Gender Roles: The Destruction Of The American Family

These standards are extremely different from modern families we see today, because family isn’t necessarily dependent on the standard of the model American family anymore. Consider the tv show, “Modern Family”. This show portrays

Within a generation, America has seen drastic changes in the home. My mother was raised in an era where the nuclear family was the norm. Now, it has become largely acceptable for children to be born out of wedlock and into single parent homes. I’m guessing the question as to why it has become so widely accepted, is on your mind as well. June Carbone and Naomi Cahn have set out to see why this is happening in their new book, Marriage Markets: How Inequality Is Remaking the American Family. Carbone and Cahn are well-known for their work in the field of family dynamics due to their previous book, Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture; a book discussing the effect political parties had on family morals and values. Marriage Markets is essentially a sequel, using much of the same data while adding more contemporary findings. Using quantitative research methods, Carbone and Cahn were able to assess the changes America has seen in recent years. They have hypothesized that “economic inequality is remaking the American family along class lines, and families are not going through the same changes together” (Carbone 1). . Based on the reading, there is strong evidence that supports their thesis, including statistics from the Census. In the following review of Carbone and Cahn’s work, I will summarize the book’s contents and survey its major strengths and weaknesses.

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

It was July 26, 1943, a historic day in history because it was the birthday of Mick Jagger, and my grandmother, Betty Andrews de Soto. Born in Jacksonville Florida, but raised on the Cherry Point North Carolina marine base by strict and religious parents, my grandmother is one tough cookie to crack. My grandmother is not fazed by much, but she continues to be astounded by the vast changes in technology, gender roles affecting American home life, and by the active role of racism in our society. “The world has changed dramatically in technology, home life, and racism, but mostly for the better.” (de Soto)

Throughout life every man and woman fits into a specific gender role. We are told what is expected of men and women from birth until death. Many people influence our view of how we should act and what we should say such as our parents, friends, and even the media. Males and females play very different roles and these differences are apparent in our every day lives. These differences are not the same as they used to be. Society has changed the way it treats men and women over time.

In the article Yearning for The Past by Susan Milligan, a senior writer for US News, she describes that for decades candidates and parties have defined the American family as two married, opposite sex adults with children or planning to have them, and with a woman who may or may not work outside the home. Those are clear assumption of what a family in America is and policymakers are falling behind on making policies that fit the needs of the diverse family lifestyles we have.

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.

     Femininity and masculinity are topics that have been debated over in our society extensively, through psychological research and day to day interaction with people. Children learn from their parents as well as society the concept of “feminine” and “masculine.” The majority of people tend to believe that these conceptions are biological but I believe it is more cultural. From birth, female children are shaped by society as being sweet, caring, loving, and delicate and usually associated with the color pink. While male children are shaped by being tough, aggressive, and competitive and associated with the color blue. As these children grow, the boy is given a football to play with and the girl a

With war comes sadness, loss, tragedy , fear and death. WWII had a very high total of losses from money to service men killed. The war cost over three hundred and fifty billion dollars and over two hundred and ninety thousand servicemen were killed. A sudden shift took place after the pearl Harbour attack. After that all americans were fully engaged in war efforts. American society took a dramatic change as well.

Most people argue that the family is in ‘crisis’. They point to the rapidly increasing divorce rate, cohabitation, illegitimacy and number of single parent families.

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.

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’

Today I believe that the traditional family has changed over the years. Mona Charen, a columnist and political analyst based out of Washington D.C wrote, “The only way to sing a dirge for the “traditional” family is to define it exceedingly narrowly – and even then, it’s not dead, just diminished. If you define “traditional” family as a father working and mother not working outside of home, and 2.4 (Ok kidding about the .4) then yes, only about 23% of families fit that model today. ”(224) Today I feel that it’s harder to support a family with just one of the parents working.

Christina Cauterucci (2016) introduced shocking findings related to current gender norms in America from a recent study that was published by Indiana University researchers. These findings indicated that rigid gender expectations related to household labor continue to persist in American families. These findings may have come as no surprise during the 1950’s. However, since the 1950’s social movements and organizations have emerged and focused much of their time on the unequal division of household labor in American households. For example, Lamanna et al. (2012) explained how the feminist movement developed in the 1960’s and made strides towards abolishing inequality between males and females in American households (p. 41). This movement was inspired by an interest in adopting elements from Karl Marx’s conflict theory to explain the inequalities of the American family. From here, feminist theory arose and was used to address power differentials between individuals of American families. Overall, the theory has largely focused on gender related issues that are rooted in the idea that American society is, in fact, a male dominated patriarchy.

Throughout human history individuals around the world, of various ethnic, racial, cultural backgrounds have linked together to form what people call today families. A lot of questions come to mind when contemplating the complex relationship people have. Since families have a direct bearing on society now and on future generations it is essential to take seriously what is happening to the family. Is the American family in decline, and if so what should be done about it? “Traditionally, family has been defined as a unit made up of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption: live together; form an economic unit, and bear and raise children (Benokraitis, 3).” The definition of decline is to “fail in strength, vigor, character, value, deteriorate, slant downward.” The traditional nuclear family consists of a father provider, mother-homemaker, and at least one child (Brym and Lie, 252).” The nuclear family is a distinct and universal family form because it performs five important functions in society:sexual regulation, economic cooperation, reproduction, socialization, and emotional support. Research from the 1950 's to the present will emphasize what trends are taking place among American families. Family trends might not have expected???