George Peter Murdock's Effect On The Western Family

George Peter Murdock is a functionalist sociologist who states that family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation, and reproduction. He further explains that it includes adults of both sexes, especially those who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted of the sexually co-habiting adults (Murdock, 1985) Another sociologist said that the concept of the traditional family, that is, the natural reproductive unit of a mother, father, and the children all living under one roof is not an indisputable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and over time, the definition changes. (Ball, 2002) The term, modernization theory

Women now work outside of the home and at too many hours. This change has affected families a lot. Before I elaborated on the how this change has affected the family though, I will look at three (3) current factors that are creating the current speed in work and family life. There are an increasing number of mothers working outside the home, as compared to before. More than half of these mothers have children who are one year old or younger. Secondly, these mothers work in jobs that are inflexible. Jobs that do not allow them to spend quality time with their offspring. The structure of jobs allotted to women is still based on the traditional viewpoint where a woman’s main role is still to stay at home and care for her man and children. Women now work extra and long hours. In fact, a study done by Juliet Schor shows that over the last two decades, most Western workers have added an extra 164 hours to their yearly workload. Family vacation times have shortened; families no longer spend time eating evening meals together. Overtime and commuting to and from work has become the social normal for the family. Young parents work up to more than 8 hours daily. Mothers return to work in less than no time after the birth of their child and even work during the summer. (Schor,

Flexible working hours or self-roistering consists of flexible start and finish times and a possibility for employees to request specific working hours on a regular basis thereby increasing choice and control by the employee. The system may be base on a paper version or by use of computer. Such increased influence has in several cases shown to increase work-life balance. Part-time may be one way to reduce working hours and thereby improve work-life balance. There are, however, some potential built-in negatives e.g. risk of reduced career opportunities and increased workload, because the demands are not lowered in the same way. Job sharing is also one of the family friendly reforms used by scholars to reduce a family’s workload. It is where two persons voluntarily share a job with the same benefits and salary. There are also many more family- friendly reforms listed but there are too much to mention. Together, work sharing and these reforms could spread work, increase worker control for hours and create a warm, modern world where women are treated