ABSTRACT
The power and ‘obviousness’ of the popular stereotype of ‘the family’ is rooted in popular understandings of biology. Clearly, the sexes are very different in their roles in biological reproduction. Women conceive and suckle infants, these are indeed biological facts. It is very easy indeed to point to other species that engage in similar divisions of labour. From this it is a simple matter to create an image of a ‘biological family’ of lifelong monogamy between male and female, where the female is responsible for the rearing of the children. If this image of the ‘biological family’ matches both popular stereotypes and sociological ideal types, then they all become more convincing and reinforce one another.
