Using Examples from the Australian Context Examine how Families and Family Roles Have Changed Over the Past 100 Years

In this modern society, the 'family' is typically acknowledged as a nuclear family. There are various definitions of the family; according to Bessant and Watts (2002), the family consists of a maximum of two generations sharing the same residence, where the mother and father are married based on a sexual and love relationship, with biological children. The family stays together until the children reach independence and parts from the family to form a new nuclear family. Murdock (1949, p.1 citied in Baker 2001, p.80) labels the nuclear family as a "social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction." Murdock states that the families universally perform certain functions in the society in order to be of existence. He identified four critical functions that families ought to fulfill, namely the sexual, reproduction, educational and economic function (Bottomley, 1985). However, through industrialization and development in technology, the family in the present modern society is undergoing alterations. In this essay, we will discuss the changes in respect to Murdoch's theory of the four functions the family performs.…