Defining Family Analysis

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Defining Family
The discourse of family has evolved over time. It has never been stagnant and as many sociologists and anthropologists have made their remarks on the changeable structure of ‘family’ as they adapt to newer social structure and political ratifications. In a broader sociological aspect, families; traditionally very large and extensive with close knit connections of multiple generations used to mainly act as the mode of production. As of now the structure has subsided into a nuclear family and acts as a unit of consumption (Parsons, 1949). Similarly, from an economical point of view the denomination of family has shifted from a male breadwinner model to dual earner/carer modality. As Parsons digs more into the family, he outlines
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Similarly, women’s employment has been accepted more positively. As expressed through the second wave of feminism, with the rise in working culture among women and efficient availability of contraception, women have been able to explore their potential out of their domestic arena. Likewise, the male counterparts have learned the importance of ‘being at home and help raise kids’ in a more collaborative way. This changing attitude of gender roles while practicing family has changed the dimensions of fathering, as highlighted in the Neilsen et.al. Transitions to fatherhood across context. In return, a democratic process of home making has made family life more prosperous and has helped in strengthening the relationships. Miller’s interview study (2011) showed higher emotional ties between fathers and their children. In a larger respect, sharing employment and domestic work reduced gender inequality and hierarchy in the family structure. Assessing the status-quo, families are moving more towards collectiveness or ‘as a whole’ rather than having a male figure as a ‘head of the …show more content…
The socio-democratic welfare policy inherits the principle of universalism meaning every citizen qualify for the welfare benefits such as access to health, education, child care, elderly care, paternal leave and many other incentives that come along the way. The family construct in these countries are seen to be more structured as the state provides benefits and is ready to share the cost in becoming a family. As Esping Andersen (1999) introduced the concept of defamilisation where state make provisions to ease the burden of care of families. These are the same countries where women enter to labour market as competitively as men and share the domestic work. As a result, there is less gender inequality in these countries. On the other extreme, Liberal welfare regimes or Neo liberal policies dictate low level government spending and considers parenting as private affair. These are the economies which believe in providing safety net to those in dire need. Coming from a country that struggled a lot between revolution and unstable government, my family structure was always very different than that of an european context; rather extended in the structure and functioned mostly in the absence of any welfare