Traditionally,all the members of an extended family lived in the same area.However,with the change from an agricultural to an industrial society,many nuclear families moved away from the family home in order to find work.In industrial societies today,the members of most nuclear families live together ,but most extended families do not.Therefore we can say that the nuclear family becomes more important than the extended family as the society industrializes.
In post-industrial societies like the united states ,even the nuclear family ischanging.The nuclear family is becoming smaller as parents want fewer children,and the number of childless families is increasing.Traditionally,the father earned money.for the family while the mother cared for the house and the children.Today,more than 50% of the nuclear families in the united states are two –earner families-both the father and the mother earn money for the family-and in a few families the mother earns the money while the father takes care of the house and the children.many nuclear families are also”splitting up”-more and ,ore parents are getting divorced.
What will be the result of this “splitting”of the nuclear family?Social scientists now talk of two new family forms :the single parent family and the remarried family .Almost 20% of all American families are single parent families ,and in 85%of these families the single parent is the mother .Most single parents find it very difficult to take care of a family alone,so they soon marry again and form remarried families .As social scientists study these two new family forms ,they will be able to tell us more about the future of the nuclear family in the post-industrial age.