♥Demography|Decline in Birthrate♥

Demography

Demography is a topic which consists of many key terms which are usually used in 2,4 and 6 mark style question so it is important to get to grips with these terms as the short answer questions can be very beneficial for your over all grade.

So, demography is a term used by sociologist to describe the study of the population and its characteristics in relation to its size, structure and distribution. This information is gathered though the use of statistics such as births, deaths, income or incidence of disease. This information allows the sociologists to examine trends and relationships within society so that we are enabled to understand the population and human behaviour and the social patterns of behaviour that are associated with them.

Here is a few terms which would be beneficial to you when answering questions on demography are:

• Birth Rate - The number of live births (not still born etc.) per 1000 of the population per year.
• Total Fertility Rate- the average number of children women will have during fertile years (these are estimated between the ages of 15-44 however was we all know there are exeption to these ages)
• Infant Mortality Rate-number of infants who die before their first birthday per 1000 live births per year

Reasons for a decline in birth rate(BR).

In the last century we have seen a small decline in birthrate this could be for a number of reasons such as :

• the changes in the status of women 

Women are now paid 'equally' to men and with laws such as the compulsory education for all that came into force in 1880 has allowed women better educational opportunities as well as a wider choice of career. Women aren't also expected to be married to have a family and children as cohabitation is on the increase and so is divorce as both have declined in their social stigma which means that women aren't ashamed of getting a divorce. Also as women are now more career driven this has meant that family planning is on the increase with contraception and abortion now readily available women are therefore having less babies,

• Decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

Some sociologists would suggest that this is on the decline in IMR meant that there has been a decline in birth rate. This is because parents who loose children they are more likely to have more children therefore they would be increasing the birthrate but due to changes in the medical technology, better ante-natal and post natal care for mothers and babies and also better knowledge of sanitation and nutrition children have better chances of surviving.

• Children  are becoming and Economic liability

Until the 19th century children were working along side parents to provide for their families however now due to the introduction of child protection laws they have become more economically dependent on their parents.

laws such banning child labour have introduced compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age mean that children are more economically dependent on their parents for longer. there's also been a change in the norms of what children are expecting from their parents, TV adverts aim children to try and persuade their parents for what they are expecting especially the more material things such as IPod's and IPhone's.

• Child Centered society 

Our childhood is socially constructed which means that different society's have different conceptions of what it should be. In the western society we view children as vulnerable and in need protection so we do everything we can to keep our children happy and safe.

Future predictions surrounding birth rate

- slight increase due to immigration 

- but reach a constant at 2050 of roughly 700-720 000 per year

♥Changing Family Patterns- Divorce♥

Divorce

When talking about divorce there is 5 main reasons as to why divorce is on the increase.

• Changes in the LAW - divorce has become easier to obtain through the introduction of various laws and legal aid which allow thoe seven in poor families to get  a divorce if they want one
• Declining stigma and changing attidudes towards divorce - People don't view divorce as a negative in the law the society has now accepted it which has meant that people now feel comfortable with getting a divore where as in the past tehy wouldn't even tell their friends and families.
• Secularisation- People in the current society have increasingly lost interest in religion, society nowadays has become more driven by technology and the media rather than religion which would suggest that marrige isnt taken seriously any more thus when vows are broken less guilt is felt as their vows werent spoken to God as well as their partner.
• Rising expectations of Marrige- The society in which we live in creates an ideological idea of a 'big white wedding' with flowers and really that idea is unobtainable by those whom are not in the midde and upper classes.
• Changes in the Position of Women- women can now work which enables them to support them selves and welfare benefits are now also available whoch means women dont have to rely on a man for their financial support as they can do so them selves.

One Law that is important when discussing divorce becoming easier is the Divorce Law Reform Act (1969) this made the 'irretrievable breakdown of marrige' the sole ground for divorce, established by providing unreasonalble behaviour, adultery, desertion, or seperation withe with or without consent. Back in the 70's divorce was available after two years agreed seperation of 5 years if only one spouce wanted a divorce.

In 1984 the minimum period of marrige before divorce was brought down from 3 to 1 year.

Mitchell and Goody (1997) believe that divorce has been on the rapid increse since the 60's decline in stigma attached to divorce, it has become more socially accepted to get a divorce without being ashamed about.

It has been found that weddings in the UK where the ceremony is religious is on theecline this number was only at 35% in 2009 which suggest that secularisation is on the increase however marrige is still important to some people in our societies.

Fletcher(1966) argues that because of such high expectations of marrige today are the cause behing such high divorce rates and couples have created such a high expectation of marrige being a happy and loving enviroment that they are less likely to tolerate an unhappy marrige. An example of this is The 72 day marrige of Kim Kardashian and Chris Humpheries. Crow(2001) stated that

love, personal commitment and intrinsic satisfaction are now seen as the cornerstones of marrige. The absence of these feeling is itself justification of ending the relationship

Wich suggest that marrige is often percieved as the unobtainable image of a fairytale marrige taht isnt really anymore.

Gibson(1994) Secularisation has loosened rigid moral views of people morally unacceptable to some people. Religion is not as imporant to people, so getting marrige and only having one partner for life is also not as important but a third of weddings in britain are religious ones.so religions are still important to some people.

Same Sex Couples.

Stonewall (2008) estimate that about 5-7% of the adult population are in the same-sex relationships. This number is probaly unrepresentative of the population as not everyone likes to disscuss sexual preference.

Weeks(1999) argues that increased social acceptance may explain the increase in same sex cohabitaion and stable relationships resemble thoes of heterosexual couples. he describes same sex families as places of security and stablility the same as thoes in heterosexual families.

Weston(1992) describes same sex cohabitation as a 'quasi-marrige'and notes that many gay couples aer now deciding to cohabit as stabe partners.

Cheal(2002) notes that while many gay and lesbian couples welcome the oppurtunity to have their partnerships leggally recognised , others fear that it may limit the flexibility and negotiability in relationships.

Some laws influencing same sex relatiopnships are here.

Civil Partnerships

Same Sex Marrige

♥Couples-DIVISION OF LABOUR♥

Couples 

Is the couple life really filled with equality and love? In the next few blogs I will be summing up the research and key ideas behind the sociological thinking about couples and relationships are driven by the sex-typed roles.

Domestic Division of Labour

Domestic Division of Labour relates to how the household tasks are split between the partners living in the house and whether that in some sociologists eyes this split is equal whilst to others its not.

Parsons Instrumental and Expressive roles (1955)
In the traditional nuclear family parsons thought it to be that the roles that were allocated where those which were seen as biological or instinctive to the sexes

• Instrumental role was carried out by the husband who would be working in order to financially provide for his family being the main bread winner
• Expressive role was carried out by the mother who would stay at home take care of childcare, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the house hold

Since the 1950's there has been a change in the status of women and now other sociologists such as Willmott and Young would disagree suggesting that the division of labour in the house hold is alot more equal however feminists would reject both theories suggesting that men are the only ones holding the benefits of the family.

Bott: Joint and Segregated Conjugal Roles(1957)
Bott distinguished that there were two types of roles within the family :

• Joint Conjugal roles which were when couples would share house chores and tasks whilst also spending leisure time together rather than alone with separate friends eg, going to the cinema.
• Separated conjugal roles which which were when the male would go out and be the bread winner and woman would be a housewife which is similar to Parsons instrumental and expressive roles

Bott would be critiqued on how she hasn't taken into consideration the changing society and its slow movement into a more symmetrical family in the eyes of Willmott and Young since the social movement of women since the 50's.

Willmott and Young Symmetrical Families (1973)
W and Y see the family  as taking a gradual movement into becoming more equal and symmetrical where both sexes spend around the same time doing all task in the house hold this is due to a few changes.

• women now can go out to work, although this is part time rather than full time work,
• due to this men now help out a lot more with house work and childcare.
• couples now spend their leisure time together which makes couples more home-centred and privatised.

This thus creating a more symmetrical image due to the changes in the society over the last century such as :

• Changes in women's position with the ability of now being able to go to work
• Geographical Mobility couples move away from home town and communities they live in
• New Technology which saves times on chores
• Higher standards of living.

However Feminists would disagree saying how men hardly do any chores which oppresses the women and creates a burden on women.

Feminists Approach
Feminists sociologist rejects the march of progress view of the family becoming a more equal society in fact they believe it has become quite more the opposite especially since women have been enabled to get some sort of status for them selves.

Oakley(1974) believes that wives are the takers of s@#t and absorb mens anger. She criticises Willmotts and Young idea of the symmetrical families is definitely on a more unconvincing side of the arguments.

she found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in the housework and only 25% participated in childcare this is over all just 40% of men.

Later on researchers such as Boulton(1983) that fewer than 20% of husbands played an active role in childcare which suggest that perhaps W and Young may have over exaggerated their findings,

Warde and Hetherington (1993) shows that sex-typing of domestic tasks is still strong women were more likely to be the last ones to do the washing whilst men would be more likely to be the last person to wash the car. They found that men would only do the 'female' tasks if partners weren't around to do them which shows a distinct division of labour between both sexes.

Oakley's Rise of the housewife role.
Industrialisation and change in status for women in society meant that the housewife role has been increased rather than decreased. Oakley found that in the 20th century women were still the primary caregiver  and also can only get into low paid part time work which means it is expected that she does have to do the house chores which in some cases is true however this approach doesn't consider such things as the New Man and how the family has placed a step forward in a more positive direction.

♥Sociological Perspectives on the Family| Feminism♥

Feminists are a branch of conflict sociologists who believe that the family is unequal and oppresses women, this unequal treatment is created by society- especially patriarchy. There are four main types of feminists all with similar and contrasting views on the functions of the family.

Liberal Feminists

This branch of feminists is concerned about the discrimination equal pay and opportunities for women.

• They argue that women's oppression is gradually changing due to a change in the attitudes of society and introduction of laws such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 which states that discrimination of the sexes at work is illegal.
• They also believe that there is a gradual step towards equality of both sexes however this is a very small fragment in society which is dependent on further reforms, changes in socialisation patterns and introduction of  laws.
• They argue that in the family full gender equality has not yet been achieved, studies suggest that men are actually doing more work at home and the way we are socialised is now become more equal than in the past.
• However liberal feminists are often criticised by other feminists for failing to see the causes for women's oppression and believe that changes in attitudes will be enough to bring equality however Marxist feminists and radical feminists would suggest that only changes in the deep-set social structures,

Marxist Feminist

This branch of feminists argue that the main cause of women's oppression is not men however its Capitalism. 

Women fulfil capitalists functions by:

• women reproduce the labour force- through the unpaid domestic labour, socialising and maintaining current and future generations.

Women absorb men's anger that would other wise be directed at the capitalist society.

• Ansley(1972) describes wives as takers of s#@t who soak up husbands frustrations  because of the alienation and exploitation they take at work. Marxist feminist say that therefore this is the reason for why domestic violence occurs,

Women are a reserve army for cheap labour. Women are usually taken on by employers when extra workers are needed but then employers let them go to return to their primary role of domestic work at home which is free,

Marxist feminists therefore see the oppression women experience as a product of the alienation and exploitation they face by being in the working class. They argue that the family should be abolished and be replaced by a class less society, 

Radical Feminists

Radical feminists argue that societies are founded by the basic principle of patriarchy ( society being run and dominated by by males, which is why there is such a distinct division in society between men and women.

Radical feminists believe that:

• men are the enemy and they are the cause of women's oppression  and exploitation in the society and family
• Family and marriage are key institutions in patriarchal society. Men benefit from women's unpaid work domestic work, sexual services and dominate women through the use or the threat of domestic violence.

RF argue that the way out of women's oppression especially one created by the family is to abolish the family and live through separatism- this is where women would organise them selves to live independent from men. 

Many RF also argue for Political Lesbianism and suggest that heterosexual relationships are oppressive because of the fact women are sleeping with the enemy 

Greer (2000) argues for the creation of matrilocal households (all female) as an alternative to a heterosexual families in order to combat the oppression created by the family. 

LF Somerville(2000) argues that RF fail to recognise that women's position in the society has drastically improved- women are now entitled to better access to divorce, better job opportunities, birth control and the ability to choose whether to be married or to cohabit. Separatism is unlikely to work due to heterosexual attraction which makes it unlikely for the traditional nuclear family to disappear. However Somerville does recognise that women are yet to achieve full equality, so there is a need for family friendly policies such as flexible working or in fact changes in the paternity pay would immensely increase the equality between sexes

Difference Feminists

DF believe that we cant generalise women's experience of family life in the same way. They argue that for example lesbian and heterosexual women,  white and black women , middle and working class women etc, all view the family and have had different experience of the family 

For example Black Feminists would argue that the family is a very positive environment as white feminists fail to see the racial oppression created by society so the family helps black women stay away and resist this racial oppression,

However other feminists would argue that this approach neglects despite individual differences such as the ones listed above women still tend to experience the same experiences in relation to the family for example women are more likely to face domestic violence and sexual assault this is not to say that men don't face this at all, other issues such low pay etc,

♥Sociological Perspectives On The Functions Of The Family| Functionalism♥

There are three main types of sociologists that we talk about when studying the society. These are Marxists, Feminists and Functionalists; all of whom have different perspectives and also similarities between them.

So lets start with Functionalism.

Functionalists are a branch of Consensus sociologists (they are of the belief that the family is a positive function that is benefiting everyone in that sector, Marxists and Feminists would disagree)
Liken the Human Body the family plays a function in society which helps it to run smoothly, for example lets say that the Family is the heart in our bodies without our heart we would not be able to live so it is an essential part of that system. This is the functionalist theory of Organic Analogy of the family.

Another theory that is created by Functionalists is the Warm Bath theory which is often rejected by other sociologists as functionalists believe that every family is the same loving and nurturing family where as this is not the case, not all families are nurturing and loving to one another which could sometimes result in the  involvement with the care system etc..

When speaking about functionalism there are two main researchers we refer to and they are Murdock and Parson.

Murdock(1949) believed that the family performed four essential functions in the society these are:

♥Stable satisfaction of the sex drive (being with the same partner allows the individual to feel a sense of belonging and also prevents social disruption that is caused by the 'sex is free for all' ideas
♥Reproduction of the next generation (without being able to reproduce children the society would not be able to continue)
♥Socialisation of the young (allows children to understand the norms and values of society and pass them on through each generation and shows them what is expected from them by their society)
♥Meeting its' members economic needs (allows members to have essentials of life such as food and shelter)

Criticisms of Murdock
♥ some sociologists would argue that the families function can be performed by other functions in society such as the care system.
♥Marxists and Feminists would reject Parsons rose tinted view and say that functionalists fail to see (neglect) conflict and exploitation. Feminists would argue that the family is unequal and oppresses women who serve the needs of men. Marxists would argue that the family is beneficial for the capitalist and not of  those who are the members of family or society as a whole.


Parsons(1955) believed that the functions of the family are based on  its structure and in particular the pre-industrial (extended) family and the Modern (nuclear) Family.

Quick recap of the structures, An Extended family is where you can have 3 generations living together this can be extended vertically or horizontally. A vertically extended family is one where grandparents live with their children and their grandchildren, where as a horizontally extended family is one where your aunties/uncles live with their brothers and sisters and their nieces and nephews. The vertically extended family was one that was most popular pre industry(you can just refer to this as the extended family in your essays and exams.) A nuclear family is one where the parents and children live together. This family became more common since the industrialisation due to two reasons parson believed it was a better function.

♥Geographically Mobile Workforce. As before the industrialisation the family size was large (extended family) the structure of the family developed into a nuclear one. This became beneficial not only to the members of the family so if a job comes up its easier to move a smaller family thus creating a geographically mobile workforce.

♥Socially Mobile Workforce, As the society and its technology is constantly evolving and with the change in family structure where as before status was ascribed ( you were born into it) it is now achieved ( you work hard to get you where you need to be) which means that the younger generations or shall i say any generation at all will be able to achieve the status they want .

So Parson believed that the family over has 2 main functions due to the change in family type.
♥ The primary socialisation of children. this where the family equips children with the basic skills and values expected from them by the surrounding society in order to help them co-operate with others.
♥The stabilisation of adult personalities. The family is an environment where adults can remove and relax with the tension created by work and comeback to work he next day feeling refreshed and ready to work

Criticisms
♥Extended family is quite beneficial in the modern society as it allows both parents to work and also be relived of childcare which would suggest that the nuclear family isn't the best functional fit.

Tip: for extra marking points suggest reasons as to how the items can be criticised instead of just quoting research as this shows the examiner your understanding of the topic.
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Thank you for reading and hope you found this helpful. These blogs will be based around the AQA AS Sociology specification and for more information on this go to their website. The next blog will include The Feminist perspective of the family along with Key terms. Anything important will be made bold so you know what are the key bits that you will need to revise. For any more help or questions dont hesitate to leave comments, message me on twitter @MissSweetlyNat or on facebook Miss Sweetly Nat. Thank You.