The Nuclear Family Replaced the Extended Family After Industrialisation

The Nuclear Family Replaced the Extended Family After Industrialisation

Talcott Parsons believed that the nuclear family developed mainly as a

result of industrialisation. He thought that before the industry took

over the functions of the family, the families were extended units of

production. This means that the work and home lives were combined and

so each family member taught another one skill for life such as

education. Parsons says that the extended family stayed together so

they could provide health care for one another and look after the old

people whilst the old people looked after the young children whilst

the parents were out working. They also pursued justice on behalf of

one another; if one family member were hard done by, all the other

family members would help sort it out.

Parsons believed that the industrial revolution brought about three

fundamental changes. The first of these was the new social roles where

the men went out to work and the women stayed at home to do housework

and look after the children. The second was the extended family became

geographically mobile. He believed that by becoming geographically

mobile, the extended family was forced to split up into smaller groups

to move around to find work and this is why we have nuclear families

today. The third was that specialised agencies such as the welfare

state took over the work done by families and so separated homes and

work. However the nuclear family is also a specialised agency in child

socialisation. Willmott and Young are two functionalists who agree

with Parsons view that the nuclear family came about after

industrialisation and that before hand we ...

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...xtremely strong and they often gave each other practical,

emotional and sometimes even financial support, as well as giving the

same types of support to the rest of the family. She believes this is

the main reason why extended families were not wiped out at the

beginning of the industrial revolution. She believes the extended

families are still around today, so that they have more people to

socialise with instead of just being stuck with their partner and/or

children. I believe that the nuclear family is more common than the

extended families today. However there are other types of family

structure around to be considered and so I do not believe that it is

just the industrial revolution that has changed mostly extended

families into other family structures but it also has to do with other

factors that have occurred.