A report investigating family diversity
What is a family?
Sociologist Brown defined a family as “a group of people who are related by kinship ties: relatives of blood, marriage or adoption” (Brown, 1998). But many people might argue this statement is not right anymore as this only defines a traditional family. There are many different types of family which include Nuclear, Cereal Packet, Extended, Single Parent, and Reconstituted. Over the years family life has become more diverse. There is a lot of evidence that there is no one particular family type in Britain. In this report I will be looking at the impact of diversity on the family; such as Social Class, Ethnicity, Sexuality and cultural differences in relation to family diversity.
These ‘extensions’ to the basic family group branch out within generations – a wife’s sister and her partner, for example, living with the family group.
Modified-Extended Family, according to Michael Gordon (The Nuclear Family in Crisis: The Search for an Alternative, 1972), refers to the idea that wider family members keep in regular touch with each other. This may be both in the form of spending time together and when that is not possible, using email, texting and phone conversations to remain close.
Matrimonial Causes Act was introduced in 1857. It was the first ever law permitting divorce. “The 1857 Act required a husband to prove his wife's adultery if he wanted a divorce. A wife had to prove her husband's adultery, and also that he had either treated her with cruelty, had deserted her, or had committed incest or bigamy.” (www.bbc.co.uk) Even though this Act permitted a divorce, it was very hard to obtain it as it was not easy for a woman to prove man’s matrimonial offences. Single parent family is a modern type of family. It is sometimes also called a broken nuclear family. Single parent families rose in late 70’s, after 1969 Divorce Reform Act was introduced. Better rights for women increased job opportunities, women had more support from the state and that also contributed to the number of divorces. There were nearly 2.0 million lone parents with dependent children in the UK in 2012, a