Family

Family

What is a family?
1. The meaning of family is dynamic
2. There is no correct or absolute deffinition
3. Definitions vary across time and place
4. Multiple meaning of family co-exist within a society at any one time
  1. These meanings are constantly being negotiated and re-negotiated
The Mythical Family
1. The myth of a stable and harmonious family of the past
2. The myth of the family as a "haven in a heartless world"
3. The myth of the monolithic family form
4. The myth of a unified family experience
5. The myth of the family in decline as the cause of social problems
6. The family is a GENDERED institution
7. "Family values" rhetoric
8. Why is the final myth flawed?
  1. Reverses the relationship b/n the family and society by treating families as the building blocks of society, rather than as a reflection of social conditions
  2. Ignores the structural reasons for family breakdown and the profound changes occurring throughout the world
What many uphold as the "legitimate" family is a product of SOCIAL STRUCTURE
1. Family arrangements in the US are related to economic development (CAPITALISM)
2. INDUSTRIALIZATION helped to create the "modern American family"
  1. Class differentiation increased and sharpened
    1. Created distinctions in the content and nature of woman's family lives
  2. Separation of "woman's work" in the home from the "productive" labor of men
    1. Cult of Domesticity
      1. Also known as "cult of true womanhood" or hegemonic womanhood
      2. A belief that linked the ideals of womanhood to the domestic sphere
      3. Promotes the idea that a woman's duty and responsibility is to create a safe retreat for her husband and provide a moral example for her chilren
      4. Reproductive Labor
        Refers to all of the work of women in the home
        Preparation of food and clothing
        Provision of emotional support and nurturance for all family members
        Bearing children
        Planning and organizing
        Carrying out a wide variety of tasks associated with their socialization
        These activities are necessary for the growth of patriarchal capitalism because they maintain, sustain, stabilize and reproduce (both biologically and socially) the labor force (Thomton Dill)
        But not everyone could (or can live up to these ideological "standards"
        CLASS
        Poor or working class families required different family arrangements
        Women had to take jobs outside the home to make ends meet
        "Second shift" - The unpaid domestic work that women typically do after they come home from their paid employment
        THEMES IN LOW IN-COME FAMILIES
        Inflexible and unpredictable work schedules undermine mother's abilities to provide family care
        Low-income mothers and their children are stigmatized because they put family care first - and, consequently, do not meet middle class norms of work and school
        HURRIED CHILDHOOD: aimed at creating early academic and social winds for middle class chilren
        ADULTIFIED CHILDHOOD: Critical in coping strategy of poor/low income families; children labor within the family to ensure its survival
        Major societal institutions operate according to norms that demand untenable choices from mothers to children
        RACE
        Breadwinner-homemaker roles never applied to men and women of color (or other families with limited resources) because they were denied the opportunity to earn a family wage
Changing composition of the US household
1. Household: residential and economic unit; resident group that carreis out domestic functions
2. Single parents account for 27 percent of family households with children under 18
3. One in three children is born to unmarried parents
4. One in two children will live in a single-parent family at some point in childhood
5. Divorced Parents
  1. Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce
  2. More than one million children have parents who separate or divorce each year
  3. More than half Americans today have been, are or will be in one or more step-family situations
6. Constructing Gay and Lesbian Parenting Families: "Beyond the Closet"
  1. SNAF: hegemonic Standard North American Family of two heterosexual married persons parenting their biologically produced children
  2. HETEROSEXISM: An ideological system that denies, denigrates and stigmatizes any non-heterosexual form of heterosexuality and persons who are defined as heterosexual
  3. Blood bias
    1. The assumption that blood relationship is central to what family is all about
    2. Folk knowledge: People think that biology is primarily responsible for making us who we are
    3. Sociology believes NURTURE trumps nature.
Critical Problems facing US working parents
1. Obtaining job-protected leaves for family emergencies (including birth)
2. Finding accessible AND acceptable care for children
  1. Costs more to send a 4-year-old to day care than to pay college tuition for a 19-year-old in most urban areas

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	Created by michellefleury72 almost 11 years ago