Changes in Family: New Family Forms and World Trends in the 21st Century

The family is changing everywhere, but it is not disappearing. In the 21st century, families are smaller and more diverse: more divorce and remarriage, single-parent and blended families, live-in relationships, couples who choose not to have children, same-sex partnerships and families created through assisted reproduction. William J. Goode predicted a worldwide trend towards the conjugal family: freer choice of partners, later marriage, more equal status for women, weaker kin groups and decline of matrilineal systems. In India the joint family has adapted rather than collapsed: households are becoming nuclear, but kin obligations, arranged marriage and caste endogamy remain strong.

This note covers changes in the family in the 21st century, the debate on whether the family is in crisis, Goode's world trends in family patterns, theories of family change, and the Indian experience, for the UPSC Anthropology Optional. It belongs to Paper I, topic 2.4 (Family: impact of urbanisation, industrialisation and feminist movements on family) in the Anthropology Optional syllabus.

Key points at a glance

• New family forms: single-parent, blended (step) families, live-in couples, voluntarily childless couples, same-sex families, families formed through surrogacy and IVF, people living alone.
• Drivers: industrialisation, urbanisation, women's education and employment, feminist movements, individualism, mobility, the welfare state, technology and law.
• "Family in crisis" view: Barrington Moore, Ferdinand Lundberg and Alvin Toffler argued that the conventional nuclear family was becoming obsolete.
• "Family adapting" view: Goode, Fletcher and later scholars argued that the family is changing form, not dying.
• Goode's world trends: decline of matrilineal systems and corporate kin groups, freer mate choice, age homogamy, fewer kin marriages, higher divorce, more working women, more rights for women.
• Theories: the second demographic transition, Giddens' "pure relationship", Beck and Beck-Gernsheim's individualisation, the Rapoports' family diversity.
• India: nuclear households with continuing joint obligations, later marriage, falling fertility, rising women's education, persistent dowry and caste endogamy, and new laws on live-in relationships, surrogacy and child marriage.

New changes in the 21st century

The family is a fundamental social unit that performs vital functions for its members and for society. Much recent debate concerns the stability of the modern family, especially in the West. Several changes are cited as signs that the contemporary family has become unstable.

Changing role relations

As women catch up with men in education and work in almost all fields, the conventional husband-wife relationship has come under strain. In rural, pre-industrial societies the man was usually dominant and took the major decisions, because of his economic position and, often, his greater education. Today a wife expects, and is entitled to, an equal share in decisions and in managing the family. This shift from a male-dominated to a more egalitarian family can create tension and conflict, and sometimes leads to separation.

Arlie Hochschild (The Second Shift, 1989) showed that working women still did most of the housework and child-care, a "second shift" after paid work. The unequal sharing of domestic work, rather than women's employment as such, is a major source of strain.

Relations between generations have also changed. In the modern Western and urban family, grown-up children tend to be individualistic and confident in making their own decisions about careers and partners. In welfare states, social security can support unemployed young people. Young people are less willing to follow parental commands without question. This also creates tension in the family.

Geographical and social mobility

Modern wage-earning families, in the West and in cities everywhere, are highly mobile. They move frequently in search of better jobs. Moving weakens ties with kin and neighbours, places strain on the family, and may disrupt its stability. Talcott Parsons argued that the isolated nuclear family suited industrial society precisely because it could move easily.

Is the family in crisis?

These changes suggest to some that the family is going through a crisis. Sociologists and anthropologists are divided on their overall effect.

The pessimistic view: the family is becoming obsolete

• Barrington Moore ("Thoughts on the Future of the Family", 1958) questioned whether the family was still necessary in a high-technology society, arguing that many of its functions could be better performed by specialised institutions.
• Ferdinand Lundberg went further, declaring that "the family is near the point of complete extinction".
• Alvin Toffler (Future Shock, 1970) predicted that the family would be "fractured" by rapid change, with serial marriages, childless couples and "professional parents" who raise others' children.
• Margaret Mead did not predict the end of the family. In 1966 she proposed "marriage in two steps": an "individual marriage" without children that could easily be ended, followed by a "parental marriage", more serious and lasting, for couples who wanted children.

Some predicted that the family would be replaced by alternatives such as the Israeli kibbutz or communes. Groups like the Shakers, a celibate religious sect, and the counter-culture communes of 1960s and 1970s America stressed love and community rather than formal family roles. The Hutterites, sometimes cited here, live in communal colonies that share property, but they keep strong family units within the colony.

The optimistic view: the family is adapting

• William J. Goode (World Revolution and Family Patterns, 1963) argued that the family was changing towards the conjugal form, not disappearing.
• Ronald Fletcher (1966) argued that the modern family had gained in importance, because it now specialised in emotional support and child-rearing, and that the state supported rather than replaced it.
• The collective alternatives failed or retreated. The kibbutz returned children to their parents' homes, Soviet experiments were reversed in the 1930s, and most communes were short-lived.
• Most people still marry or form couples and have children. Many who divorce remarry, which shows a rejection of a particular partner, not of marriage itself.
• Robert and Rhona Rapoport (1982) described family diversity, in organisation, class, culture, life course and generation, as a normal feature of modern society rather than a sign of breakdown.

Goode's major world trends in family patterns

William J. Goode (The Family, 1964; second edition 1982) identified world trends in family patterns as societies industrialise. These are tendencies, not laws: they vary in speed and form between societies.

1. Decline of matrilineal systems

In matrilineal kinship, property and authority pass through the mother's line, from a man to his sister's son. In the modern world, matrilineages tend to dissolve:

• Social and economic responsibility for a family shifts to the father rather than the mother's brother.
• New laws give a man the freedom to pass his property to his own children rather than to his sister's children.
• Positions of high symbolic rank held by women in some matrilineal societies lose importance in an industrial economy.

Matrilineal societies therefore tend to move towards patrilineal or bilateral patterns. In India, the Nayar taravad declined from the 19th century, and the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975, ended it legally. Among the Khasi of Meghalaya, the matrilineal system continues, but some men's groups have campaigned for a shift to patrilineal inheritance.

2. Decline in the influence of corporate kin groups

Lineages and clans in tribal and peasant societies lose power and importance as land becomes individual property, people move to cities, and the state takes over functions such as justice, welfare and education. In India, clan and caste councils still exist but have less authority than before, although caste panchayats and khap panchayats remain influential in some areas.

3. Decline in the prevalence of dowry and bride price

Goode did not predict that the amount would fall. Where these systems continue, inflation alone raises the sums demanded. He predicted that they would become less common, as young people increasingly make their own marriage decisions and have jobs that let them set up their own households. Where payments continue, they serve the new couple rather than the kin group, and come closer to the Western pattern of gifts exchanged by both sides.

India is a major exception. Dowry has spread to castes and communities that formerly practised bride price, and amounts have risen with "dowry inflation" (M. N. Srinivas, 1984). The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, has had limited effect, and the National Crime Records Bureau still records several thousand dowry deaths a year.

4. Increase in age homogamy

The average age gap between husband and wife narrows over time. This happens because women's age at marriage rises where it was once very low, because older men can no longer so easily "buy" young brides, and because young people choosing their own partners tend to prefer people of about their own age.

5. Decrease in kin marriages

A smaller proportion of marriages take place between close kin such as cousins. Preferential marriages, such as cross-cousin and uncle-niece marriage, decline in traditional societies. The many kin marriages that once occurred in Western countries, where elders tried to keep property within the family, also decline. In South India, consanguineous marriage has declined but remains common.

6. Movement to medium or high divorce rates

Divorce rates rise as divorce becomes legally easier and socially accepted, and as women gain economic independence. Goode noted that some traditional societies, such as Japan in the late 19th century and some Arab societies, already had high divorce rates, which fell as they industrialised. The trend is therefore towards a medium to high level, not always upwards.

7. More women holding jobs independently

Women have worked in all societies throughout history, and in many they also held paid jobs. But until recently, few women obtained such jobs, or were promoted, without the permission or help of their male kin. The modern trend is towards greater independence in this area.

8. Increase in women's rights

This is controversial. Some feminists argue that industrialisation has not brought significant change, while others claim that women once enjoyed equality in a legendary past. But comparing the period before industrialisation with periods of moderate or advanced industrialisation, the trend towards greater equality in women's status is clear: rights to education, property, divorce, the vote and work.

9. Less parental control over courtship and mate choice

Parents steadily lose the ability to decide whom their children court or marry, because of education, employment, urban living, mixing of the sexes and the ideology of romantic love and individual choice.

10. More sexual freedom

Many tribal societies were more liberal in sexual matters than the great civilisations of the past or Western societies. Historical evidence does not support the idea of a "natural, guilt-free" approach to sex in Eastern civilisations; on the whole, only wealthy men enjoyed much sexual freedom. Where sexual freedom was highly restricted, industrialisation brings more of it, because its ideology asserts the right of individuals not to follow traditional ways.

11. Rising age at marriage for women

Child marriage declines steadily where it was common. Women obtain more education and are valued more in the marriage market when they do. Parents cannot so easily control their children's choices. Political and legal pressure is set against very early marriage.

Theories of family change

Changes in the Indian family

India shows how global trends interact with local traditions. Patricia Uberoi, A. M. Shah and others have shown that the Indian family has adapted rather than broken down.

Structure and household

• Nuclear households are increasing, especially in cities, but many remain linked to joint families through property, worship and mutual obligations (A. M. Shah, I. P. Desai).
• Migration creates split and transnational households, such as the "Gulf families" of Kerala.
• Fertility has fallen: the total fertility rate fell to about 2.0, the replacement level, in NFHS-5 (2019–21), so families are smaller.
• Ageing: more elderly people live alone or with only a spouse. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, places a legal duty on children to maintain their parents.

Marriage

• Arranged marriage remains the norm, but young people increasingly have a say ("semi-arranged" or "love-cum-arranged" marriages). Matrimonial websites and dating apps have changed how partners are found.
• Inter-caste marriages remain few, about 5 per cent in the India Human Development Survey. Couples who marry across caste or religion sometimes face violence, including "honour" killings. The Special Marriage Act, 1954, allows civil marriage across religions.
• Age at marriage is rising, but child marriage persists: in NFHS-5, about 23 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 had married before 18. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, sets the minimum age at 18 for women and 21 for men.
• Divorce is rare but rising, especially in cities and among educated couples. Family courts were set up under the Family Courts Act, 1984.
• Dowry persists and has spread, contrary to Goode's prediction.

Women and gender relations

• Women's education has risen sharply, and more women work outside the home, although women's labour force participation in India remains low by world standards.
• The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, gave daughters equal rights with sons in ancestral property.
• The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, protects women in marriages and in relationships "in the nature of marriage".

New family forms and the law in India

Tribal families

Tribal families are also changing: matrilineal systems among the Khasi and Garo face pressure, youth dormitories have declined, bride price is being replaced by dowry in some communities, and migration and displacement break up households. For tribal change in context, see our note on tribal India, PVTGs, displacement and the development-versus-isolation debate.

Factors behind family change

Using this topic in a UPSC answer

• Introduce the debate: is the family in crisis or adapting?
• List new forms with brief definitions, using a table.
• Present Goode's world trends and test each against Indian evidence, such as dowry spreading in India and matrilineal decline among the Nayar.
• Cite theories: Parsons, Goode, Litwak, Giddens, Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, the second demographic transition.
• Bring in Indian data and law: NFHS-5 fertility and child marriage, the Hindu Succession Amendment 2005, live-in rulings, the 2023 same-sex marriage judgment, the Surrogacy Act 2021.
• Conclude: the family is not dying; it is diversifying, and in India the joint-family ethos adapts to nuclear residence.

Likely questions: "Discuss the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation on the family." "Is the family in crisis? Discuss with reference to new family forms." "Examine the impact of feminist movements on the family." "Discuss changes in the Indian family." For structure and presentation, see our guide to anthropology answer writing with diagrams, thinkers and case studies.

Frequently asked questions

What are the main changes in the family in the 21st century?

Higher divorce and remarriage, single-parent and blended families, live-in relationships, voluntarily childless couples, same-sex families, families created through assisted reproduction, more people living alone, transnational families and more equal roles between husband and wife.

Is the family in crisis?

Some thinkers, such as Barrington Moore, Ferdinand Lundberg and Alvin Toffler, argued that the conventional nuclear family was becoming obsolete. Others, such as William J. Goode and Ronald Fletcher, argued that the family is adapting. Most evidence supports the view that the family is diversifying rather than disappearing.

What are Goode's world trends in family patterns?

Decline of matrilineal systems and corporate kin groups, decline in the prevalence of dowry and bride price, greater age homogamy, fewer kin marriages, medium to high divorce rates, more women in independent jobs, more rights for women, less parental control over mate choice, more sexual freedom and a rising age at marriage for women.

What is a blended family?

A blended or reconstituted family is formed when a couple lives with children from one or both partners' earlier relationships, so that it includes step-parents, step-siblings and often half-siblings.

What is the second demographic transition?

A theory by Ron Lesthaeghe and Dirk van de Kaa that, after fertility falls, values shift towards individual self-fulfilment, leading to later marriage, cohabitation, more divorce, births outside marriage and fertility below replacement level.

What is Giddens' "pure relationship"?

Anthony Giddens' term for a relationship entered for its own sake, for the emotional satisfaction it brings, which lasts only as long as both partners are satisfied, rather than being held together by economic need or tradition.

How is the Indian family changing?

Households are becoming smaller and more nuclear, fertility has fallen to replacement level, age at marriage is rising, and women are more educated. But joint-family obligations, arranged marriage, caste endogamy and dowry remain strong, so the Indian family has adapted rather than broken down.

Are live-in relationships legal in India?

Yes. They are not illegal, and the Supreme Court has recognised relationships "in the nature of marriage" under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Uttarakhand's Uniform Civil Code requires live-in relationships to be registered.