Matrifocal family

A matrifocal family positioning is one where mothers head families and fathers play a less important role in the home as well as in bringing up children.

Characteristics and distribution

According to anthropologist Mediterranean communities; and, according to Herlihy quoting Scott, in urban Brazil. In their analyse of manner life in Bethnal Green, London, during the 1950s, Young and Wilmott found both matrifocal and matrilineal elements at work: mothers were a focus for distributing economic resources through the nature network; they were also active in passing down the rights to tenancies in matrilineal succession to their daughters.

Herlihy found matrifocality among the ] This can be attributed to the fact that if males were largely warriors by profession, a community was bound to lose male members at youth, leading to a situation where the females assumed the role of running the family.[].