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Let's explore how family diversity is seen from a sociological perspective.
- We will discuss the ways families have become more diverse.
- We will explore how the organisation, age, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and the different stages of the life cycle have played a role in family diversity.
- How has sociology engaged with this emerging family diversity?
Family diversity in sociology
We'll first look at how family diversity is defined and studied in sociology.
Family diversity, in the contemporary context, refers to all the different forms of families and family life that exist in society and to the characteristics that differentiate them from one another. Families can vary according to aspects regarding gender, ethnicity, sexuality, marital status, age, and personal dynamics.
Examples of different family forms are single-parent families, stepfamilies, or same-sex families.
Previously, the term 'family diversity' was used to define the different variations and deviations of the traditional nuclear family. It was used in a way that suggested that the nuclear family was superior to all other forms of family life. This was reinforced by the visibility of the conventional family in the media and in advertisements. Edmund Leach (1967) started to call it 'the cereal packet image of the family' because it appeared on boxes of household products such as cereals, building the concept of the nuclear family as the ideal family form.
Fig. 1 - The nuclear family used to be considered the best type of family. This has changed since different family forms became more visible and accepted in society.
As different family forms became more visible and accepted in society, sociologists stopped making hierarchical distinctions between them, and now use the term 'family diversity' for the many equally colourful ways of family life.
Types of family diversity
What are the different types of family diversity?
The most important British researchers of family diversity were Robert and Rhona Rapoport (1982). They drew attention to the many ways families defined themselves in British society in the 1980s. According to the Rapoports, there are five elements in which family forms in the UK can differ from each other. We can add one more element to their collection, and present the six most important differentiating factors of family life in contemporary Western society.
Organisational diversity
Families differ in their structure, household type, and the division of labour within the household.
According to Judith Stacey (1998), women stood behind the organisational diversification of the family. Women started to reject the traditional role of housewives, and they fought for a more equal division of domestic labour. Women also became more ready to get a divorce if they were unhappy in their marriages and either remarry or recouple in cohabitation later on. This led to new family structures like the reconstituted family, which refers to a family made up of 'step' relatives. Stacey also identified a new type of family, which she called the ‘divorce-extended family’, where people are connected through separation rather than marriage.
Examples of organisational family diversity
Reconstituted family:
The structure of a reconstituted family is often built by lone parents re-partnering or remarrying. This can provide many different organisational forms within a family, including step-parents, step-siblings, and even step-grandparents.
Dual-worker family:
In dual-worker families, both parents have full-time jobs outside the home. Robert Chester (1985) calls this type of family a 'neo-conventional family'.
Symmetrical family:
Family roles and responsibilities are shared equally in a symmetrical family. Peter Willmott and Michael Young came up with the term in 1973.
Class diversity
Sociologists have found a few trends that characterise family formation by social class.
Division of work
According to Willmott and Young (1973), middle-class families are more likely to divide work equally, both outside and inside the home. They are more symmetrical than working-class families.
Children and parenting
Working-class mothers tend to have their first child at a much younger age than middle- or upper-class women. This means that the likelihood of more generations living in the same household is higher for working-class families.
Annette Lareau (2003) claims that middle-class parents participate in their children's lives more actively while working-class parents let their children grow more spontaneously. It is because of the more parental attention that middle-class children gain a sense of entitlement, which often helps them achieve higher success in education and in their careers than working-class kids.
The Rapoports found that middle-class parents were more school-focused when it came to their children’s socialisation than working-class parents.
Family network
According to the Rapoports, working-class families were more likely to have a strong connection to the extended family, which provided a support system. Wealthier families were more likely to move away from their grandparents, aunts and uncles and be more isolated from the extended family.
Fig. 2 - The Raporports maintained that working-class families have stronger connections to their extended families.
The New Right argues that a new class has emerged, ‘the underclass’, consisting of lone-parent families that are mostly led by unemployed, welfare-dependent mothers.
Age diversity
Different generations have different life experiences, which can affect family formation. From one generation to the next there have been significant changes in:
The average age at marriage.
The size of a family and the number of children born and raised.
The acceptable family structure and gender roles.
People born in the 1950s might expect marriages to be built on women caring for the home and children, while the men work outside the home. They also might expect the marriage to last for a lifetime.
People born 20-30 years later might challenge the traditional gender roles in the household and are more open-minded about divorce, separation, remarriage, and other non-traditional relationship forms.
The increase in the average lifespan and the possibility for people to enjoy an active old age, has influenced family formation as well.
People live longer, so it is more likely that they get a divorce and remarry.
People might delay childbearing and have fewer children.
Grandparents might be able and willing to participate in their grandchildren’s lives more than previously.
Ethnic and cultural diversity
There has been a growth in the number of interracial couples and transnational families and households. The religious beliefs of an ethnic community can have a huge influence on whether it is acceptable to cohabit outside of marriage, to have children out of wedlock, or to get a divorce.
Secularisation has transformed many trends, but there still are cultures where the nuclear family is the only, or at least the most widely accepted family form.
Different cultures have different patterns for family formation in terms of:
The size of the family and the number of children in the household.
Living with older generations in the household.
Marriage type - for example, arranged marriages are common practice in many non-Western cultures.
The division of labour - for example, in the UK, Black women are more likely to have full-time jobs alongside their families than White or Asian women (Dale et al., 2004).
Roles within the family - according to the Rapoports, South Asian families tend to be more traditional and patriarchal, while African Caribbean families are more likely to be matrifocal.
Matrifocal families are extended families that are focused on women (a female grandparent, parent, or child).
Life cycle diversity
People have diversity in family experiences depending on what stage they are in their lives.
Pre-family
Young adults leave their parents’ homes to start their own nuclear families and build their own households. They go through a geographical, residential and social separation by leaving the area, the house and the friend group(s) they grew up in.
Family
Family formation is an ever-evolving stage, which provides different experiences for adults.
People from different social backgrounds form different family structures.
Post-family
There has been a rise in the number of adults who return to their parental homes. The reasons behind this phenomenon of 'boomerang kids' can be the lack of work opportunities, personal debt (from student loans, for example), non-affordable housing options, or a relationship separation such as divorce.
Diversity in sexual orientation
There are many more same-sex couples and families. Since 2005, same-sex partners could enter a civil partnership in the UK. Since 2014, same-sex partners can marry each other, which has caused a rise in the visibility and social acceptance of same-sex families.
Children in same-sex families may be adopted, from a former (heterosexual) relationship, or come from fertility treatments.
Fig. 3 - Same-sex partners can have children through adoption or through fertility treatments.
Judith Stacey (1998) points out that having a child is the most difficult for homosexual men, as they have no direct access to reproduction. According to Stacey, homosexual men are often offered older or (in certain ways) disadvantaged children for adoption, which means that homosexual men are bringing up some of society’s most needy children.
Examples of family diversity in family forms
Let's now look at some examples of family diversity by looking at different family forms and structures.
A traditional nuclear family, with two parents and a couple of dependent children.
Reconstituted families or step-families, the result of divorces and remarriages. There could be children from both the new and the old families in a step-family.
Same-sex families are led by same-sex couples and may or may not include children from adoption, fertility treatments, or previous partnerships.
Divorce-extended families are families where the relatives are connected by divorce, rather than marriage. For example, ex-in-laws, or the new partners of a former couple.
Single-parent families or lone-parent families are led by a mother or a father without a partner.
Matrifocal families are focused on female family members of the extended family, such as a grandmother or a mother.
A single person household consists of one person, usually either a young unmarried man or woman or an older divorcee or widower. There is a growing number of single-person households in the West.
LAT (living apart together) families are families where the two partners live in a committed relationship but under separate addresses.
Extended families
Beanpole families are vertically extended families that involve three or more generations in the same household.
Horizontally extended families include a high number of members from the same generation, such as uncles and aunts, living in the same household.
Modified extended families are the new norm, according to Gordon (1972). They keep in touch without very frequent personal contact.
According to Willmott (1988), there are three different types of the modified extended family:
- Locally extended: a few nuclear families living close to each other, but not under the same roof.
- Dispersed-extended: less frequent contact between families and relatives.
- Attenuated-extended: young couples separating from their parents.
Sociological perspectives of family diversity
Let's look at sociological perspectives of family diversity, including their rationales for family diversity, and whether they view it positively or negatively.
Functionalism and family diversity
According to functionalists, the family is set to fulfil certain functions in society, including reproduction, care and protection for the family members, socialisation of children, and the regulation of sexual behaviour.
Functionalists have predominantly focused on the white, middle-class family form in their research. They are not particularly against diverse forms of families, as long as they fulfil the tasks above and contribute to the operation of wider society. However, the functionalist ideal of the family is still the traditional nuclear family.
The New Right on family diversity
According to the New Right, the building block of society is the traditional nuclear family. So, they are against the diversification of this family ideal. They particularly oppose the rising numbers of lone-parent families which depend on welfare benefits.
According to the New Right, only conventional two-parent families can provide the necessary emotional and financial support for children to grow into healthy adults.
New Labour on family diversity
New Labour was more supportive of family diversity than the New Right. They introduced the Civil Partnership Act in 2004 and the Adoption Act of 2005 which supported unmarried partners, regardless of sexual orientation, in family formation.
Postmodernism and the importance of family diversity
Postmodernists emphasise the importance of family diversity. Why?
Postmodernist individualism supports the idea that a person is allowed to find the types of relationships and family setup that is right for them specifically. The individual is no longer required to follow the norms of society.
Postmodernists support and encourage family diversity and criticise legislation that ignores the growing number of non-traditional families.
Personal Life Perspective on family diversity
The sociology of personal life criticises modern functionalist sociologists for being ethnocentric, as they have overwhelmingly focused on white middle-class families in their research. Sociologists of the personal life perspective aim to research the experiences of the individual and the social context around those experiences within diverse family constructions.
Feminism and the benefits of family diversity
For feminists, the benefits of family diversity are important to consider. Why?
Feminists usually claim that the traditional nuclear family ideal is the product of the patriarchal structure which is built on the exploitation of women. Hence, they tend to have very positive views of growing family diversity.
The works of sociologists Gillian Dunne and Jeffrey Weeks (1999) has shown that same-sex partnerships are much more equal in terms of the division of labour and responsibilities within and outside the home.
Family Diversity - Key takeaways
Family diversity, in the contemporary context, refers to all the different forms of families and family life that exist in society, and to the characteristics that differentiate them from one another.
The most important researchers in Britain of family diversity were Robert and Rhona Rapoport. They drew attention to the many ways families define themselves in British society in the 1980s. According to the Rapoports, there are five elements, based upon which family forms in the UK can differ from each other (1982).
Organisational diversity: families differ in their structure, in their household type and in the ways labour is divided within the household.
Age diversity: different generations have different life experiences, which can affect family formation. Ethnic and cultural diversity: there has been a growth in the number of interracial couples and transnational families and households.
Diversity in sexual orientation: Since 2005, same-sex partners could enter a civil partnership in the UK. Since 2014, same-sex partners can marry each other, which has caused a rise in the visibility and social acceptance of same-sex families.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Family Diversity
Why is family diversity important?
Previously, the term 'family diversity' was used in a way that suggested that the nuclear family was superior to all other forms of family life. As different family forms became more visible and accepted in society, sociologists stopped making hierarchical distinctions between them, and now use the term 'family diversity' for the many equally colourful ways of family life.
What is an example of family diversity?
Reconstituted families, single-parent families, matrifocal families are all examples of the diversity of family forms present in modern society.
What are the types of family diversity?
Families can differ in many regards, like in their organisation, in class, age, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, and life cycle.
What are the changing patterns of family?
Families tend to be more diverse, more symmetrical, and more equal.
What is family diversity?
Family diversity, in the contemporary context, refers to all the different forms of families and family life that exist in society, and to the characteristics that differentiate them from one another.
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