Cultural Factors

In Andrew J. Cherlin’s essay “American Marriage In Transition”, he discusses how marriage in America is evolving from the universal marriage. Cherlin’s definition of the universal marriage in his essay is the man is the breadwinner of the household and the woman is the homemaker. In the 20th century according to Cherlin, the meaning of marriage has been altered such as the changing division of labor, childbearing outside of marriage, cohabitation, gay marriage and the result of long- term cultural and material trends (1154). During the first transition of marriage, Cherlin discusses how in America, Europe, and Canada the only socially accepted way to have sexual relations with a person and to have children is to be married (1154). The second change in marriage occurred in 2000, where the median age of marriage in the United States for men is 27 and women is 25 (1155). Many young adults stayed single during this time and focused on their education and starting their careers. During the second change, the role of law increasingly changed, especially in the role of law in divorce (1155). It is proven in today’s research marriage has a different definition than what it did back in the 1950’s. Today marriage can be defined as getting married to the same gender or getting remarried to someone who already has kids. The roles in a marriage are evolving to be a little more flexible and negotiable. However, women still do a lot of the basic household chores and taking care of the

Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.

The emphasis on individualism has provoked a deeper inspection of one’s personal values and beliefs while feminism has opened the door for a new type of traditional family to emerge with new dynamics between parents, children and their roles within the home. These new dynamics merge right along with cultural values as the two merge. In America, life is varied from home to home with different culturally-influenced family values. While throughout other parts of the world, different countries have maintained a balance within a core value system that affects all families alike through religion and a national way of life. There is no doubt that the many varied factors of modern society, ethnic background and religion all play significant roles in forming family values that shape the life of an

Cultural Considerations. It has been observed that professionals cannot offer effective support for families without understanding the systems within which the families exist and function (Enwefa, Enwefa, & Jennings, 2006). Given the great importance of support systems for families affected by IDD, it is necessary to consider cultural factors which may affect such systems in either a positive or negative manner. Across cultures, people tend to have varying beliefs about disability (Kayama, 2010), which at times may function as barriers, preventing access to supports and services (Cagran et al., 2011; White, 1987). Kayama (2010) asserts that systemic change may lead to revised perceptions and beliefs among families, moving them from segregationist and negative views, toward a perspective of inclusion.

There was a very different scene in the household of American families. During the early 1800s, a woman’s life consisted of many obligations and few choices. Women were pretty much controlled by the men in their life, their fathers, brothers, and husbands. The life would consist of finding a husband, reproducing, and then spending the rest of their lives helping the family in the house. In fact, when women became married, legally all of her inheritance and belongings would belong to her husband.

At this point in time, women were thought to be have belonged in the home and were inferior to men due to it just being the cultural norm. That was just the way of life and how it had always been. Sentimentalism came to the American society around the 1800’s. This then lead away from arranged marriages and gave men and women free will of marriage based off of feelings, attraction and affection. Companionate marriages were thought to have given men and women equality in the marriage, but in reality husbands still continued to dominate the marriage because “male authority was deeply ingrained in cultural mores and according to Abigail Adams complained, husbands had “sovereign authority” over the family’s property” (Henretta, 2012). During

America began as thirteen small colonies under the rule of Great Britain. As time progressed we as colonies decided that being under Great Britain's rule was toxic and we needed to be our own country. Our decision to declare our freedom turned American from partially peaceful colonies to a post apocalyptic wasteland. Our fight towards Great Britain brought disease, death, and in some cases defeat. This fight was cost families everything. America also has a deep history with the topic of slavery. African citizens would be captured and brought against the will to America to be a Southern’s slave. Slaves were sometimes separated from their families, beaten, and killed. Alongside with people being discriminated towards by their race, some were discriminated by

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

The American family, as we’ve seen in previous chapters, has developed in dynamic ways over the centuries. As a class, we have discussed the structure of families since the 1700s and how that structure has affected the rest of society. In this section specifically, we examine poverty, the economy and cultural influences have had a significant impact on the African American family and its position on marriage.

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

When we are young we play house and we play doctor, we pretend we are husbands and wives to the kids we play with. Marriage is imbedded into our minds at a young age and we value marriage as we get older. We see examples of marriages through personal experience, the TV, and through the media, but how much has marriage changed now compared to the 1950’s? The idea of marriage has been altered and improved since the 1950’s because of feminism, views about individualism, and views of same-sex marriage.

In the late 1800’s through early 1900’s women and men were did not “tie the knot” like the women and men do in today’s day. In today’s world, women and men get married because they have many things in common, they are in love with each other, and they choose to get married to one another. In many stories written back then, readers can expect to read about how marriages were arranged and how many people were not having the wedded bliss marriage proclaims today.

In earlier cultures, women’s job was to bear children, cook, clean, and to be submissive to their husband. A man’s job was to work, take care of the farm, and was to be the dominant individual in the marriage. With both the husband and wife doing their daily duties, the household would go smoothly. However, certain men in the 19th century began to degrade women. Making women feel worthless and unimportant. “Wives, daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the domestic duties that were increasingly carried out by servants” (The British Library).

According to Hawki, marriage in American society has had clearly defined gender roles. These traditional roles arrived with the immigrants who settled the New World. Along with these gender roles, the European