Is the Nuclear Family in Decline?

Nuclear Family- “social units comprising a man and a woman living together with their children, nuclear families are often contrasted with extended families.”

The first school of thought on this matter is Marxism. Marxism stands for family and community values – though not necessarily the values of the nuclear family. Therefore, Marxism agrees that the Nuclear Family is in decline. The ideals behind Marxism state that: the lower-class ‘workers’ are employed by the middle and upper class ‘owners’ and that the workers are encouraged to have children and large families to continue providing cheap labour. One may argue that this point is where the nuclear family ceases to exist, as family size exceeds the usual “cereal packet” family size. However the roles within the family and the community are similar to a functionalist perspective – the children work with their father if they are male, and their mother if they are female, learning to play the roles they will play later in life.

The second school of thought is Functionalism. Unlike Marxism, this school of thought argues that everything happens or exists for a purpose. In this case, the Nuclear Family, is functional, and is backed up by “Murdock’s Claim” (1949) that states: “the nuclear family is universal. It provides both support and sanctuary in the ‘real world’”. And as Tolcott Parsons states: “the nuclear family is the best type of family to help the community.” The nuclear families functions are as follows –

It provides a haven for its inhabitants to return to whenever needed.
It is completely separate from ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

It provides a haven for its inhabitants to return to whenever needed.
It is completely separate from the real world, though it is part of the community, it functions perfectly fine on its own without any interference from the outside world.
Guarantees social stability and cohesion.
The cornerstone of society.
The nuclear “cereal packet” family presents a rosy picture of the family for the rest of the community and the world to see and understand.

However, Functionalism does recognise that family made me made up of relations of adopted nature – as included in Murdock's claim: “+1 or more children, own or adopted” unlike many other schools of thought which exclude extended families, reconstituted families, lone parent families and divorced parents with equal custody of any children as part of the nuclear family. Neither do they recognise families made up of parents and children that have been previously married.

The final school of thought is feminism. Like Marxism feminism agrees that the nuclear family is in decline, due to changes in the roles of women, and the power men have/had over them. With the power of women increasing nearly everyday, one cant help but realise that it is because of this equality that the number of women who work full time, who aren’t married and who are only cohabiting is on the increase. Up until recently – helped by the writings of Ann Oakley – women were pressurised into believing that their exploited position was “natural and normal” by those who held power – men. Until feminism came into its own women were put down and exploited by the power and oppression of men. With the changing times came changes in roles. Many women work full time – with no dependence on men or the need for a male household head. With this newfound confidence to work, and generally do what they wanted to do, many women chose not to have children, and focus on their careers.

As well as feminism playing a major role, history has taught women that without having children and having a large family, the lack of medical knowledge and disease that was rife and the time, killed many children before they had the chance to grow up. With this improvement in medical technology and understanding, came the need for smaller families. Around the same time feminism became popular, the contraceptive pill and family planning became readily available, so women could chose to have a family, how many children etc. Team that with the new No Fault divorce laws and many women could easily get out of unhappy marriages, and schools of thought do not recognise re-married and divorced women/mothers/parents as part of a nuclear family.

From looking at these schools of thought one can see a distinct pattern to all the findings. The nuclear family may be functional, but in the “real world” with the modern society it becomes almost impossible to find many nuclear families. With the new laws and divorce and remarriage becoming easier everyday, one can’t help but imagine if there are going to be many nuclear families left soon.

One must agree with the feminist and Marxist point of view on this matter. With the changing times and the changing society, unless the ideals of the nuclear family is revised to include such members as step and half children, re married mothers or fathers etc. then before long there is not going to be many families which fit the bill in any society.

Bibliography:

“The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology”

4th Edition

Nicholas Abercrombie, Stephen Hill, Bryan S Turner

Published by the Penguin Group – yr 2000

“A-level and AS-level Sociology”

Stephen R Harris

Longman Revision Guides – Longman grp 1991

Microsoft Encarta 2000

Microsoft

The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology – “Nuclear Families”