British family structures - changes since WW2

Discuss the ways in which British family structures may have changed since the Second World War. Introduction In order to discuss and evaluate any changes which may have taken place within the structure of the British family after the Second World War, it is first necessary to examine the structures of the family unit prior to the Second World War. Only then will it be possible to make comparisons between the two. In this essay …

…in some ways it is surprising that the typical image of a family seen in advertisements still shows two (probably white) biological parents with a son (generally the eldest) and a daughter (the youngest). If anything, this shows us that even now, after so much change in social structure and attitudes, the power and dominance of the traditional, patriarchal concept cannot be underestimated and still exerts a strong influence over contemporary ideas of the family.