‘Traditional structural theories, Functionalism, Marxism, and Feminism assume the family being explained is the traditional nuclear family, this is not relevant any more, there is family diversity, changing gender roles and changing relationships between parents and children’
Using the extract evaluate the usefulness of Postmodernism for an understanding of the family (20)
The postmodernist view on family is that we have broken away from modernity (traditional families) to postmodernity which contains negotiated families. A negotiated family is the idea that we negotiate and get what we want from a family, and the whole of the postmodernity view is that us an individual have a choice about what type of family they form a who is in it, the main theme is that there is more diversity in today’s families.
Post 1980 was when postmodernity came about, and some of the types of families that emerged from this include same sex parents, lone parents, cohabitating couples etc. Within these negotiated families, many things have changed, and one of these include joint gender roles. Today within family’s males and females share the roles that need to be performed, whereas in the traditional families there were separate gender roles as the woman stayed at home and looked after the children and the male went to work and was the main bread winner. However, the ‘changing gender roles’ have meant that it is not uncommon for the female to go to work and the male to stay at home and look after