How The Family Changed Over Time

Chief amongst these are that families have two goals: in raising children and establishing solid and stable adult relationships (Parsons and Bales 1955). The way families achieved these goals was by establishing specific roles for each member of the family, specifically the two parents. This structure, with a man in the workforce and woman at home, was very prevalent in the 1950s. In 1960, according to Phillip Cohen (2014), 65 percent of children lived in homes with married parents where only the father was employed. At this point, with a majority of children living in such situations, it seemed valid to define families using these households. However, this household structure quickly fell out of prominence: by 2012, only 22 percent of children lived in such homes. The most common household type — 34 percent — involved married parents where both adults worked. With families now being arranged in such varied ways, it is more difficult to generalize about family structures as you and Bales do, Dr. Parsons (Cohen 2014: 2-3).

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???

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.

Week one was the discussion in the values changing from the traditional marriage male to female with many children. The course lesson describes the differences in the family now recognizing the development of different family morals within the stages of the traditions. Sociologist George Murdock covers the stages of family, which is introduced in the article “Defining Family” exposed in lesson 1. In the article, “Family Facing Untenable Choices” there is a discovery of the growth of single-parent household, the rise of the divorce rates, the Black mother rearing her children alone, and inter-racial and same-sex household rearing. The lesson articles were concurrent with each other on describing many different traditional values throughout the

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 idea of 'family life' in society has changed frequently throughout history in Britain, this has lead to the many differing opinions and arguments raised by sociologists. In this essay I aim to evaluate and analyse the arguments put forward by Functionalist, Marxist and Feminist theories by discussing the impact of industrialisation on 'family life' and society in general. The vast changes in women's rights, the impact of war, and the enfranchisement of women are some factors in which have influenced the structure of families throughout britain over a period of time. Each of these factors could be seen as the reason society has pushed further away from the idea of normality which is seen as the 'nuclear' family. However, In this essay I will be looking at the impact of industrialisation and how it effected family structure in

The reading material meaning of a family truly lingering behind as a result of today's general public a dominant part of families have both the wife and spouse have an occupation. The structure of the family changed in the course of recent years, ladies' and men's parts have changed drastically. We have come to a great degree far where ladies are contributing in the paid work power, divorce rates are high, individuals are not getting hitched early or having children when they get hitched, and the vast majority are inspiring hitched to individuals from an alternate race or

1. In the world there are many different family structures and dynamics that exist. The book uses a circle to help readers understand the dynamic structure between parent and child, parent and marital relationship, and child and marital relationship. Different cultures have different family dynamics, along with changes in their environment. For example, during the great depression many people moved from small farms to cities in hopes of better pay jobs; technology has also changed the family dynamic because many parents are relying on television to help raise their kids than ever before. Adult lifestyles have also changed drastically over the decades, leaving many adults single than ever before. The book gives this rise in single adults to the fact that more and more adults are waiting to get married.

The idea of “Breadwinning” constructed by Robert O. Self in, All in the Family, is the ideal from the conservative side is that “they sought to protect idealized families from moral harm”(Self, 5) where as on the liberal side “they hoped to assist families economically”(Self, 4). This idea of breadwinning ultimately divided demands of labor by gender. It gave off this notion that men’s work was to be public, paid for and ultimately preserve the family where as women’s work was more domestic and caregiving. This 1955 ideology provided the notion that the males were to be the provider of the family by working and providing income to support his family. Males were the heads of the household and ultimately drove public policy, “The nation had developed a national employment policy-through legislation such as the 1935 Social Security and Wagner acts, the 1937 Fair Labor Standards Act, and the 1946 Employment act- it was based on male-breadwinner ideology”(Self, 18). With men driving and shaping public policy in the workforce women were not guaranteed equal opportunity with new legislation because so few questioned this naturalness of the breadwinning ideology. In the first half of the 1960s a distinct way of thinking in the work place and family challenged the previous ideology. A growing number of advocates such as “female trade unionists,

The majority of people living in the industrialized societies of the West believe family living to be the most important part of their lives (Bernardes 1). Despite this belief, family life has gone through a dramatic change in the concluding decades of the 20th century. A wide range of family patterns have surfaced disentangling the traditional ones. The contemporary processes of industrialization, specialism, isolation, urbanization etc. have been influential in modifying the forms of contemporary modern and post-modern society. The social importance of the religious institutions, activities and mindset is lost. Individualization has made an individual more free and independent. The individual has not only gained independence from the religion and social institutions (Hal 1).

The author particularly considers about several aspects that are accomplish feminist change family style in different eras. In 1970~80s, female were suffering gender inequality in common nuclear families and also do household full time as units of social reproduction. These ideas constituted an

Historical research has shown that there have been many different family forms in the past that did not necessarily fit the nuclear definition of the family. There are four main approaches to consider when talking about the history of the family. These approaches help show the significant changes that have occurred in 'the family '. The four approaches are the: demographic, economic, sentiments and the legal and institutional approaches. The demographic approach measures the statistical patterns of ‘the family’. Statistics taken from parish records and censuses enable us to see how family households have changed over time. The average household size has been relatively stable and stayed at 4.75 persons per household between the sixteenth century and the end of the nineteenth century. These households

The tradition family is an ideal of the past. Today families typically see full-time employment held by all parents or guardians involved and also consist of somewhere between two and four children on average. With the disappearance of the traditional family comes the appearance of women into the work force1. Women are making headway into jobs in all fields and taking on equivalent if not heavier workloads than men. Another contributing factor the work-family conflict is high rates of divorce and single parenthood; these unfortunate situations force the parents to work and to take on all of the house chores on their own. Number and age of children

For most of us, the family is considered as a well-known and comfortable institution. The perfect model of the ‘ideal’ family is still mostly considered to be consisted from two different sexes’ parents, and one or more children. Until quite recently, the sociology of the family was mostly functionalist and just in the last few decades has been challenged from various directions.

This essay intends to discuss the importance of the family in society using theories and studies to support this, and will look at the family according to the functionalist theory, the Marxist theory, and the feminist theory. It will look at how gender roles have become more equal and how social policy has contributed to this. It will also look at diversity through sociological theories including that of post modernists.