Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Agree
60%
Agree strongly
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Total
0-4
5-8
9-11 12-15
0-4
5-8
9-11 12-15
0-4
5-8
9-11 12-15
Total
ABC1
C2DE
Figure 3.4
The democratic family: The percentage of respondents who agree or agree
strongly with the statement 'In my family, children have a say in important family
spending decisions', by age of child and by age of child within social grade. (Data from
5000 respondents to an online survey, 2010.)
Source
: The Future Foundation
a family network. There are numerous reasons why the authors consider
this to be so. Firstly, a network transcends time and space. Today's family
is likely to experience some level of dispersion as migration becomes more
common. A family unit, on the other hand, is more linked to actual location.
Secondly, as families become smaller and move around more, new networks
of reciprocal support are built. These networks may include anyone from
close friends to distant relatives. Children are increasingly being brought
up by non-biological parents. Thus, love and trust are decreasingly being
defined by blood and so the notion of family is becoming more fluid and
flexible. While at present in the majority of traditional two-parent families
the man is still the primary breadwinner and the woman is the primary
carer for children, it is now socially accepted to not adhere to this formula-
tion. With women strengthening their position in the workplace, women
may be the breadwinners in many families and husbands may opt to be a
stay-at-home dad. The change to a network is then not a dramatic change in
behaviour but a shift in cultural paradigm, where the emphasis within each
family is on flexibility and multiple roles.
