Family Life in Different Countries

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Family Life in Different Countries

• Pat Petersen
• Troy Peiffer
• Sharon Klingen
• Ateegi Al-Atiki

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Is Family An Endangered Species
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Not long ago, the cultural ideal of the family
consisted of a working husband, a homemaker
wife and their young children.Today about 1 in 4
U.S. households fit that description
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Structural Functionalism Manifest w/ marriage
comes love, security and companionship. Family
provides support and a sense of belonging.
Dysfunction Conflicts get tired of each other,
fighting and arguing alcoholism or drug abuse
Latent Death, Divorce, Job or Cancer. Family
serves as the backbone of society.
Family
Symbolic Interaction Dramaturgical As family
members share activities, they build emotional
bonds. Kinship Ties can confide in one another
and turn to each other for help w/ daily
responsibilities.
Social Conflict -Kinship benefits society -Family
perpetuates social inequality by transmitting
divisions based on class, ethnicity, race and
gender.
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• Effects of Family on an Individual level
• Youngsters need to be constantly reminded of
  their social responsibility starting in the home.
  
• Teaching children proper moral behavior requires
  input from the parents.
• There is a need for parents to support,
  understand, trust and protect their children
• Children feel comfortable and secure in the
  knowledge they could always rely on their parents
  to help them in times of difficulty.
• If all children were taught to respect and revere
  others, it would reduce dissension and create a
  homogeneous community where all could expect to
  be treated fairly and with compassion.

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This case serves as a prime example of how family
effects, not only on an individual person to
person level, but can effect entire communities
and perhaps even an entire nation.
EX In the case of Charles Andrew Williams.such
nurturing and upbringing did not occur, due to
divorce when Andy was just 4 years old.
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General Facts on Sweden

• Swedes are less likely to marry than members of
  any other industrialized society.
• 20 percent of adults in Sweden live alone as
  apposed to 13 percent in the United States.
• In Sweden those couples living outside of
  marriage rate 25 percent in comparison to the
  United States 7 percent.
• Half of all Swedish children are born to
  unmarried parents, where as in the United States
  one in every three are born to unmarried parents.
  
• The Average household size in Sweden is the
  smallest in the world (2.2 persons versus 2.6 in
  the United States).
• Swedish couples-married or not are more likely to
  break up than partners in any other country.
• the family has probably become weaker in Sweden
  than anywhere elsecertainly among advanced
  Western nations, says David Popenoe.

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Structural Functionalism Manifest people are
secure, their basic needs are taken care
of, Avoid excessive violent crimes, drug abuse
and poverty.
Dysfunction Sweds are less likely to get
married.
Latent people look more towards government for
support rather than spouses.
Swedens Welfare System
Symbolic Interaction Dramaturgical -Govt
emphases how great their welfare system is
however politicians never mention its effect on
family stability.
Social Conflict Reduction in marriage rate
Social Exchange Sweden has one of the highest
rates of taxation in the world
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India

• In India, families are a very important part of
  everyday life. Therefore many children are
  involved with child labor.
• Children in India and around the world work in
  many different ways, from picking garbage to
  helping parents run a family business, from
  shining shoes to selling newspapers.

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Children at Work

• When these children are not in school, most are
  in the local factories.
• Nobody knows for sure how many children work in
  factories.
• Most of the children that work in factories are
  runaways because they must work, just to survive.

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• Yet the other workers work in the fields or shops
  alongside family members, who can be among the
  worst slave-drivers of all.
• For example, Indias 1991 census found that
  minors make up eight percent of the laboring
  population.
• In the southern part of India, 80,000 children,
  many whom are only 10, are employed in the match
  and firework industries. These industries are
  all dangerous to work in.

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• These stats dont change when you move to a
  different part of the country.
• A labor Ministry official estimates that 300,000
  children work in Indias carpet industry.
• Not only is it illegal for children to work in
  America, but in India there are laws forbidding
  them from working more than five hours a day, but
  many children work eight to twelve hours a day.

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A Story of a Family in India

• Here is a story about a young girl named Ginny
  and her struggle in her family to make some
  money.
• Barefoot and concentrating intensely, Ginny
  squats on a wooden board on the floor of her
  family's tiny one-room home, surrounded by
  half-stitched soccer balls. Her short, dark brown
  hair is pulled back into a tight pigtail, to keep
  her eyes free for her intricate work. Over and
  over, she meticulously plunges two needles
  through pre-punched holes along the edge of a
  black vinyl pentagon, crosses the two threads,
  then pierces the next hole, never stopping.
  Ginny has mastered the stitching, and knows how
  to vary the order of the black and white pieces.
  But then, she has had plenty of time to learn,
  since she has been doing this for the past six
  months. Her only breaks are for eating, sleeping
  and attending school for a few hours every
  afternoon. Ginny is only eight years old. "She
  plays in school, but I can't allow her to play
  here, because there is so much work," says her
  mother, a pleasant, smiling woman named Pinky.

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Why Children Work in India

• Each fully assembled ball will bring the family
  five rupees they can earn about 500 rupees, or
  20 per month, stitching in spare time. This
  covers their monthly rent and half of their
  electricity bill.
• With this story, the children do not choose to
  work, but have to work to help support the
  family.

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Life in the United States of America

• The deaths of her two-and-a-half-year-old sister
  and eight-month-old brother.
• Anthony Dicristo In all my years, I never had a
  toy.
• they receive vaccinations for all known diseases
  that can kill a child at a young age.
• teen-agers hold jobs to buy cars, food, clothes

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Structural Functionalism
Manifest Freedom
Latent Kids tend to be spoiled
Dysfunctional Laws against teenagers
Family in the U.S.A.
Symbolic Interaction

• Dramaturgical
• Mothers, Fathers, Children

Social Conflict WASPs tend to rule when it comes
to the social class
2. Social Exchange Friends, move up in
social class
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Family in
Saudi Arabia
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Marriage Patterns Endogamy Marriage between
people of the same social category Polygyny
Marriage unite one male and two or more females
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Residential Patterns Neolocality Married couple
lives apart from both sets of parents
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Authority Patterns Like any other society Men
think that they are controlling everything in the
family. But lets be honest, women control
everything everywhere.
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Regulation of Sexual Activities Incest Taboo A
cultural norm forbidding sexual relations or
marriage between certain relatives
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Property and Inheritance Men and Women have
their own property Women inherit half what the
men inherit
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• Stages of Family Life
• Romantic Love
• Real Marriage
• Child Rearing
• Family in Later Life

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Divorce Men have the power to get divorce any
time they want Women also have the right to do
so if there are serious problems in their
marriages.
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References

• Bobak, Laura. Indias tiny slaves. Ottawa Sun.
  23 Oct. 1996 41-45.
• Dahlburg, John-Thor. Littlest Laborers find
  Alley. Los Angeles Times. 4 Jan. 1994 28-32.
• Macionis, John J.  Sociology.  Upper Saddle
  River Prentice-Hall, 2001.
• McGowan, Jo. Too Much, Too Soon, Too Often.
  Commonweal 20 Oct. 2000 8-9.
• Patro, Indira. More to Life. http//www.christia
  nwomentoday.com/growth/indira.html 20 Apr. 2002.
• Popenoe,David.  "Beyond the Nuclear Family A
  Statistical Portrait of the Changing Family in
  Sweden."  Journal of Marriage and the Family.  49
  (2001) 173-182. 
• Rogers, Lisa. Through the Eyes of Children.
  Humanities Oct. 2001 45-46.
• Son, Johanna. Changing Attitudes Key to ending
  Child Sex Trade. InterPress Service 23 Jan.
  1995 46-49.
• Song, Younghwan . Low-Income Children in the
  United States A Brief Demographic Profile.
  National Center for Children in Poverty. March
  2002 15-16.

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Questions

• Should our society follow Sweden's lead?  And if
  we look to government to help working parents
  care for children will it strengthen or weaken
  families? 
• Do you think single-parent households do as good
  a job as two-parent households in raising
  children?  Why or why not?
• On balance, are families in the United States
  becoming weaker or simply different?

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The End