Specyfika współczesnej rodziny w kulturze świata zachodniego

Abstract

The Western cultural circle manifests itself in societies of low demographic reproduction. These societies prefer consumption life-style with individual-liberal attitude to life, which results in deteriorating the paternal view of family. In recent years the shape of family life, especially in West Europe and in the USA, has been greatly changed. Great changes can be observed in the structure of the family, the functions of its members, various family relations and so on. But still there are families based on the woman-man relations, the type of family that is characteristic for the industrial epoch. The phenomena discussed in the present paper have relations with: industrialization, services (middle class promotion), social mobility, information technology and growth of the emancipation and feminist ideas. As a result we can see other definitions of the traditional roles of woman and man, marriages are undermined, which results in a higher number of divorces; it also creates conditions for alternative forms of finding fulfillment in different parafamilial relations.