[Family structures: social disadvantage of women]

A perspective on the family, based on scientific knowledge and on its appreciation as a unit for health care, is suggested. The contemporary family because of its independent links with society has lived and resisted the consequences of a series of economic, political, technological, cultural and ideological transformations. These forces act as influential forces in the family and it responds adopting new forms to temper to these new times. For these reasons, society at present is characterized by a plurality of family structures. As part of that diversity in families, at present, there are families: nuclear biological, nuclear in series, father or mother alone, extended, and those that share the same sexual orientation. The term family should be redefined to enclose all those types of cohabitation. Is imperative that support is given to families with the greatest social disadvantages such as those families made up of women alone as they are expected to continue growing in all societies both developed and underdeveloped.