Fiona Mc Allistor findings show that an increasing number of women do not have children and that 1 in 5 will remain childlessness. The report shows that through qualitative research method that involved in depth semi-structured interviews of 176 childless women aged 35-49 showed this was due to not having maternal instincts, not interested or just having high standards of parenting. It also showed that women in their early 40’s end up childless without making a decision at all.
Another statistic that is rising is stay at home dads (SAHD’s) this is not a new phenomena as a few hundred years ago people would die of disease and be forced into the situation, what is new in today’s society is the element of choice. Fathers are the main carers in1 in 20 households. In the 1998 supporting families social policy was to help and encourage fathers to play an increasing role in their families. In April 2003 paternity leave was given for two weeks paid leave of the amount of £200, and 13 weeks of un-paid leave during the first 5 years of the child’s life. Government critics say this is no where near enough, which I agree.
If we look at gay families and how they fit into society we can still see it is being debated. Callahan 1997 ‘Gay and Lesbians households should still be classed as family’s….remarriage would be a popular opinion if available’. Callahan states if there is a permanent shared commitment and shared kinship bonding and nurturing of a child, that it should be considered as a family.
There is also an increasing numbers of reconstituted family’s according to the 1991 General Household Survey four fifths of men and three quarters of women divorce before they are 35 and re-marry within ten years.
Burgoyne and Clarke 1982 suggests that reconstituted families may find advantages in having more than two parental figures in their children’s lives, and believe that step-siblings gain from living together. The Sheffield report also states that successful reconstituted families felt a great sense of achievement.
Another degree in diversity is cultural diversity. These are differences in the lifestyles of families of different ethnic origins and of different religious beliefs.
Oakley 1982 stated that British Cypriots have just as strong traditional family ties as there Cypriot counterparts, it showed that there relationships didn’t change even though living in a British society. In the National Survey of Ethnic Minorities it showed that British Asians are more likely to marry and earlier than the British, this is probably due to their stronger religious beliefs in marriage. Once again living in a British society has not effected their beliefs. The survey also found that 90% of South Asian families with children had married parents, compared to the British this was only 75%. Roger Ballard 1982-1990 examined south Asian families in Britain and compared them to families in south Asia. He found that both were traditionally based around men and were mainly patrifocal units. The changes that had taken place in British Asian families were that the women were increasingly working and that couples expect more independence from there kin. Borrow 1982 found that matrifocal family units of west Indians living in Britain could rely less upon on the support of female kin compared to there west Indian counterparts. This is mainly due to the fact that the sufficient kin was not there to be called upon as they were often still in the Caribbean. Therefore they made stronger bonds between the Caribbean community that they lived near.
Another element of diversity from the rapaports, is social class. Young and Wilmott 1950 (Family and Kinship in east London) studied the working class area of Bethnal green. They found that children after marriage would stay in the same area. It also showed a close contact between female relatives, 50% of women had seen their mothers the previous day, over 80% the previous week. Bethnal green showed that the working class had strong kinship bonds. Although we must take into consideration of the date of which it was undertaken the 1950’s. This is before diversity had became the norm, would this still count for today’s working class if we included all forms of diversity?. To make the statement more accurate I will compare at Young and Wilmotts Bethnal green to there survey on Woodford a mainly middle class area as it was conducted at the same time. In Woodford 30% of couples had only seen of their parents in the last 24hours whereas compared to their Bethnal green counterparts, 43% had seen their parents in 24 hours. When families got near retirement the bond became very strong. If we look at Bells survey on Swansea middle class in 1968 we can see that even though they had less contact with extended family’s day to day, they still kept good quality bonds due to high levels of contact between telephone and letter. John Scott 1982-1991 looked at the upper class and how their families had wide extended kinship networks. This social group often has complete social closure, this means they do not converse with any other class than themselves. This is often results in intermarriage and interconnections between other upper class families.
If we look at a ‘normal’ life cycle it usually involves birth-schooling-further education-employment-marriage-children-retirement- and finally death. A post modernist view such as Gitten and Barnardes 1990-Present states that the life cycle involves foster homes, unemployment, travelling, homo-sexual relationships, surrogacy. The variety is endless in today’s society.
The rapaports 1982 also states that there is diversity between families depending on what region they live. If looked at a inner city family compared to a rural family. The rural familys have more patrifocal family units, the inner city has a higher range of single parents and family diversity.
The Neo-conventional views stated by Chester 1985 are that the changes in families are only minor, he argues that in 1985, 30%of households consisted of two parents plus children, but 49% of people lived in such households. Even though that the nuclear family has declined over half still live in such households.
Although Chester made a point to show how nuclear families are still alive, we can look at surveys between 1981 and 1998 that show a decrease from 59% of people living in parent and children house holds to 49%. Reports also show an increase in single parent households. This that Britain is still distancing itself from the nuclear family and that diversity in families is set to increase.