However today’s government policy is generally aimed at ensuring that the family unit does not overwhelm the rights of the individual in it, so legislation has been aimed at improving the social and economic position of women. For example in 1998 the Labour government introduced the “New Deal” which aimed at encouraging single mothers to return back to work. Also New Labour does recognise the change in families’ especially one-parent families, which shows that we are becoming more diverse as a whole and that the New Right views are more in decline.
Statistics show that marriage is on the decrease whilst co-habitation, divorce, births outside marriage, one-parent families and reconstituted families are on the increase. The New Right are alarmed at these statistics as they believe that they indicate a crisis which will inevitably lead to moral breakdown and increasing anti-social behaviour. However postmodernists and feminists see the statistics as indicators of greater choice in our private lives and as evidence that there is a national rejection of patriarchal family arrangements proving that the traditional nuclear family is on the decline whilst other types of families are more widespread, acceptable and diverse.
It is now widely accepted that the nuclear family is no longer not just the only way to organise a family and its living arrangements. R.N. and R. Rapoport (1982) are very critical of the functionalist and the New Right views that the nuclear family is the only ideal way to arrange a family and that this is typical. Britain’s family life is characterised by diversity and even back in 1978 only 20 per cent of families fitted the nuclear ideal. Nowadays this diversity is much more acceptable and this reflects Britain’s changing society.
However it is important not to dismiss the nuclear family altogether as one-parent households may have evolved out of nuclear families and may evolve back into nuclear families in the future. However other types of families such as the one-parent family are of much growing importance.
One-parent families are on the increase with the number of one-parent families in the UK with dependent children tripling from 2 per cent in 1961 to 7 per cent in 1998. One-parent families make up 25 per cent of all families and it is estimated that a third to a half of all children will spend some time in a one-parent family. Women head a massive ninety per cent of one-parent families with 60 per cent being ex-married may this be due to divorce, separation of the death of a spouse. However single parents who have never been married are on the major increase, with most of these being ex-cohabitees. Teenage mothers make up a mere 3 per cent of lone parents with the average age being 34.
The New Right believe that the children of one parent families are more likely to under achieve academically, be delinquent, lack self-discipline and can be emotionally disturbed all because they have not got a firm father figure in their lives. However children living in the ideal nuclear family may get less love and attention than children in one-parent families as parents may be arguing causing stress to the children, feminist sociologists see the problems that the New Right blame on one-parent families as problems of the nuclear family ideal itself. The nuclear ideal leads to one-parent families being negatively labelled by authority figures and they may also be scapegoated for problems that are more likely to be the result of things such as unemployment and poverty. The New Right also do not see that one-parent families manage to bring up their children very successfully or that they might have had to choose to live in a one-parent family and prefer to do so due to things beyond their control such as domestic violence or harassment.
One-parent families may also be on the increase due to the increase in cultural diversity. In 2000 Essex University carried out research which indicated that just 39 per cent of British-born Afro-Caribbean adults under the age of 60 were in a formal marriage compared to 60 per cent of white adults; also this group is the most likely to inter-marry. This means that very few Afro-Caribbean’s are married to fellow Afro-Caribbean’s. Just one quarter of Afro-Caribbean children live with two back parents. Also the tradition of women living independently from the children’s father in the Afro-Caribbean community means that half of Caribbean children live in one-parent families.
The Post-modern family is characterised by diversity, variation and instability. Now women are more independent and no longer aspire for marriage and children who create the nuclear ideal, as there are now acceptable alternative lifestyles which women are happy to turn to and liberate them. Also in the post-modern society men’s roles are no longer so clear cut, they are no longer the dominating bread winner of the family as equal pay and opportunities for women mean that women can aspire to the men’s levels. However there is no doubt that the nuclear family is still very common but the major increase of one-parent families and other family types indicates that there is a definite drift away from the nuclear ideal.
So although the nuclear family is still around, common and popular in Britain it has had to be adapted to fit in with the changes both in society and in the home. Britain is a multi-cultural society with many different races, religions and sexualities which means that there are more diverse families which people accept and the today’s families are mostly typifies by diversity.