families and households

There are some important people whom we have to remember for our first exam in Sociology about Families

Rapoport.
1982. 5 types of diversity:
1)organizational -> differences in the way families are structured
2)cultural -> differences arise from different cultures’ norms and values
3)class ->different views by different parts of society (e.g. middle class and working class havew different views on relations and socializing children)
4)life course ->diversity caused by different stages people have reached
5)cohort ->diversity created by the historical periods the family have lived through ( e.g. unemployment leads to a smaller family structure

1978. Dual career marriage. Costs and strains for women when attempting to balance two roles: family and career.
Two types of the ideas of dual career marriages:
1)Old-style: traditional stereotypes of wives’ roles and thereby as employment rates of women rise, divorce rates also rise because women can not balance these two roles; children of working mothers perform badly at school
2)New-style: dual career marriage is not necessarily finishes with divorces and the net gain in satisfaction for most dual career couples is greater than the perceived losses. However women have to overcome many difficulties such as stress and strong stereotypes with wives’ roles.


Chester.
1985. The rise of the neo-conventional family.
Even if there is a growth in family diversity, nuclear family remains dominant family structure and he argues that: 
- most adults still marry and have children
- most children are rared by their real parents
- most people live as a married couple


Wilmott and Young
1973. The symmetrical family. 4 stages:
1)Pre industrial: family is a unit of production; home and work are not separated
2)The early industial: the family’s economic function is taken by industry, the appearance of differences in husband’s and wife’s duties, large kin networks
3)Symmetrical: nuclear family, home centred and privatized, more equal roles of men and women, more widespread among middle class. The appearance of stratified diffusion when ideas of norms and values are spread through the class system from top to bottom
4)The Asymmetrical: stratified diffusion continues; upper class will set the trends for ideal family life; work-centred rather than home centred

1957. Family and Kinship in East London 
Traditional division of labour gives an opportunity to men and women create a new kind of companionship. Joint conjugal roles are spread; working class couples have relations have more similar styles f relationship with middle class.

Parsons.
   - The essential functions of the family:
-primary socialization
-stabilization of adult personalities
   - Nuclear family is the best fit for industrial society
   - Industrial nuclear family is isolated from its kinship network and the main reason for it is a loss of functions performed by the family, e.g. schools have taken educational function.

Kessler and Mckenna.
Criticism of Parsons: he excludes other types of the family such as childless, single-parent,same sex. Parsons says that they are only exceptions.

Bowlby

It is necessary to have a female caretaker as maternal deprivation affects mental health of the infant

Rutter
Children need to be with their natural parents and caretaker should be a female
(to be continued)