Family in Finland and Spain: The Focal Findings

Abstract

The analysis of Finnish and Spanish families demonstrates that parallel social changes have resulted in congruent family ideologies, on the one hand, and different patterns of family formation and fertility, on the other. To start with the family ideology, the basic socially shared and upheld definition of the family is analogous in Finland and Spain and it has evolved in the same direction although at different paces. In the early 20th century and before, the ideal family was based on an indissoluble marriage and the purpose of the marriage was procreation and socializing offspring. Thus marriage and family were inseparable. The family ideology endorsed the hierarchical male breadwinner/female homemaker family model, although more vigorously and longer in Spain than in Finland. In the course of the latter part of the 20th century, egalitarianism between the genders (and generations) and the notion of shared spheres became the leading principles.