According to Emile Durkheim one of the institutions is the family with the aim of reproduction and child rising. Men and women should undertake the kind of chores that are most appropriate to their biology (Giddens, 2013). Durkheim believed that the solidarity coming from the necessary division of labor resulted in well- being of the society. He was against the equality for women promoted by feminists (Lamanna, 2002). Furthermore, the survey done by George Murdock (1949) on over 200 societies shows that the `sexual division of labor` exists in every culture and in his opinion it is logical that women are best suited to do the housework and look after her family while men`s job is to work out of the house because of his physical ability and this is the best way to shape the humanity. Talcott Parsons (1955) proposed stereotypes of masculinity and femininity and similarly to Murdock suggested that biology should rule the tasks undertaken by women and men (Giddens, 2013). He stated that in the ideal family it was a women job to raise children: “In our opinion the fundamental explanation of the allocation of roles between the biological sexes lies in the fact that the bearing and early nursing of children establish a strong presumptive primacy of the relation of mother to the small child” (Haralambos and Holborn, 2013; p.100). As identified by Parsons` the woman`s role in the family is …show more content…
Within them, for many reasons is number of single mother families. According to ONS (2010a: 18) from 2001 to 2009 the number of British one parent families has increased considerably within every ethnic group. The only exceptions are Chinese where their number decreased (Giddens and Sutton, 2013). The proportion of lone mother families in Britain increased from 12.7% in 2001 to 14.1% in 2010 (Beaumont, 2011). Since the percentage of single mothers is raising they are seen by politicians and media as an overall problem in the society. However Burghes and Roberts (1995) claim that even though the numbers of lone parents are increasing the reality does not show them as a big problem in the society and they are seen in this way only because the state wants to reduce the costs of benefits paid to this types of families (Kirby, 2000). Also, not many realise that being a lone parent might be an own choice coming with an enjoyment. For instance, Dallos and Sapsford (1995) concluded from various conversations with single mothers that, as mentioned above, many of them freely choose to be primary carer of their child, being responsible for financial and emotional support of their families. Moreover, they found that after a period of confusing mixed feelings women become more confident and enjoy their independency (Kirby, 2000). Many argue that single mothers cannot be even comparable to married parents and it’s both