History of the Family

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History of the Family
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The American Family?
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Is the family in decline?

• A revolution has taken place in family life since
  the late 1960s.
• Two-thirds of all married women with children
  work outside the home, compared to just 16
  percent in 1950.
• Half of all marriages end in divorce - twice the
  rate in 1966 and three times the rate in 1950.
• 20 of women between the ages of 30 and 34 have
  not married and over a quarter have had no
  children, compared to six and eight percent,
  respectively, in 1970.

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Change is a constant

• Diversity and change have been the only constants
  in the history of the American family.
• Recent changes in family life are only the latest
  in a series of disjunctive transformations in
  family roles, functions, and dynamics that have
  occurred over the past three centuries.

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Origins of family and kinship

• Evolution of human species
• Hunters and gatherers
• Settled agriculture
• Patrilocal system Women leave home and come in
  as wives for the men who remain there.
• Matrilocal system Men live with their sisters
  and husbands are temporary visitors in the homes
  of wives.
• Families developed out of a will to survive,
  prosper, and raise children.

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Kinship as a weapon of survival

• The incest taboo restriction on sexual
  intercourse, and hence on marriage, among close
  relatives.
• The definition of close varies historically and
  cross-culturally.
• In tribal societies, family ties provide the
  structure that hold the society together.
• Thus, family is central to the organization of
  society.

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The American family before 1776

• American Indian families
• Importance of tribe to social organization
• Matrilineal and patrilineal organization
• European colonists (public family)
• Family functioned as school, hospital,
  correctional facility, orphanage, nursing home,
  and poor house.
• Familial mode of production

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The rise of the modern family

• 1770s late 1800s
• Characteristics of new family (middle class)
• Marriage increasingly based on affection and
  mutual respect
• Womans role is to take care of children and home
• Increasing focus on children
• Number of children per family declining

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Economic shift

• Labor market mode of production (not familial)
• Working for wages, production for exchange.
• Emergence of commercial capitalism.
• Solidified during Industrial Revolution (mid
  1800s).
• Increasingly the workplace and home became
  separated.
• Erosion of fathers authority over children.

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Rise of affective individualism

• Greater consideration of oneself and
  self-satisfaction.
• Personal gratification in family relationships.
• Autonomy more important than obligations to
  others.

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Separate spheres

• Men work in paid labor force, exchanging labor
  for goods.
• Women specialize in maintaining the home and
  raising children.
• Coincided with an extension of childhood
• Institution of protected features

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The private family (1900 present)

• Early 1900s
• Increase in premarital sex.
• Drop in the birthrate.
• New youth culture.
• Rising divorce rate.
• Increasing economic independence of women
• Shift in marriage from institution and economic
  partnership to companionship and emotional
  satisfaction

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Depression generation (1929-1939)

• Economic downturn
• Downward extension of adulthood
• Undermined authority and prestige of fathers
• Divorce rate fell
• Marriage and children postponed
• Children who grew up in depressed families valued
  marriage and family life more highly

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1950s generation

• Post WWII economic expansion.
• Most unusual and distinctive family patterns of
  century
• Married at younger ages and had more children
  than any other 20th-century generation (past and
  future!)
• Strong economy and marriage-childbearing
  orientation produced high point of
  breadwinner/homemaker family

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1960s families and beyond

• Postponed marriage and fewer children
• Increased cohabitation
• Married women work outside the home in
  ever-larger numbers

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Percentage never married among men and women aged
20 - 24
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Percentage of children aged 0-17 living in each
of four types of families
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A life-course perspective on social change in the
20th century
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The American Family?