Is the Nuclear Family universal?

The nuclear is often considered the traditional family; it consists of 2 generations – married man and woman with clearly divided gendered roles, with children.

Early functionalist writer Murdock claimed that the nuclear family was crucial to society as it performed 4 basic and vital functions: sexual, reproductive, economic and socialisation.  He considered the nuclear family therefore the only proper and useful family type to have.

For Murdock the nuclear family was a ‘universal social grouping’.  It was to be found everywhere.  This led the sociologist William Goode (1963) to proclaim there would be a worldwide trend towards the nuclear family!

However, these views of early functionalism are somewhat outdated when we consider historical and cross cultural examples as well as contemporary trends, that demonstrate that there have been and are other successful family types, past and in contemporary society.

So, is the nuclear family universal?

Well Diane Gittens (1993) stressed it was only possible to talk of relationships as universal, not the nuclear family.  In other words, in all parts of the world, there can be found human relationships – these may not however be of the nuclear variety! What’s more, Barrett & McIntosh state that it is not the nuclear family that is universal, but rather the idea of it.

This may suggest some underlying ideology towards what may still be considered the ‘proper’ and ‘natural’ family type – we’ve seen this past and present within government policy.

Historically we have seen the Nayar Tribe of the 18^th century through the work of Gough that illustrates a fully socially functioning familial set up that saw children born of multiple fathers that had no responsibility for their upbringing.  This fell to the female tribe members and the child’s uncles.

We’ve even seen direct attempts at to avoid the nuclear family.  The early 20^th century saw the Russian experiment in which the government no longer felt the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ necessary and attempted to free women from the chore of unpaid domestic labour. Greater state involvement would mean the family would wither away as it would increasingly no longer be required to fulfill roles once undertaken.

Since the 1970s, the nuclear family in the UK has diminished by a third whilst other family types have increased significantly e.g. lone parents have increased three fold and according to the Rappoports, due to the multi culturalism of Britain, there will never be a dominant family type.  Therefore the nuclear family will not ever be universal; a direct critique of Goode’s previous claims some 30 odd years earlier.

However, living in a nuclear family is a phase that most people, as children and adults, go through in the course of their life cycle (Chester). What’s more, British based Chinese families are predominantly nuclear in form. So, whilst it may not be universal as early functionalists claimed, the nuclear family is still significant in contemporary British society,