Households, Families and History
Start with a core sociological distinction:
- A household is a set of people sharing a dwelling.
- A family is a set of people related by descent, marriage, or adoption.
In 1949, George Murdock surveyed 250 societies. He claimed the nuclear family is universal. This claim has held up badly. Exceptions include the Israeli kibbutz and matrifocal arrangements in the Caribbean.
Peter Laslett and the Cambridge Group analysed historical records. They showed mean household size in England remained stable at roughly 4.75 people (or 4.75) for centuries.
John Hajnal identified the European Marriage Pattern west of a line from Trieste to St Petersburg. It featured late marriage and high celibacy across north-west Europe.
| Approach | What the family is | What it explains well | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functionalist (Parsons) | System-serving institution | Role specialisation | Costs of specialisation |
| Marxist & feminist | Site of unpaid labour | Power and property | Affective family ties |
| Historical-demographic | Recorded co-resident group | Household composition | Subjective meaning |
Gender and Modern Trends
Sociological views of gender evolved across three major waves:
- Ann Oakley introduced the sex and gender distinction to British sociology.
- West and Zimmerman in 1987 argued we are constantly "doing gender" in social interaction.
- Judith Butler argued in Gender Trouble that sex itself is culturally produced.
Spain illustrates rapid family change:
- Divorce was legalised in 1981 and reformed in 2005.
- Spain legalised same-sex marriage in 2005.
- Around half of all births now occur outside marriage.
- The mean age at first birth is 31, among the highest in the European Union.
Common pitfall: believing modern industrialisation broke up large extended families. Small households existed first in western Europe, over 20 decades ago.