Fourth Edition
ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD P.APPELBAUM ● DEBORAH CARR
Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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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, The Second Shift (1989,
with Anne Machung)
• Although both parents typically work
outside the home today, it is 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.
2.
3.
4.
Declining influence of clans and kin groups
Increasing freedom of mate selection
Expanding rights for women
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
stepfamilies
• Ongoing high rate of divorce
• Sharp rise in dual-earner families
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Figure 11.1 Percentage of Twenty- to Twenty-FourYear-Olds Who Have Never Married
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Other trends in families
• Only one-fifth of households are the
“traditional” family.
• More people are living alone than ever
before.
• Dual-career and single-parent families are
now numerically normal.
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Figure 11.2 The Changing Structure of American
Families with Children
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Families in poverty
• Poor families often 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.
– Children can elevate a woman’s social
value and self-esteem
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Figure 11.4 Divorce Rates in the United States
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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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Married at a young age (under age 21)
Have divorced parents
Lived with your romantic partner prior to marrying
Have been divorced at least once
Had a child prior to marrying
Have a childless marriage
Knew your partner for a short time prior to marrying
Experience financial hardship
Have less than a college degree
You and your partner are similar with respect to social class background, age, and religion
You or your partner is depressed
You or your partner frequently drinks alcoholic beverages
You fear disapproval from family and friends
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)
Have divorced parents
Lived with your romantic partner prior to marrying
Have been divorced at least once
Had a child prior to marrying
Have a childless marriage
Knew your partner for a short time prior to marrying
Experience financial hardship
Have less than a college degree
You and your partner are similar with respect to
Social class background, age, and religion
You or your partner is depressed
You or your partner frequently drinks alcoholic beverages
You fear disapproval from family and friends
You believe married people should stay together “for
the sake of the kids”
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Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Decrease risk
Increase risk
Increase risk
Decrease risk
Decrease risk
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Figure 11.5 Number of Single-Parent Families, in Millions
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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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Change in Cohabitation in the U.S.
Total Unmarried Partners Living Together
(Numbers in Millions)
Note: All data is for opposite sex couples.
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Source: Cohen 2010.
Change in Cohabitation in the U.S.
Total Unmarried Partners Living Together
(Numbers In Millions)
7.5
6.8
6
4
2.9
3.1
1996
1998
3.8
4.2
4.7
5.0
2004
2006
2
0
2000
2002
2008
2010
Note: All data if for opposite sex couples.
SOURCE: Cohen 2010
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Change in Cohabitation in the U.S.
Percentage of 2010 Cohabitants
EMPLOYMENT
WOMEN
MEN
Ages 15–29
38.8%
Ages 15–29
30.3%
Ages 30–44
32.4%
Ages 30–44
36.4%
Ages 44+
28.8%
Ages 44+
33.3%
Both in
Labor Force
66.6%
One in
Labor Force
25.7%
Neither in
Labor Force
7.7%
HOUSEHOLD
INCOME
Earn under
$20,000
12.1%
Earn $20,000– 33.5%
$49,000
Earn over
$50,000
54.4%
Note: All data if for opposite sex couples.
SOURCE: Cohen 2010
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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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Figure 11.7 Reasons for Cohabiting
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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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This concludes the Lecture
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Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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Clicker Questions
1. How was the pre-modern family in the United States different
from the modern family?
a. The pre-modern family was an extended family, and the
modern family is nuclear.
b. The pre-modern family was more stable than the modern
family.
c. The pre-modern family was only slightly larger than the
modern family.
d. The pre-modern 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. The most recent victory for same-sex couples came in July
2011, when ______ became the sixth state to legalize gay
marriage.
a. Massachusetts
b. Iowa
c. New York
d. California
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