Contemporary struggles over the ordering of sexual and parental relationships take place in the context of mass unemployment, ethnic antagonism, population ageing, a growing awareness of the pervasiveness of violence and sexual abuse in intimate relationships and the eruption of AIDS as a major health crisis. Gender, Family and Society seeks to provide a sociological understanding of the way in which these key aspects of contemporary social life shape, and are shaped by, gender and family structures.

A review of debates about the biological origins of the nuclear family and gender roles.