Free Custom «Family» Essay Paper

Introduction

The term family comes from Latin, a word that means familia, which refers to a group of people that happen to be joined by blood and living together.A family can be described as small social unite that consist of parents and children, which is considered as a group, whether they live together or not. In most of the societies in the world, a family is seen as the best place for the children to learn how to socialize. The word family can be used to relate to people socializing, which has seen some institution such as churches considering themselves as a family. One of the most important and must do function of a family is procreation. In most cases, a man and woman must have a child to be considered as a full family. There are two main types of families. These are the nuclear family and the extended family.

The Old Types of Families

During the earlier times, a family was categorized into two groups. These are the nuclear family and the extended family. The nuclear family is also referred to as a conjugal family. In this type of family, the parents live under the same residence with their children. They can also be said to be sharing the bonds that are closest. In almost every nuclear family, the two parents happens to be the only one who do not have any biological relation, as the father and mother has a biological relation with the children. The extended family is the kind of family that consists of all the relatives who are in the close proximity (Wilson 1985). These include the grandparents, uncles, aunts and also cousins. In an extended family, all the relatives live together typically, which makes them share all the daily duties in the household. The extended family can also be referred to as a multigenerational family or a joint family. This however depends on the members of the family included.

 

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New Types of Families

Due to many factors in the world, there are some new types of family which are emerging. One of the most common of the fastest growing structure families is the single parent family. In a report conducted, 86% of the people interviewed were okay with single families. In the United States, the number of women who were experiencing single families were 9, 924, which was largely dominated by the white women, while the number of single families which were by a father was 1762 (Silva & Smart 1999). However, in the Northern Ireland, the number of women who experienced single family was 7,635 while men were 963.At most times the single parent family last for a short time since most of the single parents decides to get married again. In most case of single parent family, they consist of mother and her children, who have to bear the cost of bringing them up alone (Pinnelli 2001).

Another type of the emerging new families in the world is the consensual family. This type of family consists of a man and woman who live together with children in a relationship that is not recognized legally. The consensual family usually serves any function that it needs to. There is the concubine type of family. This family consists of an extra female who happens to be a sexual partner who is recognized as a family member. The main functions of this kind of family are limited to mostly sex and reproduction. There is the blended or the reconstituted family, which consist of a wife and husband, where one of them has been married before. The married partner may be single again due to divorce or death of the spouse. In Northern Ireland, in the year 2010, the percentage number of men that decided to remarry was 48 while that of women is 44.7. However, in the US, the percentage number of men that decided to remarry after divorce was 58 while that of women was 41 (Poole 2005).

Feminism Theory

Feminism can be described as the collection of ideologies and movements, which are aimed mostly at defining the economical, political and social rights for a woman. The theory of feminism aims most at understanding the gender inequality measure by investigating the social roles that are played by women (Fisanick 2007).

Functionalism Theory

Functionalism is considered as one of the oldest theoretical sociology perspective, which is still the most dominant. Functionalism can be described as one of the proposals, which have been provided as the only solutions to the problem of mind and body. The solutions that are provided to the mind tries to make answers to questions that requires to know the nature of the mind, and what makes  the mental state health ( Andersen  &  Taylor 2010).

Marxist Theory

Marxist theory suggests that the society seems to be having struggle between different social classes. There is an exploitation that is done to the working class, which is known as capitalism. The only war for the working class to gain power is through a social revolution (Parkin 1979).

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Conclusion

A family is a unit which is used to unite people. The two common types of families are the nuclear and the extended families, where the nuclear consist of parents and kids while the extended consist of relatives. However, due to the social changes in the world, there is some emergence of new families. The use of the new families is to make people social, example being the consensual family. Some of the new types of family can be said to be happening due to a decrease in the marriage life, which leads mostly to cohabitation.