nuclear family essay-question

e) Use material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm.


2B item -A popular image of the family has been the 'cereal packet' nuclear family norm of a married couple and two children who are the couple's biological offspring. The husband is the main breadwinner and the wife is primarily concerned with housework and childcare.It could be argued that this nuclear family is no longer the norm. A number of changes have taken place, such as the rise in the number of same-sex couples and of lone parents. these have resulted in families becoming much more diverse.However Somerville (2000) argues that these changes are exaggerated. The apparent diversity of family life is based on a snapshot at any one time and, if a life cycle approach is taken, many people have a fairly conventional experience of the family.



Nuclear family is a traditional family that consists of a husband and a wife and one or more children, which can be either own or adopted. In such family husband is usually a breadwinner, while wife is responsible for the housework - the so-called 'cereal packet' family (Leach, 1967). Murdock (1949) argued that nuclear family is a 'universal social grouping' which can be found in all societies. However, as the article suggests 'a number of changes have taken place' and the family became more diverse in the recent years.

Firstly, with more and more people entering the higher education and becoming more independent from parental control, there has been a rise in cohabitation (non-married couples living together). Also, the social attitudes have changed and cohabitation is no longer sin as 'living in sin'.

Besides, changing in economic position of women and individualisation (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim) allowed women to divorce and raise their children in lone-parent families. As the statistics suggests, the majority of divorce petitions were brought by women - around 70% (Population Trends), as well as the majority of lone-parent families headed by women (over 90% in 2006).

Government and social policies have also had an effect on the family structure. With several laws and acts, such as the Divorce Reform Act of 1969, divorce was made much easier. Civil Partnership Act of 2005 has also allowed a new type of family - same-sex family- to develop.
Moreover, Young&Willmott suggested new stage of family - the symmetrical family, where the conjugal roles were increasingly similar. However, this was critisized by feminists, who argued that women are still responsible for cooking and cleaning.

Even though there is a lot of evidence for the decline in nuclear families, New Right perspectives suggests that this type of family is the only one which is acceptable for the society. Dennis and Erdos argued that lone-parent families fail to provide an adequate socialisation and young people may be brought up anti-social and irresponsible.
Furthermore, as the article suggest, the changes in family structure may have been exaggerated. O'Brien argues that living in nuclear family is the stage that most people go through in their lives. This may also be supported by evidence: the majority of British children in 2006 (around 76%) lived in such families.

Summarising what was said before, there was indeed an increase in family diversity, which creates a concern whether the nuclear family is still a 'norm'. But it is difficult to judge, as even with the increase in other family types, the nuclear family still remains the most common type of family, supported by both Functionalist and New Right perspectives.