SO 220 - Chapter 11: The Changing Family

Family

Family

• An institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including children

• Interacts with other institutions

Kinship

• A social network of people based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption

• The basis of family structure

Extended family

• A unit composed of relatives in addition to parents and children who live in the same home

• Includes grandparents, uncles, or aunts

• Is seen as more of a kinship group

Nuclear family

• A unit composed of one or two parents and his/her/their dependent children who live apart from other relatives

• Percentage of people in nuclear families has declined

  • Increasing single-person households

Why do people say the family is in decline / under attack?

• People choosing not to get married or have children

• High divorce rates

• Many new types of families

  • Common-law, same-sex, and blended families

• More women in the labour market

• Focus has shifted from the needs of children to the needs of adults

Is the family really in decline?

• This idea has been around for decades

• No

• The number of marriages between heterosexuals has not changed

The family as a gendered institution

Gender roles are very specific and defined within the North American family

Original concepts of the family in Canada

• Based on Indigenous practices

  • The nuclear family, the extended family, clan structures

  • Also had other kinds; the nuclear family was not the only one

• Social structures did not dictate the clear gender divison of labour or gender roles we currently see

• Segregation of sexes was not as dominant

• The agrarian economy influenced how the family was structured

  • Historically, agrarian cultures had more children to help with family structures

  • Nuclear families looked different

WWI and WWII’s Impact on the family

• War times saw women’s participation in the public realm increase

• Both adults in the family did not need to work

• The dominance of the nuclear family was created during post-war times

• Talcott Parson’s idea of the ideal family reflects this period

Gary Becker’s gender marriage economy

• There are exchanges in terms of relationships

• Women were responsible for consuming goods, men for being the breadwinners

Functionalist perspective on the family

• The importance of the family in maintaining the stability of society and the well-being of individuals

• The family is extremely fundamental because it influences all the choices an individual makes

• Certain functions of the family

  • Regulation of sexual behaviour

  • Socialization + education of children

  • Social placement

  • Economic and psychological support

Social placement and the family (functionalist)

• You have a specific role in society, your family allows you to know what it is

• This is why you tend to see people marrying within their social economic bracket

Conflict perspective on the family

• Families are sources of social inequality and conflict over values and access to shared resources

• By leading women to be primary consumers, the family fuels capitalism

Engles on the family

• Gender discrimination is due to the gendered division of labour

• Women do more unpaid work in the home than men

• This benefits the capitalist class and subordinates women

Feminist perspective on the family

• Male domination occurred before capitalism

• Inequality causes domestic abuse

• Looks at the gender wage gap

• Looks at inequality and disadvantages of women in the family

  • Ex. the second shift, domestic violence, intimate partner violence

Interactionist perspective on the family

• Partners develop a shared reality through interaction

• Women’s decisions impact all of society

• How do individuals negotiate their goals and choices within a marriage? What roles do individuals play in a marriage or family?

• Interested in the negotiation that enables individuals to take on certain roles at certain times

From an interactionist perspective, why do changes occur in the family?

• Women’s lives have become more institutionalized

• Different expectations of marriage

Monogamy

• Marriage between one woman and one man

• Increasing number of people challenging monogamy laws

  • 100% are men

  • A number of the challenges are on religious grounds

Data and facts about marriage / divorce rates

• Marriages are down from the 1970’s and 80’s, but so are divorces

• Post WWII was the golden era for nuclear marriages

• Divorce rates are from people having multiple

  • If you have one divorce you’re more likely than someone who has never had one to have another one

  • More likely to see people having subsequent divorces

• Economic stress impacts divorce rates

• Women working full-time has increased divorce rates

1995 General Social Survey

• Found support for the idea that a long-term relationship is important

Ideas around marriage

• Same-sex marriage permitted in 2005

• People believe in the institution of marriage, but not necessarily to the person they married

  • Some try serial monogamy or successive marriages

  • People are less committed to staying in a relationship that does not meet their needs

Views on marriage - Can women have it all?

• The idea that women can have it all permeated society in the 80’s due to 3rd wave feminism

• In the early 2000’s, people started believing that we shouldn’t talk about women having it all without discussing men’s part in that

  • People aged mid 20’s started to think women can’t have it all

• Now, more women/people are leaning back towards traditional / nuclear families

  • We started seeing this trend the last 8 - 10 years

Why are more women leaning towards traditional / nuclear families?

• Not wanting both the career and the child care

• People who grew up in a divorced or blended family may blame the problem on the mom having to be in the workplace and at home

• High burn-out rates of women attempting to juggle both work and child care

• The structure of the workplace forces women to choose between childcare and work

Singlehood

• Percent of individuals who live in one-person households in Canada has increased

• For many, it is involuntary

Mean age of first marriage

• men = 31.0

• women = 29.6

Why are people postponing marriage?

• Economic uncertainty

• Women’s participation in the work force

• Sexual revolution

• Rising divorce rates

Sandwhich households

Homes with parents, grandparents, and children

Functionalist perspective on the family - Emile Durkheim

• Marriage is a microscopic replica of the larger society

• A division of labour contributes to greater efficiency in marriage and families

Instrumental roles (Talcott Parsons)

• The roles of a husband in an ideal nuclear family

• Meeting the family’s economic needs, making important decisions, and providing leadership

Expressive roles (Talcott Parsons)

• The roles of a wife in an ideal nuclear family

• Running the household, caring for children, meeting family’s emotional needs

Common-law

• Two adults living together in a sexual relationship without being married (also called coalition)

• According to the 2011 census, 18% of all couples were living common law

Dual-earner marriages

Marriages in which both spouses are in the labour force

Reproductive freedom

• The desire to have children and the desire to not have children

• “The pill” was introduced in the 1960’s

• Since 1976, there has been a decrease in the pill and an increase in condoms

• Abortion can be both a problem and a solution

Infertility

• The inability to conceive after a year of unprotected sexual relations

• STD’s are a leading cause of infertility

• A growing number of prospective parents are delaying childbearing into their 30’s and 40’s

Adoption

• A legal process through which the rights and duties of parenting are transferred from a child’s biological parents to new legal parents

• Recently, adoption agencies have arranged for people to meet their birth parents with mutual consent

  • Now, some provincial laws make disclosure a right

• Fewer infants are available for adoption due to contraceptives and abortion

  • Results in some Canadians adopting through a private agency or a foreign country

Impacts of parenting style on child development

• Children living with two parents with poor parenting styles were five times more likely to have developmental problems such as aggression, hyperactivity, and depression

• If the parenting environment changes from punitive to non-punitive over the ages of 2-9 then aggressive behaviour will decrease

Teen pregnancies / unmarried mothers

• The outcome of teen pregnancies are problematic because teen moms are unskilled at parenting, tend to drop out of school, and have little social support

• Children of unwed teenage mothers tend to have limited employment and education opportunities

Child abuse

• The most frequent form is child neglect

• Battered child syndrome

• 4 primary kinds of maltreatment

  • Physical, sexual, neglect, and emotional

Intimate partner violence

• Rates seem to be decreasing along with general crime rates

• Suffering and painful consequences are experienced more strongly by female victims

• Women are 7 times more likely than men to be killed by their spouses or intimate partners

Primary roles of the family

• Socialization of children

• Foundation of attachment styles

• Bedrock for financial and emotional support