Third Edition
ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD APPELBAUM ● DEBORA CARR
Slides created by Shannon Anderson, Roanoke College
Chapter 11: Families and Intimate
Relationships
1
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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2
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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3
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 dealt with this in her classic
The Second Shift (1989, with Anne Machung).
• Although both parents typically work outside
the home today, it remains 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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8
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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9
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
stepparent families
• Ongoing high rate of divorce
• Sharp rise in dual-earner families
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Figure 11.2 The Changing Structure of American
Families with Children
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Families in poverty
• Poor families, especially poor black families,
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.
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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 fi nancial 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 fi nancial 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
21
Figure 11.5 Number of Single-Parent Families, in Millions
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
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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23
Figure 11.6 Increases in Cohabitation
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Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
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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25
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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26
This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint Presentation for
Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
For more learning resources, please visit our online StudySpace at:
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27
Clicker Questions
1. How was the premodern family in the United States different
from the modern family?
a. The premodern family was an extended family, and the modern
family is nuclear.
b. The premodern family was more stable than the modern
family.
c. The premodern family was only slightly larger than the modern
family.
d. The premodern family was one in which the father and the
mother went out to work.
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28
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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30
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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31
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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32
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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33
Clicker Questions
7. As recently as early fall, 2010, which of the following was the
only state that had laws explicitly preventing lesbians and gay
men from adopting children?
a. New York
b. California
c. Utah
d. Florida
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34
Art Presentation Slides
Chapter 11
Families and Intimate
Relationships
Anthony Giddens
Mitchell Duneier
Richard P. Appelbaum
Deborah Carr
Chapter Opener
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
An extended Kazak family in Mongolia.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
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Parents wait for the train with their daughter.
How is a nuclear family different from an extended family?
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
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Globalization and Everyday Life
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
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Globalization and Everyday Life
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
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Figure 11.1 Percentage of Never Married Twenty to Twenty
Four Year Olds
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
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Figure 11.2 The Changing Structure of American
Families with Children
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Figure 11.3 Family Arrangements for Black and
White Children, 2008
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Figure 11.4 Divorce Rates in the United States
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Tomeryl Collier and her mother, Cheryl Ellis,
sit on Tomeryl’s bed.
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Figure 11.5 Number of Single-Parent Families, in Millions
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Anne Stevenson poses for a portrait with her son
Reece in front of her off- campus housing when,
as a single parent
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Figure 11.6 Increases in Cohabitation
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Figure 11.7 Reasons for Cohabiting
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Evelyn Rivera’s family (her son Mark, nephew Sal, and
lesbian partner Debbie Rodriguez) is just one example of
the changing idea of the “typical” American family.
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Jessica Vander mark-Martinez, left, holds hands with Jodie
Vandermark-Martinez at their wedding ceremony outside
the Polk County administrative office in Des Moines, Iowa.
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This concludes the Art Presentation Slides
Slide Set for Chapter 11
Essentials Of Sociology
THIRD EDITION
by
Anthony Giddens
Mitchell Duneier
Richard P. Appelbaum
Deborah Carr