'Plus ça change'? The gendered legacies of mid-twentieth century conceptualisations of the form and function of the family

In the mid-twentieth century, modernisation theories and structural-functional theories depicted the western nuclear family – and its gendered division of labour – as the endpoint of social and economic development. While the limitations of both perspectives have been widely acknowledged – and intellectual histories suggest that theoretically things have moved on – the incremental nature of knowledge production means that previous conceptual frameworks and background assumptions have continued to influence the way sociologists understand and approach the study of families. Using the gendered welfare regimes literature and the empirical study of union stability as examples, I show how, despite important theoretical innovations such as the structural model of gender, notions of the family as a separate sphere and sex role models have not been entirely displaced. An incomplete paradigm shift has contributed to a lack of attention to men in families, and to a narrow conceptualisation of gender inequality.