Cornell Notes -- Name(s): christina

Topic: rapoport

Essential Question: what is it

The cereal packet In the 1980s Feminist Sociologist Ann Oakley (1982) described the
image of the family image of the typical or ‘conventional’ family. She said,
‘conventional families are nuclear families composed of legally
married couples, voluntarily choosing the parenthood of one or
more (but not too many) children. Leach (1967) called this the
‘cereal packet image of the family’ because this image is the
prominent in advertising, especially with ‘family sized’ products
such as boxes of cereal.

However, a considerable body of Feminist inspired research has

shown that the idealised image of the cereal packet family is
something of a myth: firstly, once we factor in the extent of female
dissatisfaction in traditional relationships, the rates of domestic
abuse, and the number of empty shell marriages, the reality is not
as ideal as it appears in the media, and secondly, even the 1950s
there were a range of different family types in society, but these
have been under-represented in the media.

The Rapoport’s Five Organisational diversity

Types of Family
Diversity Organisational diversity refers to variations in family structure,
household type, and differences in the division of labour within the
home. For example, there are differences between conventional
families, one parent families and dual-worker families, in which
both partners work. Also included within this type of diversity are
reconstituted families, which are the result of divorce and re-
partnering or remarriage and can take on a number of different
organisational forms.

Cultural Diversity

The Rapoports also identified significant variations by ethnicity – In

the case of South Asian families, both Hindu and Muslim, there
was a tendency for the families to be more traditional and
patriarchal, and extended families were also more likely. They also
found that that African Caribbean households were much more
likely to matrifocal (or centred around the mother rather than the
father), a fact reflected in the much higher rates of single parent
families amongst African Caribbean households.

Class Diversity

The Rapoports also found differences between working class and

middle class families in terms of how children were socialised
(middle class families are much more pro-school for example) and
 in terms of support-networks – Working class families were more
likely to be embedded within a modified extended family network
(having aunts/ uncles/ grandparents living nearby, but not in the
same house) whereas middle class families were much more likely
to be isolated, reflecting the increased geographical mobility of
wealthier families.

Life course Diversity

There are also differences which result from the stage of the life
cycle of the family. Newly married couples without children, for
example, have a different family life to those whose children have
achieved adult status. One point to try and keep in mind here is
that individuals today go through more stages of the life-course
than they would have done in the 1950s.

Cohort Diversity

A cohort of individuals refers to those born in the same year (or

band of years). Such individuals may well have a shared
experience of historical events which could have influenced their
family life. For example, couples entering into marriage in the
1950s would have had an expectation that marriage was for life
and traditional gender roles were the norm, but by the 1980s, all of
this had changed

Trends in Family allan and Crow (2001): Continuing Diversification

Diversity since the
1980s – Even Greater
Diversification

Allan and Crow identify the following demographic changes as

contributing to increased family diversity:

The divorce rate has risen. This has affected most countries in the
Western world, not just Britain.
Lone parent households have increased in number. This is partly
due to increased divorce, but also because pregnancy is no longer
automatically seen as requiring legitimation through marriage.
Cohabitation outside marriage is increasingly common. In the early
1960s only 1/20 women lived with her husband before marriage,
now 1/2 do.
Marriage rates have declined. This is partly because people are
marrying later, but lifetime marriage rates also appear to have
declined.
A big increase in the number of step families also appears to have
increased family diversity.

Elizabeth Beck- According to Beck-Gernsheim, increasing individualisation

Gernsheim – (increasing amounts of individual choice) has resulted in such an
Individualisation, array of relationships and family-forms that it is impossible to define
Diversity and Lifestyle what the family is or should be any more, and this also makes a
Choice return to the norm of the traditional nuclear family very unlikely.

Summary is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups

concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or
ideas, and communicate smoothly.