A typical child in the post-World War 2 period was more likely to be born into a more traditional or nuclear family setting consisting of two parents who were married. It was unlikely that their mother worked outside the family home and their father, who was considered the head of the household, would have worked to provide an income for the whole family. Around this time, due to increased wealth and a rise in living standards, more people than ever owned their own homes. With that came a rise in those getting married and at a younger age. The average age of those getting married lowered and there was a higher rate of these marriages lasting. The baby boom after the war saw the family size rise to an average of almost 3 children.
Family structures since the 1950s have evolved and changed. There are now a great many different types of families evident in the UK today. The nuclear family remains but equally popular are a large number of other family types including single-parent, blended, adoptive, extended, and same-sex parent families. I will look at some of these different types of families and some of the reasons why they have become more popular.
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Family size has changed since the 1950’s. Following the baby boom after the war which saw a rise in the population, the period after the 1980’s saw a falling population and consequently a decline in family size. The average number of children for a British family is 1.7.* Several factors can be attributed to this. A change in the role of the woman was probably the most influential factor. Many began to go out to work resulting in less time to have children. Over the years this trend has continued, more women are going into third-level education and having children later in life. Rising childcare costs have also had an effect. In 2014 the average age of first-time mothers in England and Wales had increased by 5 years to 30.2 since 1975. The availability of contraception also added to a lowering in the birth rate.
Although more than half of households today are still nuclear families, this has been declining for some time (ONS 2007-Focus on families) with a fall of over 4% between 1996 and 2006. While marriage is still popular, a larger number of couples are choosing to cohabit. In 1960, just 2% of couples were cohabiting before they got married. However, the Office for National Statistics found that cohabiting couple families were the fastest-growing family type with an increase of 15% from 1996 to 2017. There are several possible reasons for this. More people particularly younger couples are deciding to live together before marriage, possibly to try it out before they enter into a marriage. There is also the idea that marriage is outdated and restricted. As well as this couples find getting married an expensive option since weddings are costly affairs. Another reason may be that many single-sex couples tended to cohabit during this time as marriage was forbidden. Since legislation to allow same-sex marriage only came into force in 2014, it is most likely a large number of those who added to the increase between 1996 and 2017 can be attributed to this sector of the community.
From 1996 to 2017 the number of lone parent families grew by 15.2% (ONS 2017). There are around 1.8 million single parents today which make up nearly a quarter of families with dependent children. This has not been a recent trend but one that has been progressively rising since the 1970s. Perhaps the main reason is the rise in divorce rates primarily due to the Divorce Reform Act (1969) which established irretrievable breakdown as a valid ground for divorce. Another reason may be a change in the taboo of having children out of wedlock.
A blended family or a stepfamily is a family where one or both parents have children from a previous relationship, but have come together to create a new family. This modern type of family would rarely be found in the 1950s unless due to the death of a parent. Today it is much more common due to several factors. A rise in divorce rates has played a role as too has the rise in lone parenting. Another factor that cannot be ignored is advances in medicine. It is much more accessible for single women to have babies through donor eggs. Ferri and Smith 2003 found Stepfamilies to be one of the fastest-growing family forms in the UK
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