FAMILIES
Chapter 18
Families: Basic Concepts
Basic Concepts
• Family
– A social institution found in all
societies that unites people into
cooperative groups to oversee the
bearing and raising of children.
• Kinship
– A social bond, based on blood,
marriage, or adoption.
• Family Unit
– A social group of two or more people,
related by blood, marriage, or
adoption, who usually live together.
Basic Concepts
• Families of orientation
– The family you are born
into.
• Families of procreation
– The family you form in order
to have or adopt children.
• Families of affinity
– People with or without blood
ties who feel that they belong
together and want to define
themselves as a family.
Families: Global Variations
Families: Global Variations
• Extended family
– Family unit that includes
parents and children as well
as other kin.
– Also called “consanguine
families”
• Nuclear family
– Also called “conjugal family”
– Composed of one or two
parents and their children
– The predominant family
form
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Marriage Patterns
• Marriage
– Legally sanctioned
relationship, usually
involving economic
cooperation, as well as
sexual activity and
childbearing, that people
expect to be enduring.
• Illegitimacy: out of
wedlock children
• Matrimony: the “condition
of motherhood”
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Marriage Patterns
• Endogamy
– Marriage between people of the
same social category.
– Limited opportunities for
marriage.
• Exogamy
– Marriage between people of
different social categories can
help form alliances.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Marriage Partners
– Monogamy: marrying one other person
– Serial monogamy: monogamy +
divorce & remarriage
– Polygamy: person united with 2 or
more spouses
• Often found in Africa or Asia
– Polygyny: marrying more than one
female
• Islamic nation in Middle East &
Africa  up to 4 wives
• Most Islamic families remain
monogamous  $
– Polyandry: marrying more than one
male
• Tibet
Global Map 18-1 (p. 474)
Marital Form in Global Perspective
Monogamy is the only legal form of marriage throughout the Western Hemisphere and in
much of the rest of the world. In most African nations and in Southern Asia, however,
polygamy is permitted by law. In many cases, this practice reflects the historic influence of
Islam, a religion that allows a man to have up to four wives. Even so, most marriages in
these countries are monogamous, primarily for financial reasons.
Source: Peters Atlas of the World (1990).
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Residential Patterns
• PATRILOCALITY
– With or near the
husband’s family
• MATRILOCALITY
– With or near the wife’s
family
• NEOLOCALITY
– Setting up house apart
from both families
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DESCENT
• How members of a society trace
kinship over generations.
• Importance includes passing on
property and recognition as a family
member.
• Three types:
– Patrilineal descent –tracing
kinship through men
– Matrilineal descent – tracing
kinship through women
– Bilateral descent – tracing kinship
through both men and women
– Typically used in high income
societies.
– Shows men and women have
become more equal.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Theoretical Analysis of Families
Structural-Functional Analysis of the Family
• Family is the backbone of society.
• The family serves basic functions
1. Socialization – creating well-integrated members of
society
2. Regulation of sexual activity – maintenance of
kinship order and property rights, incest taboos
•
All societies have an incest taboo.
3. Social placement - births to married couples are
preferred in societies
4. Material and emotional security – home can be a
haven for people
• Critical evaluation
– Glosses over great diversity of family life, how other
institutions are taking over its roles & negative
aspects like patriarchy and family violence.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Social-Conflict Analysis of the Family
• The family perpetuates social
inequality:
1. Property and inheritance –
concentrates wealth and
reproduces class structure
2. Patriarchy – to know their heirs men
must control women who still bear
the brunt of child rearing and
housework duties
3. Racial & ethnic inequality –
endogamous marriage shores up
racial hierarchies
• Critical evaluation
– Ignores that families carry out
functions not easily accomplished by
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
other means.
Micro-Level Analysis of the Family
• Symbolic-Interaction:
– Opportunities for sharing
activities helps build emotional
bonds.
• Social-Exchange:
– Courtship & marriage as a
negotiation to make the “best
deal” on their partner.
– Individuals select partners who
offer about as much as they do.
• Critical evaluation
– Misses the bigger picture, family
life is similar for people in similar
social backgrounds and varies in
predictable ways.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Stages of Family Life
STAGES OF FAMILY LIFE
• Courtship
– Arranged marriages versus romantic love
– In many low-income countries, marriage has
little to do with romantic love.
– Homogamy: marriage between people
with same social traits
• Settling in
– Ideal vs. Real marriage
– Infidelity: sexual activity outside of
marriage
• Childrearing
– Industrialization transformed children
from assets to liabilities.
– People are having fewer children,
delaying having kids or remaining
childless.
– $200,000+ to raise one child.
• Later life
– Empty nest – when children grow up and
leave home.
– Sandwich generation – spends as many
years caring for their children as for their
aging parents.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
ROMANTIC LOVE
• Concerns:
• It may contribute to a
high divorce rate.
• Physical passion is not
always lasting.
• It is not always a stable
foundation for
marriage.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Applying Sociology (p. 481)
Who’s Minding the Kids?
Working mothers report that a majority of their young children receive care in the home.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
INDUSTRIALIZATION EFFECTS ON FAMILIES
• Encourage people to choose
their own spouses.
• Pushed marriage back until
people are older.
• Weakened extended families.
• Families have an average of
one child in the U.S.
– Helps raise the standard of
living.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
US Families:
Class, Race and Gender
Social Class
• According to Lillian Rubin’s study,
working class women found that wives
thought a good husband held the
following three characteristics:
– Held a steady job
– Did not drink too much
– Was not violent
• Middle class women assumed the
husband would provide a safe and
secure home.
• Their ideal husband was someone who:
– They could talk to easily
– Would share feelings and
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
experiences
Ethnicity and Race
•
•
•
•
Ethnicity and race are powerful social
forces that can affect family life.
American Indian families often seek each
other out after leaving reservations.
– Think of each other as family.
Latino Families
– Loyal and support extended families.
• Control children’s courtship,
marriage is an alliance of families.
– Average family income - $35,401
African American Families
– Average family income - $35,158
– 3X more likely than whites to be poor
• Maintaining a stable marriage is
difficult.
• 27% of AA women in their forties
have never been married, (9%
white women never married by age
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
40).
Gender
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jessie Bernard - every marriage is
actually two different relationships: a
woman’s marriage and a man’s
marriage.
We expect men to be older, taller and
have better-paying jobs.
Many people believe that women
benefit more from marriage.
– Bachelor status v. spinster status
• Women are fulfilled only by
being wives and mothers.
Married women - poorer health, less
happiness and more passive attitudes.
Married men - live longer, are mentally
better off, and report being happier.
Bernard argued that marriage would be
healthier for women if men were less
dominating and stopped expecting
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
them to do all the housework.
Transitions and Problems
in Family Life
DISCUSSION QUESTION
• What would be the hardest thing you
can imagine dealing with as an adult?
DEATH
• The most difficult transition
in an adult’s life is the death
of their spouse.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DIVORCE
• In the U.S. nine out of ten persons
will marry.
• Four out of these marriages will
end in divorce. Factors include:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Individualism on the rise
Romantic love often subsides
Women are less dependent upon men
Many of today’s marriages are stressful
Divorce is socially acceptable
Legally, a divorce is easier to get
• Young people who marry after a short
courtship are most likely to get
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
divorced.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• Is divorce the best answer? Why?
• What should people consider before
getting a divorce?
• Should you stay married for the sake of
the kids?
Figure 18-2 (p. 485)
Divorce Rate for the United
States, 1890-2004
Over the long term, the U.S.
divorce rate has gone up.
Since about 1980, however,
the trend has been
downward.
Source: Munson & Sutton (2005).
I CAN #22
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DISCUSSION QUESTION
• During 1999, court cases brought to public
attention the issue of grandparental access to
grandchildren and visitation rights. Due to
divorce, grandparents have in some instances
been denied contact with their grandchildren
when their son or daughter is not the custodial
parent.
• Do grandparents have a right to visitation if their
child does not have custody?
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
REMARRIAGE
• Four out of five people who divorce
remarry, most within five years.
• Remarriage often creates blended
families, composed of children and
some combination of biological
parents and stepparents.
• Although blended families require
that members adjust to their new
circumstances, they offer both
young and old the change to relax
rigid family roles.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Family Violence
• Against women
– Of 791,000 reported accounts of abuse
between intimate partners, 85% are
against women
– 32 percent of all women murdered are the
victims of their partners, or ex-partners
– All states have marital rape laws, half
have “stalking laws” on the books
• Against children
– 3 million children a year are abused, 1
million of these involve serious harm
including 1,100 deaths
– Most abusers were often abused
themselves as children
– Abusers are as likely to be women as men
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
with no simple stereotype
DISCUSSION QUESTION
• “Why does she go back?”
• In situations of family violence, that’s the
question everyone asks.
• According to your text, reasons include
economic dependency, trust, emotional ties,
history and children.
• Which do you think is the most commonly
used reason?
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Alternative Family Forms
Alternative Family Forms
• One-parent families
– 28 percent of U.S. Families with
children under 18 have only one parent
in the household
– 75 percent of these families are headed
by women
• Cohabitation
– 10 percent of all couples, or 5.6 million,
only 50% decide to marry
– May actually discourage marriage
• Gay and lesbian couples
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
New Reproductive Technology
and the Family
New Reproductive Technologies
• 1978, “test-tube baby”
• In vitro fertilization is where
doctors unite a woman’s
egg and a man’s sperm “in
glass” rather than in a
woman’s body.
• The ethics of new
reproductive technologies.
– What can be done v. what
should be done. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Families: Looking Ahead
FAMILIES AND PREDICTIONS
•
•
•
•
It has been suggested that the traditional family is
eroding:
– Singlehood is up
• In 1960 28% of U.S. Women aged 20-24 were
single, by 2003 the number had risen to 75%.
– More children are born to single mothers.
– Divorce rate is up.
• More equality between sexes.
Family life will be variable.
– All kinds of units will be called families.
Men will continue to play a limited role in child
rearing.
– Many dads will remain absent from household
scenes.
Economic changes will impact families and reform
marriage.
– Less quality time as work demands more from
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
parents.