The nuclear family is the "traditional" concept of a family it consisted of father, mother and their children with the mother not being in paid employment and the father being the sole breadwinner. The family or the household is one of the main institutions in society. It is here that almost all the consumption in society takes place. The make-up of the family is not as "cut and dry" as it once was. Social forces have modified the nuclear family, the structural and institutional forces such as multiculturalism, the feminist movement, education, the church and the government alter the notion of the nuclear family. The nuclear family is as it was, is dead

In the 19th century, there was a prevalent argument amongst scientists that the more primitive the society, the more extended were its family systems; or the more developed it was, the more the family system followed the nuclear pattern. The broad conclusion was drawn and held that the extended family had been a victim of the industrial revolution (Ogburn and Tibbits 1963). These arguments were refined by the structural-functional sociologists of the 1950s. These writers referred to the process of differentiation (societal units becoming more specialised) in modernising societies - that is, as a society modernises, its units become increasingly more specialised. They saw the modern, nuclear family as better structured to accommodate this process of differentiation. The family they were referring was the nuclear family. Being smaller, this family form was seen as better equipped than other family forms to operate in the modern economy which revolves around individual achievement and social and geographic mobility (Parsons and Bales 1955).

Beyond demography and ideology, family can be considered as the central core in the support networks of individuals. Using this definition of family, evidence continues to emerge that the extent of contact, cooperation and exchange between family members living in different households is very great indeed. The lack of recognition for these flows of exchange is the basis of the conventional wisdom that the extended family is insignificant in the Australian context.

When we extend our definition of family to family relationships across household boundaries, the definition of 'family' becomes more complex. In societies where roles and obligations between kin are rigidly prescribed, it is possible to provide a structural definition of the extended family. In Western societies like Australia, roles and obligations are not rigidly prescribed in respect of kin living in different households. The reality, therefore, is that people define their own families. They do this according to four main dimensions: the relationship to each person; the purpose or activity concerned; particular circumstances applying in their case; and their perceptions of the nature of obligations.

, and what has replaced it has put all old theories about the family to the test.

The emergence to pre-eminence of the nuclear family as the idealised family morality can be seen as part of this general progression towards the small and the private. The idealising of the nuclear family probably reached its zenith in the 1950s when current psychology tended to label anyone who did not aspire to this ideal as deviant (Ehrenreich 1983). However, in this progression of ideas, the idea of the nuclear family has itself come under pressure as the rights of individual family members have come to take precedence over the rights of individual families (McDonald 1988). In the 1960's we saw a 'war over the family' waged on one side by those who seek to protect the idealised 'breadwinner' model of the nuclear family against the trend to uphold the rights of individual family members. On the other side by those who would prefer to see the concept of the nuclear family eliminated altogether.

Prolonged education also contributed to the unpopularity on the nuclear family, with more children completing secondary school and even more children going on to university. Prolonged education meant that children joined the workforce a later age. The cost of having children progressively rose and, in turns the fertility rate progressively decline. The other thing that we are probably aware of is that this notion of the traditional family has come under trenchant criticism not only from the feminist movement, because of the rigid role definitions that have been pressed onto women (women as nurturers and homemakers as well as women as workers.) (Marxist)- but also for the ways in which these rigidly defined roles have affected men.

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Approximate Word count = 2881
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)