ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD APPELBAUM ● DEBORA CARR Slides created by Shannon Anderson, Roanoke College Third Edition Chapter 11: Families

ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD APPELBAUM ● DEBORA CARRSlides created by Shannon Anderson, Roanoke College

Third Edition

Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships

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© 2011 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.

The big issues

• What do sociologists mean by family?

• What have families looked like across time and space?

• What are current trend in families in the United States and around the world?

• What are alternatives to traditional families?

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What is “the family”?

• The family is a critical social institution that functions as part of society.

• The family is also a distinct social group with its own roles, patterns, and behaviors.

• Family is a cultural universal, though its structure varies across time and space.

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Family concepts

• Kinship

• Marriage

• Nuclear versus extended family

• Family of orientation versus procreation

• Monogamy versus polygamy

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Theory and family

• Functional theories see two primary roles of family:– Primary socialization of children– Personality stabilization of adults

• Feminist approaches often focus on the ways in which “traditional” models of family reinforce our system of gender inequality.

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Division of labor (DOL) in families

• The DOL in families is a frequent topic of concern for feminist scholars.

• Arlie Hochschild dealt with this in her classic The Second Shift (1989, with Anne Machung).

• Although both parents typically work outside the home today, it remains women who do the bulk of the domestic work.

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The American family over time

• The structure of families has varied throughout U.S. history.

• Colonial families were organized around work and community obligation and were kept in line with highly structured authority.

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The American family over time

• With modernity came a separation of spheres for men and women: Men went to work for capitalists and women stayed in the home.– This was not a matter of choice.– Child labor was commonplace.

• The “traditional” 1950s family was less golden than current nostalgia suggests.– Example: Women often felt trapped in the home.

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Changes in families worldwide

• The spread of Western culture appears to be affecting families around the globe.– Example: increased attention to romantic love

• In some countries there have been systematic efforts by governments to alter family size and structure.

• Rural-urban migration has led to a change in family structure.

• Worldwide shift toward the nuclear family model

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Seven important global trends

1. Declining influence of clans and kin groups

2. Increasing freedom of mate selection

3. Expanding rights for women

4. Fewer kin marriages

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Seven important global trends

5. Increasing degree of sexual freedom

6. Declining birthrates

7. Increasing room for children’s rights

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Trends in U.S. families today

• Rising age at first marriage

• Increasing numbers of people living alone

• Sharp rise in cohabitation

• Increasing numbers of single-parent and stepparent families

• Ongoing high rate of divorce

• Sharp rise in dual-earner families

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Figure 11.2 The Changing Structure of AmericanFamilies with Children

Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company


Families in poverty

• Poor families, especially poor black families, adapt by creating extensive kin and quasi-kin networks.– Pros and cons to this kind of support structure

• For poor, young women there is typically high value placed on having and raising children.

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Figure 11.4 Divorce Rates in the United StatesEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition

Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company


After divorce

• Women and children often experience a significant decline in economic status.

• Men often experience an improved financial situation.

• The majority of divorced individuals will remarry.

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Effects on children

• There is disagreement on this topic among scholars of divorce and family.

• Some research—which is mostly psychological in nature—suggests that a period of initial trauma followed by adjustment is the norm.

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Effects on children

• Other research suggests that there continue to be deficits in some outcomes.– Education– Occupation– Future marital success

• The cause of these differences appears to be economic and social.

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Why so much divorce?

• Implementation of no-fault laws

• Declining stigma

• Less connection to extended family obligations or to property between families

• Women’s economic independence

• Unrealistic expectations plus an easy escape hatch

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Risk factors for divorce

Which of these increase one’s risk of divorce? Which decrease risk?

1. Married at a young age (under age 21)

2. Have divorced parents

3. Lived with your romantic partner prior to marrying

4. Have been divorced at least once

5. Had a child prior to marrying

6. Have a childless marriage

7. Knew your partner for a short time prior to marrying

8. Experience fi nancial hardship

9. Have less than a college degree

10. You and your partner are similar with respect to social class background, age, and religion

11. You or your partner is depressed

12. You or your partner frequently drinks alcoholic beverages

13. You fear disapproval from family and friends

14. You believe married people should stay together “for the sake of the kids”

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Risk factors for divorce

IF YOU CHECKED YES:

Married at a young age (under age 21) Increase risk

Have divorced parents Increase risk

Lived with your romantic partner prior to marrying Increase risk

Have been divorced at least once Increase risk

Had a child prior to marrying Increase risk

Have a childless marriage Increase risk

Knew your partner for a short time prior to marrying Increase risk

Experience fi nancial hardship Increase risk

Have less than a college degree Increase risk

You and your partner are similar with respect to

Social class background, age, and religion Decrease risk

You or your partner is depressed Increase risk

You or your partner frequently drinks alcoholic

Beverages Increase risk

You fear disapproval from family and friends Decrease risk

You believe married people should stay together “for

the sake of the kids” Decrease risk21

Figure 11.5 Number of Single-Parent Families, in MillionsEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition



Single-parent families

• Approximately half of children in the United States spend of part of childhood in single-parent families.

• These families are nearly always headed by women.• There is a small movement of “single mothers by

choice” made up of affluent, never-married women.• For most, though, single parenting is related to

divorce or factors related to poverty and deprivation.

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Figure 11.6 Increases in CohabitationEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition



Cohabitation

• About 50 percent of you will cohabit prior to marriage.

• Cohabitation is now understood as a stage in the relationship process preceding marriage.

• The main reason people give for cohabitation is to ensure future compatibility.

• Interestingly, statistics show that those who cohabit prior to marriage are more likely to divorce.

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Gay-parent families

• Despite ongoing dissent, there is slow movement toward acceptance of gay marriage and gay parenting.

• This shift is taking place globally: the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, and others have already legalized either civil unions or gay marriages.

• In the United States, only Florida prevents gay couples from adopting children.

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Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships


Clicker Questions

1. How was the premodern family in the United States different from the modern family?

a. The premodern family was an extended family, and the modern family is nuclear.

b. The premodern family was more stable than the modern family.

c. The premodern family was only slightly larger than the modern family.

d. The premodern family was one in which the father and the mother went out to work.

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Clicker Questions

2. What is the family of orientation?

a. The family of orientation is represented by childless couples.

b. The family of orientation consists of the family into which a person is born.

c. The family of orientation is represented by gay couples.

d. The family of orientation is the family into which a person enters as an adult and within which children are raised.

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Clicker Questions

3. Why are families worldwide today adopting a nuclear family form?

a. Because of shortened life expectancy, there are fewer grandparents around to provide extended family relationships.

b. Because of warfare, families find it easier to survive as nuclear families.

c. Because of the spread of Western culture, more people today are exposed to the ideals of romantic love and the nuclear family.

d. Because of the rise of highly centralized national governments, new laws are undermining extended families.

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Clicker Questions

4. Which one of the following is true regarding important changes in families occurring worldwide?

a. There is a general trend toward arranged marriages.

b. The rights of women are becoming more suppressed.

c. Kin marriages are becoming more common.

d. Higher levels of sexual freedom are developing in societies that were very restrictive.

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Clicker Questions

5. Which of the following is a reason for the steep increase in divorce rates in the 1960s and 1970s?

a. Changes in the law made divorce available for the first time.

b. With few exceptions, marriage no longer had much connection with the desire to perpetuate property and status from generation to generation.

c. As men became more economically independent, marriage was less of a necessary economic partnership for them.

d. The stigma of divorce increased, but this only affected women and not men.

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Clicker Questions

6. Increases in cohabitation among younger people, increases in postsecondary school enrollment (especially among women), and women’s increased participation in the labor force are all explanations for the trend toward _____ in the last several decades.

a. remarriage

b. later marriage

c. single motherhood

d. later divorce

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Clicker Questions

7. As recently as early fall, 2010, which of the following was the only state that had laws explicitly preventing lesbians and gay men from adopting children?

a. New York

b. California

c. Utah

d. Florida

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Art Presentation Slides

Chapter 11

Anthony Giddens

Mitchell Duneier

Richard P. Appelbaum

Deborah Carr

Families and Intimate Relationships

Chapter OpenerEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


An extended Kazak family in Mongolia. Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Parents wait for the train with their daughter.How is a nuclear family different from an extended family?


Globalization and Everyday LifeEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Globalization and Everyday LifeEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Figure 11.1 Percentage of Never Married Twenty to TwentyFour Year Olds


Figure 11.2 The Changing Structure of AmericanFamilies with Children


Figure 11.3 Family Arrangements for Black andWhite Children, 2008


Figure 11.4 Divorce Rates in the United StatesEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Tomeryl Collier and her mother, Cheryl Ellis,sit on Tomeryl’s bed.


Figure 11.5 Number of Single-Parent Families, in MillionsEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Anne Stevenson poses for a portrait with her sonReece in front of her off- campus housing when,as a single parent


Figure 11.6 Increases in CohabitationEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Figure 11.7 Reasons for CohabitingEssentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition


Evelyn Rivera’s family (her son Mark, nephew Sal, andlesbian partner Debbie Rodriguez) is just one example ofthe changing idea of the “typical” American family.


Jessica Vander mark-Martinez, left, holds hands with JodieVandermark-Martinez at their wedding ceremony outsidethe Polk County administrative office in Des Moines, Iowa.


W.W. Norton & CompanyIndependent and Employee-Owned

Essentials Of SociologyTHIRD EDITION

This concludes the Art Presentation Slides

Slide Set for Chapter 11

byAnthony GiddensMitchell Duneier

Richard P. AppelbaumDeborah Carr

Documents

ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD APPELBAUM ● DEBORA CARR Slides created by Shannon Anderson, Roanoke College Third Edition Chapter 11: Families