains from the marital harmony in between two adults. The couple derives emotional stability from each other in a particularly secluded society, aloof from their kins. They can indulge on their childish whims within the periphery of the family which is unlikely to take place at the wider context, i.e. society. The functionalist view of nuclear family was universal and desirable for it has the potential to satisfy sexual urges, to provide for the socialization of children who would evolve as responsible human beings (Bales and Parsons 2014). Traditionally, it was considered the main purpose of raising a family. Parsons is of the opinion that nuclear family is the best fit accounting to two reasons, geographical mobility and the presence of father figure. The latter will provide the children with the best paradigm to follow in order to evolve as a better individual. The functionalist view of nuclear family was once considered desirable because it fulfilled the elements for social progress like sexual, reproductive, economic and educational elements (Katz 2014). It is well argued that the functions of family are intricately bound with that of the society.
However, as far as data has revealed the proportion of traditional nuclear family structure has reduced from 38% in 1961 to 25% in 1997. The Marxist feminist theory has been responsible for constructively criticizing the functionalist theory of nuclear family which assigns stereotyped gender roles to a traditional family system. According to Marxist feminist perspective, the functionalist theory has laid functions that are inherently oppressive to the women who are bound to accept the subservient roles within a nuclear structure. They viewed the structure of a nuclear family a culmination of patriarchal authority and which hardly leaves any scope for the empowerment of women. Reading of Marxism feminism is necessary to understand how family functions as an institution of power and exploitation rather than shared interests and love for each other. Nuclear family quintessentially assigns power and dominance to the male member establishing a reign of monopoly from which the male members benefit tremendously by oppressing the women. According to theorist Diane Feeley, the nuclear family structure systemizes the children so as to place them within a class-based society (Giddens et al. 2016).
According to collected data, cohabitation is the fastest growing family in UK since the last two years. In fact, the figure has doubled from 1.5 million families to 3.3 million within a span of mere ten years (Giddens et al. 2016). Many western countries are slowly adapting a newly interwoven fabric of family, the change is primarily influenced by marriage patterns in U.K. this has been a result of number of factors, namely secularization, co-habitation, and the rise of liberal feminist. In U.K, secularization has reduced the number of church marriages, the introduction of Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, has enabled homosexual marriages in UK and Wales. It was responsible for a fair distribution of respect and dignity from the society towards individual irrespective of their sexual orientation and inclinations. According to government data, there were 4,850 with a stark decrease in religious ceremonies along with 2,411 same sex couples who chose to enter into marriage from civil partnership and consequently this has led to a major restructuring of the nuclear family system (Giddens et al. 2016). Child adaptation by same sex couples has increased rapidly from 8.4 to 9.6% (Katz 2014). This would have been impossible to achieve without the active collaboration of agencies that ensure for same adoption and placement of children within these families. The acute rise of divorce rates in UK has simultaneously resulted in re-constituted family structure which account for approximately 10% of families with children, mainly composed of Black Caribbean and African families (Winter, Forest and Sénac 2017). Many sociologists trace the reason to ethnic differences in between heterogeneous couples and changing social norms (Masterson and Hoobler 2015). Intermingling in between two cultures is common in the country leading to diversity and currently, there are three million members of ethnic minority groups. The ethnic minority families form an integral part of the British race relations and follow diverse lifestyles.
The change in the structure of family has deep-rooted consequences in the society, for instance, the change in the labour equations within a nuclear family. In UK, the secularization of society has given women enormous amount of power over their household, contrary to the Functionalist’s notion of a woman’s position in a household. Within the span of twenty years starting from 1930s, women were granted with power over the domains of fertility, gender roles and contraception. The right to abortion to preserve the health of mother was introduced in 1920 and from 1960s onwards Feminist have argued that patriarchal family and dominance is most intricately rooted in nuclear family structure (Connell 2014). However, in same-sex marriages, problems stemming from unequal division of labour due to gender roles are drastically low. Reports have shown that within these family structures, the labour is divided into an egalitarian way where each partner equally took household responsibilities unlike that of nuclear family. The labor is divided varying on the resources of each partner. Income patterns had little role to play in a lesbian household and depended more on the education level of the partners (Barrett 2014). Slowly from segregated conjugal roles, where men had very little part to play in domestic chaos, evolved symmetrical roles, where both the members of family cooperatively took part in decision making and assumed immense importance for providing women employment, better and flexible education system. The principle role of family has become socialization and as a result of which women empowerment became widespread and crucial for the progression of a society. Nuclear family has given way to a reconstituted family order. Breaking the broken norms of nuclear family, today families are based round changing gender roles, decline in fertility rates, contrary to Foucault’s theory who argues that sex played a fundamental role in bourgeoisie like blood played for aristocracy (Parpart and Stichter 2016).
Additionally, the distinguished rise in the structure of step-family which is a fetched result of divorces in UK, this further complicates the role of the parents defying the old norms of nuclear family system. Step-families are regarded as incomplete an institution in stark contrast to an idealized nuclear family and within this structure there is an absolute lack of stated cultural and social norm for the children to abide by. It depends on the parents how many times they might want to visit their children, or with whom the children who be kept. Step-parents have relatively fewer responsibilities towards their children and this has increased their reliance on institutionalizations (Masterson and Hoobler 2015). Within these family structures, there is no clear definition regarding responsibilities and supervision of the step-parents towards their children. A typical ambiguous relationship resulting from cultural values and backgrounds persist within these families, the same gives rise to a number of conflicts within the framework of a family. In UK, the disappearance of nuclear family and rise of step-family, or lone parent have impacted on the emotional stability and education of children at a higher rate. As Households Below Average Income statistics reveal, poverty has a significant impact on lone parent families and their ways of upbringing. Today, children are more prone to lone parenting, step-family, and half-siblings (Kalmijn 2015). Quantitative data has found out that these children are more exposed to behavioural problems, performing average in educational institutes, and showing depressive symptoms than those who hail from intact family structure (Hetherington and Arasteh 2014). The diversity in family structure has changed parent-child relationship from unilateral to bilateral and family relations have verged towards becoming more vulnerable and self-satiating.
Another interesting area that researchers have looked into is the origin and rise of ethnically diverse family structures in UK which dates back to the arrival of West Indians in the 1950s. Inter-ethnic partnerships have led to a range of complex minority groups like mixed white and black Caribbean, Pakistani, Chinese and others. The legislative framework of UK has accepted the array of ethnic minorities and groups present there. Due to immigration, the government has been forced to encourage and promote policies that would support social congruity and fight with discrimination. The rise in ethnically diverse families can be contributed to the post-war period, the migration of slaves, the immigration from Caribbean being the largest. Presently these families are in a vulnerable position in UK with less number of elected representatives in the government. However, the government has failed to address the economic discrepancies persisting within the families resulting in divorces, lone parenting, emotional breakdown and changes in the labour pattern to cope with inadequate resources to sustain the family. In 21st century UK, emergence of different family patterns is significant. Same sex marriages are today dependent on heterosexual relationships for children and left a significant effect on the psychology of the child. It essentially changes their gender conceptions and makes them question gender stereotyping theories of the Functionalists (Connell 2014). Increasing number of homosexual marriages has replaced the comparatively stable structure and reliability that nuclear families offered to the society during the start of Industrialism. The capitalistic culture had been an integral part of nuclear family, both serving each other in a mutually inclusive manner. Nuclear family with heterogeneous couples used to be little units of consumers that have evolved resulting in single-parent families, remarriages therefore resulting in extended families (Kerbo 2017).
UK has come a long way since the days of bias and discrimination, where the idea of nuclear family revolved around parents involving the opposite genders. Reasoning and a decline religious fanaticism has also paved the way for the restructuring of family (Barrett 2014). Furthermore, in the study of social sciences and the evolution of society freeing itself from the shackles of regressive notions, media plays an important role. Homosexuality has been endorsed publicly, from films, media, commercials and magazines which further provided an individual to break free (Barrett 2014).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the number of factors like secularism, rise of LGBT community, women empowerment have resulted in the disappearance of nuclear family resulting in reconstituted family, lone parenting and homosexual families. The rise of LGBT studies and community support has also acted as a catalyst in re-organizing the typical nuclear family system. In a fragmented society nuclear family system is a thing of the bygone era, along with it economic stability in a family, systematic upbringing of the children. Today, scholars attribute to the rise of feminism and important figures like Kate Millet, Andrea Dworkin and Robin Morgan for the dismantling of traditional nuclear family system, and orthodoxies and exploitation of female labor by the males
Reference List:
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Cooke, L., 2017. Pathology of Patriarchy and Family Inequalities.
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