Transcript Chapter 11: Families

Chapter 11:
Families
Melanie Hatfield
Soc 100
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The nuclear family: Consists of a cohabitating
man and woman who maintain a socially
approved sexual relationship and have at least
one child.
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The traditional nuclear family: A nuclear
family in which the wife works in the home
without pay, while the husband works outside
the home for money.
Functional Theory
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Since the 1940s, functionalists have argued that the
nuclear family is ideally suited to meet society’s
challenges.
In their view the nuclear family performs 5 main
functions:
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sexual activity
economic cooperation
reproduction
socialization
emotional support.
Conflict Theory
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Sociologists influenced by conflict and feminists
traditions, see the creation of non-nuclear families as a
response to changes in power relations between women
and men.
Engels argued that the traditional nuclear family
emerged along with inequalities of wealth.
Once a man had wealth, he wanted to ensure it was
transmitted to his sons.
Men could do this by controlling his wife sexually and
economically.
Conflict Theory
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Engels concluded that only the elimination of
private property and the creation of economic
equality – in a word, communism – could bring
an end to gender inequality and the traditional
nuclear family.
Engels was wrong to think communism would
eliminate gender inequality.
Inequality in the family has been as common in
communist societies as in capitalist societies.
Feminist Theory
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Because gender inequality exists in non-capitalist
societies, most feminists believe something other than,
or in addition to, capitalism accounts for gender
inequality and the persistence of the traditional nuclear
family.
In their view, patriarchy – male dominance and norms
justifying that dominance – is more deeply rooted in the
economic, military, and cultural history of human kind
than the classical Marxist account allows.
For them, only a “genuine gender revolution” can alter
this state of affairs.
Love and Mate Selection
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Most Americans take for granted that marriage ought
to be based on love.
The idea that love should be important in the choice of
a marriage partner first gained currency in 18th-century
England with the rise if liberalism and individualism.
The linkage between love and marriage that we know
today emerged only in the early 20th century, when
Hollywood and the advertising industry began to
promote self-gratification on a grand scale.
Today wherever individualism is highly prized, love has
come to be defined as the essential basis for marriage.
Marrying for Qualities Instead of Love
Social Influences on Mate Selection
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Three sets of social forces influence whom you
are likely to fall in love with and marry.
Marriage resources
 Third parties
 Demographic and compositional factors
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Marital Satisfaction
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Marital stability also came to depend more on having a
happy rather than merely a useful marriage.
This change occurred because wm in the US and many
other societies have become more independent,
especially since the 1960s.
Many factors have contributed to their autonomy
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the introduction of the birth control pill in the 1960s.
the entry of millions of women into the system of higher
education and the paid labor force.
Family Satisfaction and the Family
Life Cycle, US
Reproductive Choice
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We have seen that the power gained from
working in the paid labor force put women in a
position to leave a marriage if it made them
deeply unhappy.
Another aspect of the gender revolution women
are experiencing is that they are increasingly able
to decide what happens in the marriage if they
stay.
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Reproductive choice
Housework and Childcare
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Despite many changes and progress, housework, child
care, and senior care are areas that has remained
resistant to change.
Arlie Hochschild sates women work a “second shift”.
Two main factors shrink the gender gap in housework,
childcare, and senior care.
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The smaller the difference between the husband’s and wife’s
earnings
Attitude
Family Diversity
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Heterosexual Cohabitation
Same-Sex Unions and Partnerships
Single-Mother Families
Zero-Child Families
Families with Own Children under 18
by Race
Family Policy
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Do two-parent families provide the kind of
discipline, role models, help, and middle-class
lifestyle that children need to stay out of trouble
with the law and grow up to become welladjusted, productive members of society?
The decline of the traditional nuclear family can
be a source of many social problems, but it does
not have to that way.
Family Policy in Sweden
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In Sweden, the proportion of births outside of marriage in
Sweden is twice as high as in the US.
In Sweden:
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Children enjoy higher average reading scores than in the US.
The poverty rate in 2 parent families is only one tenth the US rate,
whereas the poverty rate in single parent families in only 1/12 as high.
The rate of infant abuse is 1/11 the US rate.
The rate of juvenile drug offenses is less than half as high in Sweden as
in the US.
The decline of the traditional nuclear family has gone further in
Sweden than in the US, but children in Sweden are much better
off because Sweden has something the US lacks: a substantial
family support policy.