
Defined as a natural or biological arrangement based on heterosexual attraction, instead this monolithic family type is actually supported by government policy. assuming a relatively fixed sexual division of labor, wherein women's roles are defined as primarily in the home with men's in the public world of work, the traditional family ideal also assumes the separation of work and family.

Idealizing the traditional family as a private haven from a public world, family is seen as being held together through primary emotional bonds of love and caring. Such families should have a specific authority structure, namely, a father-head earning an adequate family wage, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and children.


Formed through a combination of marital and blood ties, "normal" families should consist of heterosexual, racially homogeneous couples who produce their own biological children. “Situated in the center of family values debates is an imagined traditional family ideal.
