The number of single people has increased over the last several decades. However, there is still something of a stigma attached to being single. Society seems to still be geared towards couples and families as the ‘normal’ social unit. Single people are often overlooked and some sociologists suggest single people may be discriminated against.
The main reason for the increase in single people is women’s liberation. Women now have higher levels of educational achievement than men and are more likely to be in work. Women are more likely to choose to live alone, and more likely to seek divorce. Of divorced people, men are twice as likely than women to recouple. Many more older women live alone than men.
Are single people discriminated against?
Some of the ways single people may be discriminated against include:
It is more expensive to live alone. SIngle person households spend 92% of their disposable income on necessities such as housing costs, food and bills. This compares to only 83% of disposable income spent by couples.
Letting agencies tend to discriminate against single people. They prefer couples because there are two incomes coming in, which they think is more secure.
Employers and employees expect more from single people as workers. The default view is that single people have fewer commitments outside of work than people with families. Thus it is single people who are expected to work odd hours or at the weekends if required.
Many holidays are geared towards couples, with single rooms often being the most inferior.
Getting engaged, married, or having children are seen as social markers of progress. Being single is just kind of overlooked.
You rarely hear single people talked about in the news, and they are rarely the focus of social policy. There is a lot of talk and policies aimed at helping families, for example, but rarely anything for single people.
An exception to this was during lockdown. The government announced that people living alone could form support bubbles with people in other households. This was one of the few times single people were explicitly mentioned in social policy.
Single women living alone are seen in a negative light. We have the spinster stereotype for example.
All of this is a problem when single people are a diverse group. There are many routes into singledom.
One of the ways social policy could adapt to single people is by allowing single workers time off to look after friends or pets.
The pre-release information for the 2022 A-level sociology exam from the AQA selected the relationship of the family to the social structure and social change as the topic area that WILL come up for the 20 mark essay.
NB we are talking here about the Paper 2 exam: topics in sociology the families and households option, and this post is just a reminder of the core content that comes within this sub-topic!
What is the social structure?
The idea of a social structure is most commonly associated with the two classic sociological perspectives Funtionalism and Marxism:
Functionalists argue that society is structured through institutions which all perform specific functions, all working together to maintain the whole system of society – like organs in a body (the ‘organic analogy’) – the family is seen as playing a crucial role in (obviously?) the reproduction of the next generation.
Marxists see the social structure as being organised along social class lines – with the bourgeoisie exercising control over the major institutions of society
Feminism has a more complex view of the social structure whether you’re talking about Liberal, Marxist or Radical.
Postmodernists and Late Modernists suggest the social structure which Marxists and Functionalists refer too is much more fluid than it used to be and that it constrains the individual much less today than in the late 19th and mid 20th centuries when Marxists and Functionalists did most of their writing.
Recent social changes you might consider….
The social changes associated with the shift from modernity to postmodernity are what you could address, such as:
Globalisation
The breakdown/ increasing fluidity of social structure
More individual freedom and choice
The relationship of the family to the social structure
The ‘classic’ approach to this topic is to address it through the main sociological perspectives, and if you know what the different perspectives think about the family and social structure, you SHOULD automatically be addressing social change at the same time, as the two are fundamentally related.
The rest of this post offers a brief summary of what the main sociological perspectives have to say on this topic.
for further details and especially evaluations be sure to check out the linked posts below!
The Functionalist view on the family and social structure
Talcot Parsons developed the Functional Fit Theory to explain how the main type of family changed from the extended family to the nuclear family with the shift from pre-industrial to industrial society.
He argued that the nuclear family better fitted the needs of an industrial society because it was smaller and more mobile, and the changes with industrialisation meant that families needed to be able to move around more easily.
He also argued that the family in industrial society had to perform fewer functions than in industrial society because other institutions developed to perform functions more efficiently than the old extended family could – schools for education, for example.
The family in industrial society performs only two functions – the stabilisation of adult personalties (emotional security) and reproduction.
The Marxist view of the family and social structure
This stands in direct contrast to the Functionalist view – the nuclear family emerges with industrialisation, according to Engles, but only to legitimise the passing on of property down to the next generation – with Capitalism, there are now wealthy people and the family unit makes sure their new wealth stays in the family.
Before Capitalism Engles argued that families were a kind of ‘promiscuous hoard’ – when there was no property people cared for children collectively – it’s only when SOME families have property under capitalism that the nuclear family emerges.
Later Marxists suggest the nuclear family continues to perform functions for Capitalism by becoming a unit of consumption, for example.
Radical Feminists see the nuclear family as the main institution which keeps Patriarchy going.
The traditional nuclear family and the ideology of the housewife role for women keeps women in the domestic sphere and out of the work place, preventing them from developing financial independence and limiting them to a caring role and a life of dull-drudgery.
Moreover, women are effectively exploited with the nuclear family, and far from the family being a safe haven, domestic abuse within family life is a common, yet hidden feature of many relationships.
A core belief of radical feminism is that the nuclear family needs to be broken down and women are better off seeking alternative relationships.
Writing since the 1980s, Postmodernists argue that there is no such thing as a normal family anymore – rather, family diversity is now the norm – with there being more variety of families than ever before – as shown by the increase in single person households and single parent households for example.
For postmodernists, every aspect of family life is a choice – and hence we see people getting married and starting families later and divorce rates persistently high.
Late Modernists suggest it is not as simple as family life being all about choice – rather social life today makes holding down a relationship and having a stable family life more difficult – people still want these things, but busy working lives and constant distractions make family life much more difficult.
Find out More
This has been just a quick reminder post, be sure to check out the linked blog posts for further details.
Be sure to check out the New Right and Personal Life Perspective too!
Also, remember that the specific question you get asked could be either broad or very narrow, AND the 10 mark questions will probably be from other areas of the module!
Attitudes to family life in the UK and Europe have become more liberal in the last decade
Attitudes towards family life have become more ‘postmodern’ and less conservative between 2006/07 and 2018/19.
According to the latest British Social Attitudes Survey which measures ‘family values’ by five questions about whether individuals approve or disapprove about different aspects of family life:
remaining childless (disapproval fell from 8% to 6% in the last ten years)
cohabitation (disapproval fell from 14 to 8%)
having children while cohabiting (out of marriage) (21 to 12%)
Being in full time work with children under three (20 to 11%)
Divorce with children under 12 (disapproval fell from 28% to 16%)
What this shows us is that individual values about family life have become more Post/ Late Modern over the last decade – many of these indicators suggest more individualisation, more support for freedom of choice and (surprisingly) divorcing even with children.
There is also a clear shift away from New Right views with increasing support for cohabitation (rather than marriage) being a suitable family arrangement for raising children.
Older generations dying explain this shift in values
The British social attitudes survey analyses their findings by comparing family values across five generations – split as follows:
Born 1901-1927 – the Greatest Generation
Born 1928-1945 – the Silent Generation
Born 1946-1964 – the Baby Boomers
Born 1965-1980 – Generation X
Born 1981-1996 – Millennials
Born 1997-2012 – Generation Z
Unfortunately this shift towards more liberal family values hasn’t occurred because of (older) people changing their minds and become more tolerant of family diversity, rather it’s because the older generations have died and their traditional family values have died with them.
This is best illustrated if we compare the family values of the oldest and youngest generations:
In the 2006/07 survey there were still large numbers of the ‘Great Generation’ alive (those born between 1901 and 1927) who had VERY conservative values about the family, however by the 2018/19 survey the youngest member of this generation would have been 91 and the oldest 117, resulting in insufficient numbers for a representative sample, hence this generation disappears from the survey results by 2018/19.
While for Generation Z who would have been too young to take part in the survey ten years ago, they now appear in the latest results, albeit in small numbers (because some would still be too young!) and these have much more liberal attitudes.
You can also clearly see the shift towards more liberal values more generally in the chart above.
One final thing to think about is the changing attitudes to working with young children – more people probably think this is OK because they know people increasingly HAVE to work to pay the bills, so it’s not as if this is a matter of choice for most parents with younger children!
Changing European Family Values
The report also compares changing attitudes to family life to changes in other countries in Europe:
Family values are getting more liberal in EVERY European country except Sweden (but that had VERY low disapproval ratings to start with!), suggesting this is a regional trend, although other countries started from a ‘higher base’ of more conservative family values.
Signposting and Related Posts
This post has primarily been written for students of A-level sociology and is relevant to the families and households module.
It seems to be valid evidence showing a shift towards postmodern values and away from new right views on the family and it is also relevant to marriage and divorce and family diversity topics as these trends help explain the decline in marriage and increase in divorce – they show that more people think it’s acceptable to not be married before starting a family and OK to divorce even if you have younger children.
Parenting is getting more equal, but is still not equal, for example in 2022 women did 30 minutes more childcare per day than their male partners.
To what extent is there equality in relationships between men and women when it comes to parenting and childcare?
Research evidence for greater gender equality
Research by Gayle Kaufman consisting of interviews with 70 American fathers with at least one child under the age of 18 found that between 1977 and 2008 the average American man increased the amount of time spent on household chores and childcare by more than 2 hours per day on average each workday.
Statistics suggest that increasingly men are performing a ‘second shift’ when they return home from work, spending on average 46 hours a week on childcare and housework, which suggests that it is increasingly men rather than women who face the ‘dual burden‘.
Kaufman identified two new types of dads based on how they responded to the challenges of balancing work and family life.
‘New Dads’ which were by far the largest category placed a high priority on involvement with children and made some minor adjustments to their work practices – such as getting to work later or leaving earlier, or ‘leaving work at work’ or bringing work home with them and trying to juggle that and family duties.
Superdads actively adjusted their work lives to fit in with their family lives – by changing careers, cutting back work hours or adopting more flexible working hours. These dads saw spending time with their children as the most important thing in their lives, with money and career as less important.
Evidence against gender equality in parenting
We are still a long way from gender equality in parenting…
only 10% of full-time stay at home parents are male.
34% of female parents work part time compared to only 6% of male parents.
women spend 30 minutes more per day on childcare than men.
Only 1/3rd of dads take paternity leave.
Fathers spend longer on the fun, easy childcare activities.
90% of full-time stay at home parents are women
Data from the 2021 UK Census found that only 10.6% of full-time stay at home parents were fathers. Meaning that almost 90% of full-time stay at home parents are women.
141 000 economically active men who were looking after children full time at home, compared to 1, 185, 000 women.
However, the proportion of stay at home dads has increased since 2019. in 2019 only 1/14 full time stay at home parents were male, or only 105 000 men. So this is a significant increase in just two years!
Female parents are far more likely to work part-time
83.1% of men work full time compared to 6.3% of men who work part-time
38.4% of women work full time compared to 34.4% of women who work part-time.
Women spend 30 minutes more on childcare more day than men
Also, although fathers always say they want to spend more time with their kids rather than working, the evidence does not back this up – a third of men don’t take their two weeks paternity leave, 40% say they don’t intend to take the 6 months they are now entitled to and 90% say they wouldn’t take more than 6 months if it was offered to them.
Some more detailed research from NatCen revealed that while trends in housework were moving towards greater equality, the same could not be said for trends in childcare.
Mothers spent more than twice as much time than fathers doing ‘physical’ childcare, which includes such chores as feeding and bathing children.
Mothers spent 28 minutes per day on ‘interactive’ childcare such as playing, reading and talking with their children, compared to 19 minutes for fathers – this is the smallest difference of all the activity types, but arguably the most pleasant!
Mothers spent almost twice as long on ‘other childcare‘ activities such as taking children to school and after-school activities.
84% of single parent households are single mother households, only 16% are single father households. (Source: ONS families and households data).
However, the number of single father households is increasing, not so long ago 90% of single parent households were headed by females.
Intensive Motherhood
The Emergence of ‘Intensive Motherhood’ suggests things might even be getting worse for some mothers…
According to Sharon Hays (1996) it is still mothers, rather than fathers who remain the target of most parenting advice, and today all mothers are expected to live up to a new norm of ‘intensive mothering’ – a style of mothering that is ‘expert-guided’ and child centred as well as emotionally absorbing, labour intensive and financially expensive, requiring a 24/7 focus on the child.
Hays suggests that intensive mothering has become the taken for granted ‘correct’ style of mothering , and the focus is typically on the mother and not on the father.
Below I’ve reformatted the examiners report for the 2018 A-level sociology exam, paper 2 (families and households section) into bullet points and included the exam questions.
This is really just designed to make this more user friendly!
This advice is taken straight from the AQA’s examiner report on the sociology A-level exam 2018.
Beliefs in society 2018 Questions and examiner commentary
Question 13
Outline and explain two ways in which globalisation may affect religious beliefs and practices (10)
Most students able to explain two ways in which globalisation may have affected religious beliefs and practices.
Popular answers included pluralism and greater choice, deterritorialisation and the growth of fundamentalism.
Some weaker answers described recent changes in beliefs or practices without making the role of globalisation clear.
Question 14
Applying material from Item I, analyse two reasons why minority ethnic groups in the United Kingdom are often more religious than the majority of the population (10)
This question was generally answered well.
Popular answers included cultural defence and cultural transition (although the difference between these two concepts was not always clear), and the idea that migrants are simply more likely to be religious when placed in a secular society.
This question referred specifically to the United Kingdom and so answers about other countries could not be credited.
Question 15
Applying material from Item J and your knowledge, evaluate the view that an increase in spirituality in the United Kingdom has compensated for the decline of organised religion (20)
Answers here showed a good range of knowledge.
Most students took cues from the item and discussed a range of developments, such as variations of secularisation, growth of science and rationality and the growth of New Age activities.
There was pleasing evidence of knowledge of contemporary postmodern approaches but only the best answers explicitly addressed spirituality or considered that there might be a difference between the spiritual and the religious.
Below I’ve reformatted the examiners report for the 2018 A-level sociology exam, paper 2 (families and households section) into bullet points and included the exam questions.
This is really just designed to make this more user friendly!
This advice is taken straight from the AQA’s examiner report on the sociology A-level exam 2018.
Families and Households 2018 Questions and examiner commentary
Question 04
Outline and explain two ways in which government policies may affect family structure. [10 marks]
There was a tendency to go into detail about the chosen policies rather than to discuss effects on family structures.
Some answers assumed an effect and did not take the opportunity to use their sociological understanding to explore the ideas in greater depth. For example, some answers said that changes to divorce laws increased the number of lone parent families, but few discussed increases in reconstituted families or bi-nuclear families.
Similarly the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act of 2013 was recognised as increasing the number of same sex married couples but also led to same sex divorces, changes in adoption, surrogacy and so on.
Question 05
Applying material from Item C, analyse two ways in which demographic trends since 1900 may have affected the nature of childhood in the United Kingdom today. [10 marks]
Many answers went into reasons for the demographic changes referred to in the item rather than focus on effects on childhood.
Others discussed childhood a hundred years ago or earlier.
However, many did develop points about child centeredness by looking at its positive consequences for childhood and then developing this to link it to over protectiveness, age patriarchy, pester power, toxic childhood and so on.
Similarly, the presence of grandparents was in better answers not merely described but analysed as to how it could be both positive and negative in contributing to socialisation and childcare and in adding to the burden of care for the family with some children becoming young carers.
Better answers were distinguished by, as the mark scheme says, ‘developed applications’, going beyond the immediately apparent.
Question 06
Applying material from Item D and your knowledge, evaluate the view that individual choice in personal relationships has made family life less important in the United Kingdom today
Many answers discussed changes in family life such as divorce, cohabitation, same sex marriage and gender roles in terms of greater choice but few explored whether these developments made family life more important or less important.
More developed analysis showed how diversity did not always lead to less importance being given to family life, importance of a changed form of family life. Functionalism and the New Right were often included but, sometimes with Marxism, described rather than being applied to the question.
There was a shortage of postmodernist views in addition to choice and diversity. Better answers referred to pure relationships, confluent love, negotiated families and alternative life courses.
A level sociology students should be looking to using contemporary examples and case studies to illustrate points and evaluate theories whenever possible. In the exams, the use of contemporary evidence is something examiners look for and reward.
Below are a few examples of some recent events in the news which are relevant to the sociology of families and households. You’ll need to read the items for more depth on how to apply them.
Greta Thunberg’s speech and the wider ‘school strikes’ agains the environment – can be used as evidence against ‘toxic childhood’ – examples of kids actually doing something active!
Globalisation has changed family life in the UK: birth rates have declined, families are smaller, childhood is more toxic and families are more unstable.
Globalisation has changed family life in the UK in several ways:
Family size has declined and there are more childless families. There are also more single person households. These trends are correlated with increase economic growth due to globalisation.
There is greater ethnic diversity and more families stretched across national borders. This is because of increased migration.
There are more pure relationships, negotiated families and higher divorce rates. All of these are related to the increased sense of risk and uncertainty which is part of globalisation.
There are more family-like global friendship networks and childhood is more toxic today, because of the globalisation of media flows.
There is more equality between men and women in relationships and more childless couples. This is linked to increased gender equality is an aspect of globalisation.
There is more experience of inequalities relating to the family and more relative social exclusion. For example poorer families can’t afford an annual holiday abroad.
The relationship between globalisation and family life is one of the more difficult topics within the families and households module. In the blog post below I look at different aspects of globalisation and how these may have changed family life in the UK.
Aspects of globalisation you could consider include:
Increased migration: more people coming to the UK from other countries.
Globalisation of media: more global media flows penetrating family life.
Increased risk and uncertainty. These are also part of of postmodernisation.
Greater gender equality is also a global trend.
Aspects of family life you could consider:
Impacts on the structure of the family: what types of family are more common because of globalisation?
Relationships between men and women within family life.
How globalisation may have changed childhood and the relationships between parents and children.
How government policies on the family has responded to globalisation.
Globalisation and family life: analysis points
Two things to consider here:
what affects are more immediate and direct, which are indirect and more gradual?
What consequences are negative and positive. This relates to optimist and pessimist views of globalisation.
Economic globalisation and family life
Global optimists argue that economic globalisation has resulted in increasing trade which in turn has resulted in huge economic growth and rising prosperity.
Economic growth is correlated with declining birth rates and increasing life expectancy. This in turn means the average household size in the UK is smaller today. There are more one child households than ever and very few households with three or more children.
Increased life expectancy also means there are more multigenerational families with four generations alive. The number of beanpole families has also increased: long and thin families where three generations have only one child each, for example.
Property price speculation by global investors has driven up prices in the UK, especially in London. The basic costs of maintaining a family household had doubled in the last 30 years relative to inflation. This means many people today can’t afford to buy houses which puts some people off having children, so there are more childless couples and more people having families in later life.
There seems to be a globalisation of ‘single person households’. There seems to be a global trend of increasing numbers of people choosing to live alone (not necessarily not being in relationships). This trend is positively correlated with economic growth: the richer a country the more people choose to live alone.
Increasing inequality is also a consequence of globalisation. For example the norm in Britain is for families to have a summer holiday abroad. However many families can’t afford this which may increase a sense of social exclusion.
Increasing immigration and family life
Increasing migration to the UK is part of globalisation.
Increasing migration to the U.K. means there is increasing cultural diversity and diversity of family structures. There are more families where British born people have had children with migrants from other countries.
Increased migration means more families are stretched across national borders and have family members living abroad, which in turn reinforces globalisation as more families maintain contacts through media and physical visits.
Immigrant families to the UK have on average higher birth rates than non-immigrant families. A positive effect of this is that it reduces the dependency ratio, however a claimed negative consequence is an increased strain on public services, mainly schools.
Part of globalisation is people displacement following conflict, which sometimes results in the breaking up of families, U.K. policy has focused (to an extent) on taking in orphan refugee children, meaning more ‘global step/ foster families’.
Globalisation of media flows and family life
Cultural globalisation means more people create global friendship groups based on shared interests online. Many people regard these friendship networks as ‘family’, if we follow analysis from the Personal life perspective.
Globalisation also means more media flows. Children more active users of media, more exposed to global media events can have negative effects:
More difficult for parents to prevent radicalisation (e.g. Shamima Begum).
More exposure to global media events (mass shootings in USA, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, war and conflicts) children are more risk conscious – anxious kids, more mental health issues. (More ‘toxic childhood’.)
Parents are more paranoid, more restrictive parenting, less outdoor play.
Globalisation has resulted in more diversity, choice and uncertainty, resulting in decline of people committing to long term relationships. It is also more difficult to maintain long term relationships. Hence we have much higher rates of divorce in our global age.
How I would have answered the AQA’s families and household option on A-level sociology paper 7192/2, June 2018.
Answers to the AQA’s A-level sociology (7192/2) ‘topics’ exam: families and households section A only. Just a few thoughts to put students out of their misery. (Ideas my own, not endorsed by the AQA)
I won’t produce the exact questions below, just the gist…
Q04: Outline and explain two ways in which government policies may affect family structure (10)
Very easy…..
Simply select two policies and try to discuss their effects on as many different types of family structure as you can, without overlapping!
I would have gone for….
The 1969 Divorce act, and linked this to reconstituted families, single parent families, the negotiated family, divorce extended families… and contrasted the New Right and Postmodernism.
The 2013 Civil Partnership Act and linked this to changing gender relations, gender roles, equality and children in the family, and childless/ adopted families. I also would have applied and contrasted the New Right with Radical Feminism
I would have gone for two very basic ‘topic based’ areas to start: something about aid and improving women’s health and the knock on effects, and then something about women’s education, linked to work.
Q05: Applying materal from item C, analyse two ways in which demographic trends since 1900 may have affected the nature of childhood in the United Kingdom today.
Using the item, you need to use the following:
Life expectancy increasing and more generations of the family being alive – here you need to discuss the bean pole family, sandwhich parents, extended families maybe (and the modified extended family)
People having fewer children – probably most of your marks will come from this…. contrast march of progress with paranoid parenting/ cotton wool kids.
They DO like asking about childhood, don’t they!Q06: Evaluate Dependency theory essay
Evaluate the view that individual choice in personal relationships has made family life less important in the United Kingdom today (20)
The item basically directs you to discuss postmodern perspectives on the rise of individualisation and the decline of the family and to evaluate this.
Not an easy question, but workable…
General points you could use:
Outline the postmodern view….. Allen and Crow and Beck-Gernsheim are the two ‘extreme individualisation’ theorists – lots you could discuss here.
Maybe dramatise this with the increase in divorce, rise of single person households.
Discuss Giddens’ idea of the Pure Relationship – higher rates of family breakdown are now more likely because of this!
Discuss Beck’s idea of the Negotiated family – similar to Giddens.
Criticise PM with the Personal Life Perspective…. which finds that family life is still important, it’s just that family life has changed – people now effectively regard pets etc. as part of their families.
Criticise with the ‘criticisms’ of increased family diversity…. most people still have families, nuclear family still the most common, etc….
This is the kind of question you may have had to think about for some time.
Outline and explain two ways in which changing gender roles within the family may have affected children’s experience of childhood (10)
The Mark Scheme:
Note: there are no marks for evaluation on the 10 mark no item questions (there are for the ‘analyse with the item’ 10 mark questions!)
Student Response:
Highlighted to show the different stages of development.
One way is with the changing roles of women in society, where women are more likely to want to pursue a career before starting a family, with less stigma attached to them, women have taken on more aspects of the instrumental role which Parsons had said traditionally rested with men. This has meant a decrease in family size since the 1970s from 3.2 children to 2, as women in full time employment have children later in life. It has also led to a mono-child society and a ‘fuller experience’ of childhood as parents have more money to spend on one child.
As second change is associated with Young and Wilmott’s symmetrical families – couples have moved from segregated to joint conjugal roles where they share leisure time and chores much more equally than before. This is also related to the rise of the new man who offers more emotional support. This means children are no longer socialised into traditional gender roles and will not experience canalisation like Oakley suggested – e.g. boys are less likely to be given typical boys toys sjuch as guns and socialised into typical traditional male traits such as aggression.
Examiner Commentary: (8/10 marks)
Source:
Student responses with examiner
commentary
AS AND A-LEVEL
SOCIOLOGY
7193
