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Title: The Fragmenting Family: Does It Matter? (Choice in Welfare , No 44) by Miriam E. David, John Haskey, Kathleen Kiernan, Patricia Morgan ISBN: 0-255-36436-9 Publisher: Coronet Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Why conservatives are against freedom.
Comment: As you read through this masterful yet succinct examination of the state of the family in Britain today, you are struck, in part at least that despite the social upheaval in Britain in the post war years, much of our social structure remains intact.

Despite the many freedoms won by women and by men particularly in the last forty years or so, what is more surprising than anything else is how conservative Britain has turned out to be. True, the work excludes factors such as race and ethnicity as well as immigration and the impact these may have had on the overall figures, but despite everything, to a degree, the traditional behaviours of marriage hold good to a great extent.

Before anyone should think that I am a supporter of this conservative picture, let me assure readers that I am not. While I think that the study here is a good one, I also am of the belief that the notion of a traditional family is an artificial construct which does not have real meaning.

For instance, it is only about 150 years agao roughly speaking that women were considered to be mere chattels once they became married or put it another way, what is mine is mine and what is hers (including her) is mine too.Female sexuality was under male control as was reproduction. Divorce laws were changed such that women could divorce their husbands. The point here is that this artifact of the family, far from it being something to aspire to has been endowed with a mythological significance which cannot be supported. The breadwinning husband is a construct to, denying women the right to work and the right to financial independence. The conclusion I draw from this is that diversity is good and that all men and women should be free to make their own choices.

I find that the conservatives of all parties who purport to produce evidence to establish the suffering of children and the handicaps in life that they must endure as a result of the lack of married parents are also setting up a straw man. To be sure suffering children are found in many families but often that suffering is a result of insufficient income. The benefits of proper family life are bound to win through if the comparator is a time when most people were in marriages whether they liked it or not. It would not be surprising if mothers in bad marriages devoted their time and energies to their children.

My biggest objection to this book lies in the dogmatic approach set out by Patricia Morgan who seems to be on a crusade against what she terms the atomistic society. This surely must be a topic all on it's own but it does seem to me that the opponents of freedom and liberty are casting their eyes back to a golden age of marriage where none existed. Education is rightly seen as a liberator for women who are as good, if not better than men in many respects. Why should they not have the same freedoms and responsibilities as men for all aspects of their lives. The question really is one of choice. Everyone should have the ability to decide for themselves what they do given the facts available.

In this case, social structure will be determined by those choices and we should be prepared for change whether people like Morgan want to deride it as post-modern or not. The conservatives case is too simplistic and seeks to use emotion and blackmail to return us to an age where men are subjugated to men. For myself, I want to see a time when all people are free to make the most of any opportunities which may be presented to them regardless of sex or colour.

Every student or interested observer of society should read this book and make up their own minds.