The Family Today:

Declining or
Changing?
 Vocabularies:
Annulment:
 the act of annulling something.
 "the applicant sought the annulment of the decision“

Divorce:
 the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body

Family:
 a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household
Household:
- those who dwell under the same roof and compose a family; also : a social unit composed
of those living together in the same dwelling (M.W.)

Kibbutz
- a communal settlement in Israel in which all wealth is held in common and profits are
reinvested in the settlement.

Kinship - blood relationship

Legal Separation:
- an arrangement by which a child lives apart from a natural parent and with the other
natural parent or a foster parent, following a court order.
Marriage:
 the legally or formally recognized union of a man and a woman (or, in some jurisdictions, two people of the
same sex) as partners in a relationship.

Matriarchy:
 a woman who is the head of a family or tribe.
 an older woman who is powerful within a family or organization

Matrilineal:
 refers to familial relationships that can be traced through a female. To follow the matrilineal line in your
family, start with your mom.

Cohabitation:
- refers to situations in which two people live together, and are involved in an emotional and/or
sexually intimate relationship. The term is commonly used regarding unmarried couples who choose
to live together without officially getting married.
Matrilocal:
 or denoting a custom in marriage whereby the husband goes to live with the wife's
community

Monogamy:
 the practice or state of being married to one person at a time

Patriarchy:
 a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family
and descent is traced through the male line

Patrilineal:
 relating to, or based on relationship to the father or descent through the male line
Polyandry:
 the practice or condition of having more than one husband at one time.

Polygamy:
- the practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time

Polygyny:
- in which a man has more than one wife

Same-Sex Marriage:
- marriage between partners of the same sex (as recognized in some jurisdictions
 The Problem of Defining the Family

Traditional Definitions:
Filipinos are family-oriented. The anak-magulang complex and
the kamag-anak relationship are very important to Filipinos. Ama,
Ina, Anak, Tiya, Tiyuhin, Inaanak, Lolo, Lola. This family
centerderness supplies a basic sense of belonging, stability, and
security. It is from our families that we Filipinos naturally draws
sense of self-identity.
This traditional view of the family leads many people to think that the family is an indispensable unit or
institution of the society. Today, however many experts who study the family raise doubts its future.
Consider the following statistics:

 Declining Marriage Rate and Increasing Rate of Cohabitation

There were 476,408 marriages in 2011, down by 1.3 percent from 482,480 recorded
in 2010, the NSO said in a report posted on its website, adding that the number of
registered marriages has been declining since 2009. (August 19, 2014)

 Increasing Annulment Rate:

The number of marriage annulment cases in the Philippines has risen by 40 percent in
the last decade with at least 22 cases filed every day, according to a report by the
Catholic Bishops’ news agency. Citing data from the Office of the Solicitor General
(OSG), CBCP News said that the number of annulment cases had risen from 4,520 in
2001 to 8,282, 2010. (August 12, 2015)
 Increasing Number of Cases of Domestic Violence
The 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted by the National
Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that one of the five women 15-49 has experienced physical violence
since age 15; 14.4 percent of married women have experienced physical abuse from their husbands;
and more than one-third (37%) of separated or widowed women have experienced physical violence,
implying that domestic violence could be the reason for separation or annulment. (August 19, 2014)

 Increasing Number of Women Entering the Labor Force

The number of employed and unemployed Filipinos in October 2008 was estimated at 34.5
Million and 2.5 million respectively. Female employment was estimated at 13.3 million compared to
21.3 million males. Female unemployment rate for the same year was relatively lower at 6.5% which
equivalent to 929 thousand compared to male at 7.0% which estimated at 1.6 million. Of the 2
million OFWs in 2008, female OFWs were estimated at 968 thousand (48.4%) or an increase of 13
percent from the 857 thousand estimated female OFWs in 2008. (August 19, 2014)
The United Nations (UN) uses the term Nucleus Family:
A family nucleus is of one of the following types (each of which must consist of person
living in the same household).

A. A married couple without a children;

B. A married couple with one or more unmarried children;
C. A father with one or more unmarried children or
D. A mother with one or more unmarried children.

Common in these definitions are the following elements: the biological component (with a
child, married), the functional component (takes care of the children and provides economic
support), and the residential component (living under one household or common residence).
Friedrich Engels, who wrote The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), is
right to argue that families do evolve in relation to the material and economic conditions of
societies. Families have never been static all throughout human evolution.

All definitions of the family will have to address three components; residential, biological, and
functional roles. If one defines the family simply as the nuclear family, meaning two adult
couples with children, then this can be challenged immediately by the case of KIBBUTZ., in
Israel and the NAYAR in India. If one defines the family as taking care of the children, then it
can be shown that in many societies, socialization is carried by kinship groups and not the
nuclear family. Another challenge to the nuclear definition of the family is the emerging single
parent households, gays couples living together, and overseas families whose members do not
live regularly with the family. These examples may not contradict and discredit the definition of
the family, but they challenge the nature and functions of the family.
The family as a basic unit of society performs important functions or roles for
society:

1. For biological reproduction

2. As the primary agent of socialization of children
3. As the institution for economic cooperation through division of labor
4. To care and nurture children to become responsible adults.
Why the Definition of Family Matters?

In social science discourse, the concept of the family is politically and ideologically
‘loaded,’ or imbued with sets of politically and culturally contested ideas about the correct
or moral ways in which people should conduct their lives, and the people with whom they
should conduct them. Article I of the Philippine Family Code Fixes the definition of
marriage and the resulting family based on the union:

MARRIAGE is a special contract of permanent union between man and women entered
into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life: It is the
foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution.
The Philippine Family Code therefore excludes same-sex marriage and polygamous
unions.

When the Philippine Family code was enacted in 1989, it declared that “illegitimate”
children must use the surname of the mother. They were not allowed to use the surname of
their biological father so it created a class of children with no middle names of having the
surname also as their middle name. Article 176 was largely ignored by fathers who
recognized their child and allowed their surname to be used even if there was no benefit of
marriage. Congress saw it fit to amend Article 176 by enacting R.A. 9255 in 2004. Now
illegitimate children can use the surname of their biological father as long as the
latter formally recognizes the child.
Another case is the support for an Illegitimate Child. An illegitimate child is entitled to receive
support from his/her biological father provided that the latter recognized the child as his own. If
the biological father did not recognize the child as his own, then support cannot be demanded
unless a court order is obtained for that matter.

These cases are very common. The benefits that a family members gets, whether illegitimate or
not, whether recognized or not, will depend on the definition of the family. For some reason,
legally adopted children are better situated when it comes to inheritance as they are treated the
same with legitimate children.

Cohabitants are couples who share a common residence with a child, just like a nuclear family,
but without the benefit of marriage. In some countries, cohabitants are not recognized as
“official” families. Therefore, they are not accorded health, social security, and retirement
benefits of the partner. In some cases, in some countries, cohabiting homo
sexual couples are not given hospital visitation.
 Family and Household
The UN differentiates household from a family.

The difference between the household and the family is:

a. That a household may consist of only one person but a family must contain at
least two members and
b. That the members of a multi-person household need not be related to each other,
while the members of a family must be related.
 Types of Families
NUCLEAR and EXTENDED FAMILIES

The basic distinction in classifying families is to consider the membership. The

nuclear family is the most basic family form and is made up of married couple and
their biological or adopted children.
The nuclear family is found in all societies, and it is from this form that all other
types of family are derived. Most nuclear families are found in urban areas such as
Metro Manila.
Extended families are families that include the other members of the kinship
group such as uncles, grandparents, and cousins. In developed countries, there
is the process called nuclearization of the families (Kumar 2011). This process
refers to the growing predominance of nuclear families over extended families
in both urban or rural areas, which is bought about by urbanization and
economic development.

Nuclear and extended families can be classified either as family or orientation

or family of procreation. The family to which one belongs is the family of
orientation. When one establishes a new family through marriage it is called the
family of procreation.