The Rapoports & Family Diversity
Sociology: AQA GCSE, topic 2.2.4
The Rapoports' Types of Family Diversity
The Rapoports identified that there are different family types emerging in the UK, though the nuclear family type still remains one of the most typical. There are five types of family diversity.
Organisational family diversity
- Organisational family diversity describes how families are organised.
- Examples include:
- Dual-career families.
- Segregated or integrated conjugal roles.
- Traditional roles.
Cultural family diversity
- Cultural family diversity describes a family with different beliefs, lifestyles, norms and values.
- E.g. Polygamy - having more than one spouse at a time.
- E.g. Polyandry - a woman having more than one husband at a time.
Class family diversity
- Class family diversity occurs when a family’s position in society depicts the way the family is run.
- E.g. Higher-income families may hire childcare workers to help raise their children.
Life-course family diversity
- Life-course family diversity occurs when members of the family go through different stages of their lives.
- E.g. A family member might start life in a nuclear family, then undergo a divorce and become a lone parent family.
Cohort family diversity
- Cohort family diversity happens when family members have a different experience of life depending on the conditions and time in which they were born.
Emergence of Same-Sex Households
Same-sex households
- Rhona and Robert Rapoport’s work highlights the fact that there is an emergence of same-sex households and that our society is more open towards them.
Criticism
- Robert Chester argued that family life has largely stayed the same and has criticised the Rapoports for exaggerating how much diversity exists in societies.
Test yourself on The Rapoports & Family Diversity
Which type of diversity is used to describe a family with different beliefs, lifestyles, norms and values?
What is Robert Chester's main criticism of Rhona & Robert Rapoport’s work?
What does Rhona and Robert Rapoport's work tell us about society's attitude towards same-sex households?