“family in transition 21st century”

8/8/2019 “FAMILY IN TRANSITION 21ST CENTURY”

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SOCIOLOGY

Assignment # 2

“FAMILY IN TRANSITION / 21ST

CENTURY”

19/5/2009

Submitted to:

Prof. A. Shumaila

Submitted by:

Madiha Iram Anam Aslam

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Sofia Izhar Marium Hasan

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Section:

B



Table of Contents

Table of Contents ............................................................................................. 2

INTRODUCTION TO REPORT: ............................................................................ 3

BACKGROUND: ................................................................................................ 4

PAST FAMILY PATTERNS: .................................................................................. 5

FAMILY: ......................................................................................................... 5

RESIDENTIAL PATTERNS: ............................................................................... 5

MARRIAGE:.................................................................................................... 5

ATTITUDES: ................................................................................................... 6

PRESENT FAMILIES: .......................................................................................... 7

FAMILY: ......................................................................................................... 7


MARRIAGE:.................................................................................................... 7

ATTITUDES: ................................................................................................... 8

FUTURE FAMILIES: ............................................................................................ 9

FAMILY: ......................................................................................................... 9


MARRIAGE:.................................................................................................... 9

ATTITUDES: ................................................................................................... 9

ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 10

CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 11



INTRODUCTION TO REPORT:

Our report is based on the objective of finding out how the family patterns have under gone changes over the time and how we can describe the families of 21st century. For

this purpose we have analyzed various family characteristics in three different time

periods that is present, past and future. In this way one can really understand the concept

of transition in case of families. Our report also describes the most common terms

associated with the concept of a family which are the residential patterns, marriage and

attitudes of the members of the whole family. The term “nuclear family” has been used

for the families of present and future in the report and it also specifies the negative trends

which have now become and considered to be of great value. So by comparing the family

concept of today with what it was in the past, a clear analysis as well as conclusion has

been drawn.



BACKGROUND:

In the recent years, urbanization has directed to the alterations and amendments in

the existing family system, in larger cities. Moreover, the realism of urbanization

will make the social units living together to get less exerted and large nuclear

group. This method of practice will commonly be experienced and determined in

developing countries. Family system in every country will vary depending upon

their culture and style of living. For example in Pakistan family system, people

conceive the traditional and cultural family values and they give good respect

considering them as divinity and sacredness. Urban family system has been

changed to nuclear family system, due to the socioeconomic confinements inflicted

by the customary joint family system. In Pakistan, the joint family system is quite

usually found. Joint family usually comprises father, mother, children, grand father

and mother, and they live together with their people in the same family unit.

Moreover, the governing male of the house plays a significant role with respect to

the well-being of his family unit. Also, they give a good care and take the

responsibility to guard their grandparents. Above all, they respect their folks and

grandparents. People in Pakistan dearly follow the joint family system and live

their life along with their folks.



PAST FAMILY PATTERNS:

FAMILY:

The role of the family is important in Pakistan because it is the basic organization in

Pakistan. Families often consist of grandparents, parents, siblings, and other relatives

who all live in one house with the focus on the male kin.

RESIDENTIAL PATTERNS:

In Pakistan, the joint family system was commonly found in early days. Joint family usually

comprises father, mother, children, grand father and mother, and they live together with their

people in the same family unit. Moreover, the governing male of the house plays a significant

role with respect to the well-being of his family unit. Also, they take good care and responsibility

to guard their blood relations. Above all, they respect their folks and grandparents. People in

Pakistan dearly follow the joint family system and live their lives along with their folks.

MARRIAGE:

It was a common view that a man could only marry when he was able to provide the

economic support for his wife and the family, as she won’t work. So, when someone

wanted to get married he would tell his parents, sisters and close family for them to find

someone for him.

So when a suitable candidate was found, the two families would meet, and negotiate

about the marriage. The bride’s family would demand that the husband would give some

amount of gold to the bride, if anything would go wrong (divorce, death..). Depending on

how rich both families are this amount can go up to 1kg of gold!

The husband was expected to have a house or a room (normally the new couple would

move into the house of the parents of the husband), and be able to have a good job to

satisfy all the needs of the new family. The wife was supposed to provide all the material

goods.



In early days, marriages were preferred within family and casts. At least the number of

children was four and it could exceed up to 11 and onwards. The parents of that time used

to spend more duration of time than now and due to high respect towards parents the

communication gap was more.

The divorce rate was low because it was a belief that once women are married they

belong to their in-laws

ATTITUDES:

In the early times the women were responsible of all the house chores. They were not

allowed to leave the premises of the house without the permission of their husbands and

in-laws. They prepared all the food for the men and all men would dine together andafterwards the women would eat the leftovers. Moreover, only men were allowed to do

job, women were only there to oversee the family issues and also because of this all the

burden of family expenses was on the men’s shoulders. There was no concept of seeking

education among women. The dressing pattern was quite formal and also there was no

trend of dining out.



PRESENT FAMILIES:

FAMILY:

In the present, the families have now been reduced in number. Now the people prefer to live

alone after marriage. There are get-togethers in which all the family members meet each other.

But the joint system has been reduced to a great extent.


Now a day, the concept of joint family system has been overtaken by separate family system’s

concept. In one house there live only one family comprising parent and their children, the

grandparents usually have their own house to live but they may keep visiting at their children

house and meet their grandchildren. Both parents are now involve in earning bread and butter for their family and because of this now the family burden is equally shared between men and

women.

MARRIAGE:

Now love marriage is more preferred as compared to arranged marriages. As, children are more

independent in their decisions and don’t believe in their parent’s decisions any more so the

importance of parent’s view or decision have decreased. But we cannot totally ignore the fact that

still there are families or youngsters who prefer their parent’s decision not only for their marriage

purposes but also for their own future career.

The process is still formal in which the families of both the children negotiate with one another

for the sake of their children’s happiness. If everything goes satisfactory then t he bride’s family

would demand that the husband would give some amount of gold to the bride, if anything

would go wrong.

Cast is not a big issue and not much parents restrict their children to do marriages in the family.

On the other hand parents do not press their children for arrange marriages as well.

In the present the divorce rate is increasing as compared to the past.



ATTITUDES:

The trends have changed because now parents are more towards educating their children despite

the genders. Education is the basic needs of the society as discrimination between both the

genders have come to an end in the 21st century. Women along with their life partners are helping

to keep the house running. The women are now more independent and are not restricted to house

work but play a vital role in earning a life. Maid system and nanny’s are now in fashion to do

house work and take care of their children. More people dine out as they don’t have the time to

cook food at home.



FUTURE FAMILIES:

FAMILY:

The definition of family will changed over the past years. A family would be complete if a single

parent is taking care of his/her child. Other key relations would be given secondary importance.


As life would be busier no one would have time to look after a big house. Apartments

would be in fashion and living alone would be preferred. The word family would be

given secondary importance. After completing education a child may wish to live alone

without his/her parents thus changing the whole concept of the family system.

MARRIAGE:

There would be no involvement of parents in any case the children would be independent

and wishing to live on their on. Divorce rate would increase because love marriages

would increase as there is no involvement of the parents and no suggestions as well. So,

there would be no functions and court marriages will become common. Due to the

negative impact of having family, parents will avoid having family. So it might be

possible that in future families will shrink only to parents with no children.

ATTITUDES:

Parents and children relation would break. The role of the parents as guardians would

change and there would be no reliable relationship left. Dining out would increase and

people would have minimum time to spend with other relations. Moreover, as working

women will become common thing of lifestyle there would be a chance that men will

take the place of women in doing house chores and women will take the responsibilities

of doing outside work in place of men. Every body will be concern with his life as due to

busy schedule no body will get a chance to meet each other or care about each other. This

will reduce the family gatherings even people would not prefer to meet each other in

religious or other ceremonies e.g. in eid, funerals, marriages etc.



ANALYSIS

Family and community networks profoundly influence our values and attitudes in ways

that we are not even conscious of. Joint families impact on our lives in different ways

because families are the first training grounds, where people learn interpersonal skills.

People in joint families learn lessons of patience, tolerance, cooperation and adjustment.

They also learn what it means to take collective responsibility. In joint family system

where young people live with senior members of the family from the time they are born,

they grow up appreciating, admiring and loving them. They also learn to adjust because

they realize that as younger people, they have the flexibility of adjusting and changing

whereas older people often get stuck in patterns of functioning. Nuclear family threw the

children and the parents together, for better or for worse, with no other family members

in their space. Now the entire responsibility of what kind of an individual the child grew

up to be, lay on the parents. And the differences between the two family set-ups started

showing up starkly, in the personality of the child, as well as on the health, mental and

otherwise, of the parents. The other features to get affected were the finances of a family,

the quality of time spent together, their closeness, individuality, power equations etc.

While in joint families, financial problems were shared by all the members of the family,

as were financial gains, in nuclear families, financial problems often had to be shared

independently.



CONCLUSION

By comparing all the family patterns from past to present and up till future, it is obvious

that whatever the changes are, it is bringing more and more negative trends in regard to

family. Before people enjoyed living as a big family with all khalas, mamoos etc

comprising members of at least 14. But in present the trend is tilted more towards nuclear

family where some people are in favor of it. In future, this concept seems to be more

dominant as people would prefer to get education or experience from overseas so on their

return they will built their own home and live only by them. Thus, through all this

observation we can conclude that the concept of family is disappearing gradually. There

is no respect; care and good attitude left behind between blood relations as every body is

struggling for own good. Still it’s not too late to realize the importance of family and love

our blood ones.

“family in transition 21st century”

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