Transcript Welfare2010

Changes in Family and Sex Roles
in Twentieth Century America
Part 1. The Family and the Welfare State
Part 2. New Definitions of Family and Sex
Roles
The Family and the Welfare State
The Family and the Welfare State
• Who takes care of people when they are
“dependent” -- that is unable to take care of
themselves because of age (children or the
elderly), sick, disabled, unable to find work
(unemployed)?
• For most of human history, families were the
primary agencies for welfare, supplemented by
charity, religious institutions, and the state.
Traditional Concepts of “Relief”
• Indoor or Outdoor:
– Indoor Relief: Institutions, e.g., almshouses,
workhouses, hospitals, orphanages
– Outdoor Relief: Donations of food, clothing, cash or
other resources for people to take ‘home’
• Deserving vs. Undeserving Poor
– The deserving poor can expect “relief”
– The undeserving poor need to be forced back to work
Status and Security
• In ancient and pre modern societies, one’s
guarantee of “security” was defined by
social and family status, as lord, free
person, slave, serf, etc., or family member.
• In modern societies based upon
individualism and “free enterprise,” the
claim for “freedom” and “liberty” also
attenuates claims for “security.”
Old and New Types of Crises
• Old crises: war, famine, disease, natural
disasters
• Industrial Capitalism adds a new type of
economic crisis: the panic, stock market
crash, recession, depression, when the
economy collapses temporarily.
Capitalist Economic Crises
• Occurred roughly every 20 years, with increasing
intensity:
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1819
1837
1857
1873-77
1893-97
1907
1929-1941
The Great Depression, 1929-1941
Impact of the Great Depression
• Quarter of the Labor Force Unemployed by 1933,
and remained at 10-15% til 1941.
• 25% decline in prices and GDP by 1932.
• Housing Market collapsed.
• Vast Amount of Liquid Wealth Destroyed in
Market Crash
• 1932: Repudiation of the government of Herbert
Hoover, and election of Franklin Roosevelt who
promised a “New Deal”
Relevance for Family and Sex Roles
• Recognition that families, local government, and
private charity could not provide “welfare” in time
of crisis
• A new “radical” change? The national government
took on the responsibility.
• Or a “conservative” legislative agenda to assure
“traditional” economic, family and property
relationships.
• ….Or both….
The Cornerstone of the New System:
Social Security Act of 1935
• Providing Benefits to the “Deserving:”
– BOASI: Bureau of Old Age and Survivors
Insurance
– Unemployment Insurance
– Aid to the Blind, Deaf, and Disabled
– Aid to Families of Dependent Children
(Mothers’ Pensions)
The Elements of the New System:
Social Security Act of 1935
• BOASI: Bureau of Old Age and Survivors
Insurance
– Federally run
– Tax on employers and employees to pay for old age
pensions
– “Survivors,” children and spouses, can draw benefits
from worker’s account
– No benefits unless one has worked a sufficient number
of “quarters
– Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for indigent
elderly
The Elements of the New System:
Social Security Act of 1935
• Unemployment Insurance
– State administered program with federal
support
– Tax on employer (and sometimes employees) to
support program
– Time limited benefit while employee is laid off
and/or searching for a new job
The Elements of the New System:
Social Security Act of 1935
• Aid to the Blind, Deaf, and Disabled
– Federally run program to provide benefits to
disabled
– Uses the BOASI model
– A small program
The Elements of the New System:
Social Security Act of 1935
• Aid to Families of Dependent Children
(Mothers’ Pensions)
– Locally administered program to provide
benefits to women with children but without
husbands
– Benefits vary greatly by locale and are very
small
Additional Provisions of the Welfare
State, 1930s and 1940s
• Work Relief Programs: e.g., Works Progress
Administration, Public Works Administration (ended
during World War II)
• Support for Housing Industry, Homeowners and Renters:
– Federal Housing Administration and Veterans
Administration mortgage guarantees;
– Public Housing (begun in 1930s and 1940s)
• Tax policy:
– Withholding extended to wage earning population
during World War II
– Income tax deductions for dependents
– Mortgage interest deductions
Sexual Revolution of the 1960s
and its Legacy: Gay Rights
Same Sex Relations
• We have examined the history of sexuality
primarily in the context of the history of the
family.
• Western religious traditions conceptualize same
sex sexual relations as deviant and/or sinful, and
classify same sex physical relations with other
forms of deviant, sinful, or prohibited sexuality
(e.g., fornication, adultery, bestiality,
masturbation).
• The logic behind such a conception is that the
purpose of sexuality is procreation, and such
behavior is not potentially procreative.
Movements for Sexual Liberation
• Come from a variety of interests, e.g.,….
– Heterosexual Men and Women
– Science and Medicine
– Gays and Lesbians
Science and Medicine...
• Challenge the authority of law and religious
authorities to define the “normal” and the
“deviant” in sexuality.
– Psychologists: Freud
– Sociologists
• Alfred Kinsey
– Physiologists
• Masters and Johnson
Sociologists...
• ...begin to survey sexual practices.
• The Kinsey Reports of the 1940s and 1950s
demonstrate the discrepancy between
morality and practice
• For example, 1/3rd of men acknowledge a
sexual relationship to orgasm with another
male
Physiologists...
• Masters and Johnson conduct ‘experiments’
to study human sexuality by putting people
in a laboratory, wiring them up and
recording physiological responses.
• When: 1950s and 1960s
Gays and Lesbians….
• And the the right to sexual autonomy.
• In the US, cities develop gay and lesbian
subcultures (turn of the 20th century),
including bars and restaurants, and
networks of jobs and relationships of
support.
• These communities are periodically
harassed and prosecuted under local vice
laws.
Gay Rights Organizations
1924 The Society for Human Rights in Chicago
becomes the country's earliest known gay rights
organization.
1951 The Mattachine Society, the first national gay
rights organization, is formed by Harry Hay,
considered by many to be the founder of the gay
rights movement.
1956 The Daughters of Bilitis, a pioneering national
lesbian organization, is founded.
Gays and Lesbians...
• In 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in
Greenwich Village, NY, the patrons fought
back when the police attempted to raid the
bar and arrest patrons. A street riot broke
out and led to an open movement for the
rights of gays and lesbians, patterned on the
civil rights and women’s liberation
movements.
Changes...
1973 The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from
its official list of mental disorders.
1982 Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation.
1980s AIDS Epidemic
1993 The “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy is instituted for the U.S.
military, permitting gays to serve in the military but banning
homosexual activity. President Clinton's original intention to revoke
the prohibition against gays in the military was met with stiff
opposition; this compromise, which has led to the discharge of
thousands of men and women in the armed forces, was the result.
1996 In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's
Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against
discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice
Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections
Amendment 2 withholds. These protections . . . constitute ordinary
civil life in a free society.”
Changes...
2000 Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally recognize
civil unions between gay or lesbian couples. The law states that these
“couples would be entitled to the same benefits, privileges, and
responsibilities as spouses.” It stops short of referring to same-sex
unions as marriage, which the state defines as heterosexual.1
2003 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in that sodomy laws in the U.S. are
unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “Liberty presumes
an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief,
expression, and certain intimate conduct.”
• In November, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that
barring gays and lesbians from marrying violates the state constitution.
The Massachusetts Chief Justice concluded that to “deny the
protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage” to
gay couples was unconstitutional because it denied “the dignity and
equality of all individuals” and made them “second-class citizens.”
Strong opposition followed the ruling.
2004 On May 17, same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts.
2005 Civil unions become legal in Connecticut in Oct. 2005.
Wisconsin in 2006
• Should the State Constitution ban same sex
marriage?
• The November Ballot
• Pro
• And
• Con
• The amendment passed, November 2006
Remaining Issues…
• Health Care and Insurance?
• Support for Job Training and Higher
Education?
• Food Security?
Additional Provisions
• Food Stamps: 1964
– Locally administered program providing means tested
support
– Also supported by farming interests
• Medicare and Medicaid: 1965
– National Health Insurance for Elderly
– Health Insurance for the indigent administered locally.
• Higher Education Aid:
– GI Bill of Rights, post World War II, subsidized
education for veterans
– National Defense Education Act (1950 and 1960s)
began grant and loan programs for higher education.
Has the Welfare State Accomplished
its Goals? Should it Continue?
• Debate begins in the 1970s:
– The Welfare State has guaranteed Americans
the highest living standards in the world….
– Or…
– The Welfare State has outlived its usefulness,
taxes are too high, and once again families and
the private sector should shoulder the burden of
care.
Examples of the New Understanding
• 1994: The Clinton Administration’s proposals for
national health insurance collapsed, and
Americans elected a Republican Congress for the
first time in 60 years.
• 1996: Congress repealed Aid to Families with
Dependent Children, one of the original provisions
of the 1935 Social Security Act.
– PRWORA: Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunities Reconciliation Act
• Bush administration proposed privatizing the
BOASI system in 2005 but no further action
taken.
National Health Reform
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
passed, March 2009
– End to denial of coverage for pre existing
conditions
– End to limits on coverage
– Insurers cannot cancel coverage
– Mandated coverage and “Health Exchanges”
created for individuals without employer access
to health insurance
National Health Reform
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
passed, March 2009
• Provisions phased in over a number of years
• But law is controversial and being
challenges in court
• Current prognosis is unclear….
Contemporary Issues in Family
and Sex Roles
What’s next….?
Sexual Revolution of the 1960s
and its Legacy
• “Playboy” culture for men and….
• Birth control pill for reliable contraception
for women
• Lead to new possibilities for and debates
about gender relations….
Second Wave Feminism
• Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique
(1963) signals a new challenges to the
limitations on women’s roles
• New organizations appear:
– National Organization for Women (NOW)
(1966)
– Women’s liberation and consciousness raising
groups – late 1960s and later
Civil Rights and Second Wave
Feminism: Legislative Changes
• First the courts: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) desegregated
public schools.
– Repudiated the theory of “separate but equal”
• Equal Pay Act of 1963:
– Men and women must be paid the same for the same jobs.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
– Nondiscrimination in public accommodations
– Title VII: Nondiscrimination in the labor market
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Housing Act of 1968
– non discrimination required in housing markets
• Title IX of education amendments of 1972 requires gender equity in
education.
– most notable impact was in athletics.
Later Developments
• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), provided constitutional
protection for birth control and articulated a right to
privacy
– Struck down CT law making contraception illegal for married
couples.
• Roe v. Wade (1973): Legalized abortion
– Defended by “pro choice movement” to define the right to
“choose”
– Attacked by “pro life movement” on the grounds that abortion
takes the life of a fetus.
• Sexual Harassment defined as illegal form of
discrimination by courts in late 1970s.
Challenges to Patriarchal Social
Relations
• Equal Rights Amendment: But it fails in late
1970s
• Gender Gap in voting since 1980
– Women and men vote differently
• Changes in family structure:
– dual earner family
– single parent family
– same sex marriage
If the Past is Prologue…..
• Will Congress repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell?
• Will the Supreme Court declare the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act
unconstitutional?
• How many “same sex marriages” will be
counted in the 2010 Census?
• Will there be a woman president in 2012,
2016, or 2020
And in your lives….
• How have family and sex roles changed in
your lives?
• How will they change in the future?
• Thank you
• Take more History and Women’s Studies
courses to continue the conversations!