Family diversity.

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Family Diversity

In modern Britain post WW2, the amount of the diverse families has grown due to changes over time.

The invention of the pill, allowing both men and women to file for divorce without having to prove adultery and even religion not playing such an important part in peoples lives meant that changes in the family structure became more acceptable.

Before this time it was the norm to be a part of a nuclear family.

The nuclear family; the father financially supporting the family and the mother (have to be married) looking after their children and their home, functionalists argued provided all the necessary factors needed in life.

However more family structures have become overtime. Reconstituted and lone parent families are becoming more common, gay and lesbian families are becoming more acceptable in today´s society and in Asian areas around Britain, extended families are also growing. Even people who are unable to have children themselves, adoption or fostering is more available due to the decline in orphanages and is looked at as another family structure in society.

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Rapoport and Rapoport studied what they believed to be the 5 elements of diversity in Britain.

Organisational diversity; different kinship patterns and different roles in family structures such as dual-working families was one of the elements. Culture diversity; peoples religious beliefs and ethnic background was another element they believed to cause family diversity, as a specific religion will class certain members of the family as one role and this may differ from even neighbouring families because of religious differences.

They found that depending on age of people in families also altered the structures of the family. An example of ...

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