A family in rural Mongolia in front of their ger. World Bank/Erdene Orchir Badarch
Although families all over the world have transformed greatly over the past decades in terms of their structure and as a result of global trends and demographic changes, the United Nations still recognizes the family as the basic unit of society. The International Day of Families provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting them.It has inspired a series of awareness-raising events, including national family days. In many countries, this day is an opportunity to highlight different areas of interest and importance to families.
The International Day of Families is observed on the 15th of May every year. Activities include workshops and conferences, radio and television programmes, newspaper articles and cultural programmes highlighting relevant themes.
This year’s observance will explore the role of families and family policies in advancing Sustainable Development Goal 16 in terms of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.
It's All in the Family
As we approach the UN International Day of Families, only the foolhardy would try to predict the future of family groups. Previous attempts have, in fact, failed. William J Goode, writing in the early 1960s during the “golden age of marriage”, saw convergence towards the Western-style conjugal family as an inevitable consequence of industrialisation. No sooner had his seminal book, World Revolution and Family Patterns, been published than divorce rates started increasing, and married women began moving into the labour force.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, however. In addition, there are some clear clues we can draw on to guess how family life might change in Europe over the years.
From the early 1970s, marriage and childbearing began to be postponed and cohabitation and non-marital childbearing started to increase.
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