Why is sin_addr inside the structure in_addr?

struct in_addr is sometimes very different than that, depending on what system you’re on. On Windows for example:

typedef struct in_addr {
  union {
    struct {
      u_char s_b1,s_b2,s_b3,s_b4;
    } S_un_b;
    struct {
      u_short s_w1,s_w2;
    } S_un_w;
    u_long S_addr;
  } S_un;
} IN_ADDR, *PIN_ADDR, FAR *LPIN_ADDR;

The only requirement is that it contain a member s_addr.