In the 18th century, the family had been a unit of production and consumption as well as of political decision-making. There was a big change in the newer pattern. (i) Ties between members of household loosened. (ii) The institution of marriage among the working class tended to break down. (iii) Women of the upper and middle classes in Britain faced increasingly higher level of isolation although their lives were made easier by maids. (iv) Women who worked for wages had some control over their lives particularly among the lower social classes. (v) By the 20th century, the urban family had been transformed again partly by experience of the war time and partly work done by the women who were employed in large numbers.