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Chapter 3. Differences: Historical and Contemporary Variations in American Family Life. Chapter Outline. American Families Across Time How Contemporary Families Differ From One Other. True or False?.
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Chapter 3 Differences: Historical and Contemporary Variations in American Family Life
Chapter Outline • American Families Across Time • How Contemporary Families Differ From One Other
True or False? • Industrialization transformed the role families played in society, as well as the roles women and men played in families.
True • With industrialization, men began working outside the home for wages they then used to purchase the family’s necessities. • Men became identified as the family’s sole provider or breadwinner and their work was given higher status than women’s work because it was paid in wages. • Men’s work began to be increasingly identified as “real” work, distinct from the unpaid domestic work done by women.
True or False? • Compared with what came both before and after, families of the 1950s were unusually stable.
True • In the 1950s, marriage and birthrates were unusually high, divorce rates were uncharacteristically low, and the economy enabled many to buy houses with only one wage-earning spouse. • Most families were comprised of male breadwinners and female homemakers.
True or False? • Within upper-class families, husbands and wives are relatively equal in their household roles and authority.
False • Within upper-class families we tend to find sharply sex-segregated marriages in which women are subordinated to their husbands. • Upper-class women often function as supports for their husbands’ successful economic and political activities. • Although their supportive activities may be essential to the husbands’ success, such wives are neither paid nor widely recognized for their efforts.
True or False? • Slavery destroyed the African American family system.
False • Despite the oppression and hardship to which they were subjected, many slaves survived by relying on their families and by adapting their family system to the conditions of their lives. • This included relying on extended kinship networks and, where necessary, on unrelated adults to serve as surrogates for parents absent because of the forced breakup of families.
Native American Families • In the early years of colonization, there were 2 million Native Americans in what is now the United States. • Most families were small. • There was a high child mortality rate. • Marriage took place between the age of 12 and 15 years for girls and between the age of 15 and 20 for boys.
Colonial Families • The family was the primary unit for producing goods and caring for the needs of its members. • Marriages were arranged. • The wife was not an equal, but a helpmate. • Like her children, the colonial wife was economically dependent on her husband.
Colonial Concept of Childhood • Children were believed to be evil by nature. • Childhood did not represent a period of life radically different from adulthood. • When children reached the age of 10, they were often “bound out” as apprentices or domestic servants.
African-American families • Began in the United States in the early seventeenth century. • They continued the African tradition that emphasized kin relations. • Most slaves lived in two-parent families that valued marital stability.
African-American Families After Freedom • Thousands of former slaves formally renewed their vows, as they were now legally able to marry. • The first year or so after freedom was “the traveling time.” • African Americans traveled up and down the South looking for lost family members who had been sold.
African American Families • Strong family ties endured in enslaved African American families. The extended family, important in West African cultures, continued to be a source of support and stability.
Immigration: The Great Transformation • Between 1820 and 1920, 38 million immigrants came to the United States. • Kinship groups were important for survival. • The family economy focused on family survival rather than individual success.
Immigration • Between 1820 and 1920, more than 38 million immigrants came to the United States.
The Rise of Companionate Marriages: 1900 - 1960 • In the 20th century, companionate marriage became an ideal. • Men and women shared household decision making and tasks. • Marriages were expected to be romantic. • Wives were expected to be sexually active. • Children were treated more democratically.
The Depression and World Wars • Family roles and relationships were profoundly affected by the Depression and two world wars. • Survival depended upon a combination of women’s earnings, children’s earnings, assistance from kin, or public assistance. • Between 1941 and 1945 the numbers of employed women increased by more than 6 million, to a high of 19 million.
Families in the 1950s • Marriage and birthrates were unusually high. • Divorce rates were uncharacteristically low. • The economy enabled many to afford to buy houses with only one wage-earning spouse.
% of Married Women Employed Outside the Home With Children 6 Years Old or Younger
Factors That InitiateMarriage and Family Changes • Economic changes • Technological innovations • Demographics • Gender roles and opportunities for women
Demographic Changes • Three important changes have emerged: • Increased longevity • Increased divorce rate • Decreased fertility rate
Social Class • A social class is a category of people who share a common economic position in the stratified society in which they live. • Structurally, social class reflects the occupations we hold, the income and power they give us, and the opportunities they present or deny us. • The cultural dimension of social class refers to any class specific values, attitudes, beliefs, and motivations that distinguish classes from one another.
Social Class and Family Life: Upper Class • Roughly 7 to 10% of the population occupies this position. • The uppermost level of this class represents 3% of the population.
Social Class and Family Life: Middle Class • Represents between 45 to 50% of the population. • Upper-middle class consists of highly paid professionals (lawyers, doctors, engineers). • Lower-middle class comprises includes white-collar service workers with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000.
Social Class and Family Life: Working Class • About a third of the U.S. population is working class. • Tend to work as skilled laborers, earn between $15,000 and $25,000, and have high school or vocational educations.
Social Class and Family Life: Lower Class • Close to 20% percent of Americans are poor. • The poverty line was determined by calculating the annual costs of a “minimal food budget” multiplied by three. • Families whose incomes are even one dollar above this are not officially classified as poor.
The Working Poor • According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005 report: • 20% of the nation’s poor can be classified as “working poor.” • 22.5% of single-female-headed families are “working poor,”compared to 13.5% of single-male-headed families. • Younger workers, people who don’t graduate from high school and part-time workers are more vulnerable to being among the working poor.
Class and Family Life • Within upper-class families we tend to find sharply sex-segregated marriages in which women are subordinated to their husbands. • Middle-class marriages tend to be ideologically more egalitarian and are often two-career marriages. • Working-class couples who work “opposite” shifts, have higher levels of sharing responsibilities. • Marriages among the lower class are the least stable.
Class and Family Life: Parents and Children • Among the upper class, an important objective is to see that children acquire the appropriate understanding of their social standing and cultivate the right connections with others like themselves. • Middle-class parents tend to emphasize autonomy and self-discipline.
Racial and Ethnic Diversity • According to 2000 census data: • 30% of the U.S. population are people of color: • 13% are African American • 13% are Hispanic • 4% are Asian/Pacific Islander • 1% are Native American
Racial and Ethnic Diversity • By 2050, the population is expected to be: • Over 50% Caucasian • 24% Hispanic • 13% African American • 9% Asian • 1% Native American
African American families • According to the 2000 census, the more than 34 million African Americans in the United States represented 12.2% of the population. • Compared with the total U.S. population, African Americans are younger and less likely to be married. • Blacks are more likely to bear children outside of marriage and more likely to live in single-parent families.
Features of African-American families • African Americans are less likely to have completed college (17% versus 29%). • Median earnings for African Americans who are employed full-time year-round were $27,264 in 2000, (85% of the median for all workers $32,098). • The percentage of poor blacks is nearly three times the percentage of poor whites (8%) and almost twice the percentage of the general population who are poor (12%).
Latino Families • The 2000 census reported 35 million Hispanics, representing 12.5% of the U.S. population. • It is projected that by 2050, at least 25% of the population will be of Hispanic origin. • Currently, 65.8% of Latinos are of Mexican descent, 9.4% are Puerto Rican, and another 4% are Cuban. • The remaining 21% includes 7.8% from Central American countries and 5.2% from South American countries.
Latino Families • Emphasize extended kin relationships, cooperation, and mutual assistance. • La familia includes not only the nuclear family but also the extended family. • Bilingualism helps maintain ethnic identity.
Marital Status: Comparisons of Hispanics and Non-Hispanics, 2004
