Introduction

Abstract

In contemporary Western societies, debates about ‘the family’ have taken on a resonance and direction that is markedly different from that of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1960s and 1970s were characterised by the emergence of wide-ranging critiques of the modern conjugal family as an oppressive and bankrupt institution, the development of a trenchant feminist analysis of male domination inside and outside ‘the family’ and pressure for the legitimation of alternative ways of ordering sexual and parental relationships. This ideological tendency was underpinned, on the one hand, by a decline in religious belief, collectivist values and moral absolutes and, on the other, by the progressive elaboration of individualism and cultural relativism. It was associated with the emergence of dual-worker families and delegated childrearing, the institutionalisation of divorce and serial monogamy, and the increasing acceptance of unmarried cohabitation, solo parenthood and gay and lesbian relationships.