PowerPoint Presentation
prepared by
Terri Petkau, Mohawk College
CHAPTER TEN
Families
Bonnie Fox
INTRODUCTION
• Will examine:
 Dilemmas of contemporary family life
 Social origins of family patterns and related
problems
 Myths and definitions of the family and attendant
consequences
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Historical basis of current family arrangements
 Main features of social relations in family life
today
 State response in supporting families*
10-3
DILEMMAS OF
CONTEMPORARY
FAMILY LIFE
• In considering future and family, most
envision a relationship in which work and
responsibility, as well as intimacy and joy,
are shared but is often not the case
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Females especially are concerned about
how to one day manage family and career,
while males are more concerned with
growing elusiveness of occupational
success in an uncertain economy…*
10-4
DILEMMAS OF
CONTEMPORARY
FAMILY LIFE
• Lesbians and gays face even greater challenges
creating families in a society organized around
heterosexuality and gender divisions
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Parenthood without a partner is also particularly
difficult: While two-earner couples find juggling
income earning and child care stressful, the task
increases exponentially for a lone parent
• Inequalities based on social class and the
disadvantages women and racial minorities face in
the labour force provide the inhospitable context in
which all Canadians build their families*
10-5
POVERTY RATES BY
FAMILY TYPE, 2003
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
10-6
CENTRALITY OF THE
NUCLEAR FAMILY
• Society is organized around the nuclear family
(where man is main breadwinner and woman has
primary responsibility for child-rearing)
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• Organization reflected in:
 Design of homes (not intended for extended
families)
 Social policies (assumption that earnings shared
between husbands and wives; inadequate childcare facilities)
 Gendered division of labour*
10-7
MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT FAMILY
MYTHS
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•
Women who combine
motherhood with labourforce involvement are not
mentally and physically
healthier than mothers
who stay home.
•
Babies and toddlers need
full-time mothers at home.
•
The traditional European
family consisted of three
generations living
harmoniously under one
roof.
•
The heterosexual
breadwinner/homemaker
family is “natural.”
FACTS
* Although families today seem to be
disintegrating when compared to the idealized
family of the 1950s, a broader historical view
shows that problems in family life are not new.
* Women home full-time with young children often
find the situation stressful and isolating
* There is little scientific evidence that babies and
toddlers need full-time mothers at home.
* Extended family households – consisting of
three generations – were rare in preindustrial
Europe. Other myths about the European family
are that children spent much of childhood in the
care of their parents rather than others, and that
the elderly could expect to be well cared for by
their adult children. In the 19th century, for
example, working class parents typically worked
much longer and harder than they do now, and
child care was minimal; a fifth of children lived in
orphanages; and family disruption rates were
higher, due mainly to death, not divorce. 10-8
“FAMILY VALUES”:
CONSEQUENCES OF MYTHS
ABOUT FAMILY
• Recent calls for a return to “family values”:
 Evokes myth of problem-free past
 Blames social problems on deviations from
traditional heterosexual breadwinner/homemaker
ideal
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Reinforces individual rather than social
responsibility for welfare of children and other
dependents
 Falsely assumes only one type of family that can
adequately raise children, and that choices are
made independently of gender, class, and race* 10-9
THE MYTH OF THE
NATURAL FAMILY
• Evolutionary psychology or sociobiology (type of
biological determinism):
 Views human behaviour as a product of human
evolution, and the nuclear family as rooted in
biology of reproduction
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 Argues aggressive males and nurturing females
are adaptive to reproductive success  Makes
nuclear family a universal product of evolution
• Yet universality of nuclear family not supported
with observable evidence, either today or in the
past*
10-10
STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONALISM
• Argues heterosexual nuclear family is universal
because of essential functions it performs for larger
society, including:
 Socialization, reproduction, emotional satisfaction,
and economic efficiency
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Criticisms:
 Other social forms might perform same functions in
ways that benefit individuals more
 Existing institutions are not necessarily universal or
ideal
 Tensions in family life can generate social change,
rather than promote social order*
10-11
IMPORTANCE OF
DEFINITIONS
• How family is defined has practical and
methodological consequences:
 Rights and responsibilities follow from definitions
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•




Who constitutes a “family member” can dictate:
Disclosure of confidential information
Ability to make decisions on behalf of “relative”
Entitlement to various forms of social support
Understanding in research about families*
10-12
DEFINITION OF “FAMILY”
• A set of social relationships that work to reproduce
life on a daily and generational basis
• Definition focuses on both individual survival and
generational reproduction across many cultures
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Does not exclude groupings of people who
function as a family but may lack formal
recognition
• Focus is not on biological reproduction but rather
social reproduction:
 Wide range of activities that maintain existing life
and reproduce next generation*
10-13
OTHER FAMILY PATTERNS:
1. FORAGING SOCIETIES
(THE COMMUNAL HOUSEHOLD)
• To subsist, people gather edibles (typically done by
women) and hunt live game (typically done by
men)
• Are nomadic and live in fairly small camps or bands
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Reciprocity and individual cooperation essential for
survival of the collective
• Relatively egalitarian relations between men and
women …*
10-14
1. FORAGING SOCIETIES
• Nuclear unit established by marriage, but family
life is collectivized rather than privatized
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• Unit of social production is the camp:
 The community (not the family) assumes many
key responsibilities
 While child care is women’s responsibility, is
widely shared
 Violence between spouses treated as community
rather than private problems
• Nuclear unit not as important economically or
socially as in our society*
10-15
2. PREINDUSTRIAL
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES:
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIES
• Household was productive unit (producing
subsistence was main objective)
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• Social relations of family life were also relations of
production
 Non-family members were brought into household
when their labour was necessary
• Land (key means of production) privately owned
 Marriage (and adulthood) predicated on acquiring
land or some other means of livelihood…*
10-16
2. PREINDUSTRIAL
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES
• Practical, economic considerations dominated
marriage decisions and family life (vs. sentimental
or romantic feelings)
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• Women strictly subordinate to men, but their
economic contribution was crucial
 Few children raised exclusively at home by mothers
given women’s critical economic role
• Since household was place of work, business and
family life not distinguished
 Interests of the collective took precedence over
individual autonomy*
10-17
ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY
FAMILY PATTERNS IN
WESTERN SOCIETIES
• Industrialization of 19th century eroded household
economies and made external economies dominant
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• Effects on family:
 Separation of private and public spheres (family now
belonged to private sphere)
 Emergence of sexual division of labour: Women
assumed responsibilities in private sphere (e.g.,
childcare), while men assumed responsibilities in
public sphere (e.g., paid labour force)
 High levels of emotional involvement in family
relations*
10-18
MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES
• Contemporary notion of family established by
emergent 19th century middle class
 Middle class attempted to assert its identity and
power by establishing moral superiority
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• “Cult of domesticity” developed in response to
emerging economy perceived as cruel, immoral,
and beyond human control
 Family idealized as place of peace, virtue, and
selfless love of children  “Haven in a heartless
world”*
10-19
MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Men’s work moved into public sphere, while
women specialized in domestic affairs
 Wives became economically dependent
on husbands, giving rise to increased gender
inequality
 Separation of men’s and women’s daily work
undermined emotional closeness between them
• Men and women came to be regarded as
different by nature
 Womanhood glorified as morally superior*
10-20
WORKING CLASS
FAMILIES
• Family life endangered in the 19th-century working
class
• Men’s wages so low that small children forced to
work for wages
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• Women dependency on men gave rise to strained
relations between men and women
• Marital tensions focused on money (violence
against women probably frequent)…*
10-21
WORKING CLASS
FAMILIES
• Families doubled up to save on rent
• Some families forced to place children in
orphanages out of economic necessity
• Individual needs often sacrificed to imperatives of
family survival
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Trade unions responded by demanding a family
wage (i.e., wage paid to a man sufficient to support
a wife and children)
 Led to a working-class conception of family similar
to that of middle class*
10-22
SOCIAL RELATIONS IN
FAMILIES TODAY: MAIN
FEATURES
• Emotionally intense relationship between a man and
woman became key to marriage only in 20th century
• Family violence typified by women more likely to
suffer serious injury from husbands, lovers, and
especially ex-partners
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• Characterized by intense mother-child relationship
• Individuals rather than state or community were
deemed responsible for children’s welfare
 Child abuse sometimes results from heavy
responsibilities placed on parents, especially
mothers…*
10-23
SOCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES
TODAY: MAIN FEATURES
• The need for regular and dependable sexual
gratification is one reason people marry
• Sexual relations are usually intense because they
involve repression of sexuality that is socially
disfavoured
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• Sexual relations have historically been regulated by
the state in ways that favour marriage and ensure
procreation
• The state has opposed homosexuality,
contraception, and abortion (because of its
opposition to pronatalism; i.e., policy aimed at
increasing population)*
10-24
SOCIAL RELATIONS IN FAMILIES
TODAY: MAIN FEATURES
• Erosion of wages has led to most women now
working outside of home:
 Issue of who cares for children now a social
problem
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Women faced daily with need to juggle
incompatible demands of employment and family
 Stress of women’s “double day” generates tension
between women and their male partners
 Men now doing more housework and child-care
than decades ago, but responsibilities still not
equally shared with women…*
10-25
EMPLOYMENT RATES OF
MOTHERS AGED 15 TO 54, BY
AGE OF YOUNGEST CHILD AT
HOME, 1976 TO 2007
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10-26
SOCIAL RELATIONS IN
FAMILIES TODAY: MAIN
FEATURES
• Increased diversity in household patterns:
 More people living alone
 People marrying at later age
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 More people never marrying
 More people cohabiting (cohabiting men and
women are fastest growing family-type in
Canada)…*
10-27
SOCIAL RELATIONS IN
FAMILIES TODAY: MAIN
FEATURES
(Increased diversity in household patterns…)
• Growing number of gay and lesbian families
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Compared to heterosexual couples, gay couples:
 Face uphill battle for acceptance as families
 Have relationships as stable as heterosexual
cohabiting couples
 Are more likely to have egalitarian housework and
child-care arrangements
 Have families more out of choice
 Have children with similar levels of wellbeing…*
10-28
SOCIAL RELATIONS IN
FAMILIES TODAY: MAIN
FEATURES
(Increased diversity in household patterns…)
• Growing incidence of lone parent families
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Large numbers of “reconstituted families” (result of
decades of fairly high divorce rates)
 Often gives rise to complicated network of family
relations
• Increased incidence of “boomerang” children and
young adults continuing to live with parents
• Are racial, ethnic, and class differences as well*
10-29
FAMILY STRUCTURE,
CANADA, 2006
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
10-30
SEXUALITY AND FAMILIES
• Love and promise of ongoing intimacy and caring
propel people into long-term commitment
• Today, men and women typically are sexually
active prior to entering committed relationship
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• Sexual activity decreases considerably over
course of relationship (for all types of relationships)
• Intimacy negotiated amidst gender differences
(men typically experience sex as route to intimacy
vs. women who seek intimacy prior to sex)*
10-31
GENDER AND FAMILIES
• Most nuclear families built around heterosexual
couple reflect gendered division of labour
• Adults develop gender strategies that prioritize
either career/job or family relationships
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•




Gender strategies result from:
Mix of ideas about gender in our culture
Emotionally charged reactions to childhood
Job and child-care opportunities
Constraints people face as adults*
10-32
HOUSEWORK AND
FAMILIES
• While men do more housework than in earlier
times, they do much less housework than their
female partners
• Women’s bargaining power in negotiating
household responsibilities is undermined by
their:
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 Disadvantage in the labour market
 Perceived disadvantage in remarriage market
 Cultural devaluation of caring work
 Cultural definitions of gender (especially
masculinity)*
10-33
DAILY PARTICIPATION IN AND
TIME SPENT ON PAID WORK
AND HOUSEWORK, BY LIVING
ARRANGEMENT
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10-34
PARENTHOOD AND
FAMILIES
• Medicalization of childbirth has resulted in less
social support for women
 Lack of social support implicated in postpartum
depression commonly experienced by new
mothers
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Ties to extended family strengthen, while ties to
friends tend to weaken
• Gendered division of labour increases
substantially when couples become parents*
10-35
HOUSEWORK AND
MOTHERWORK
• Women tend to assume bulk of caring for babies
and greater proportion of housework after
childbirth
• Men tend to become babies’ playmates and wives’
“helpers”
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Growing conviction today that children’s
development is adversely affected by isolation and
stress experienced by full-time mothers, and
emotional distance often result of fathers’ absence
from home
 Care by several adults and spending part of day
outside home aids child’s social and cognitive
development*
10-36
MARRIAGE AND
DIVORCE
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Persistence of conventional gendered division of
work despite increasing numbers of women
working outside of home has resulted in:
 Increase in divorce (estimated that 30% of
marriages in Canada will end in divorce)
 Pressure on men to assume new family roles
 Need for new social policies
• Changes in family law reflect new circumstances
(e.g., more liberalized divorce law and more equal
division of “family assets” upon divorce)*
10-37
DIVORCE AND ITS
AFTERMATH
• Dissolution of marriage or intimate
relationship brings turmoil for considerable
period of time for all parties (parents and
children)
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• Women often initiate divorce because of
violence
• Most important consequence for women and the children who live with them - is
significantly lowered standard of living*
10-38
LONE PARENTS AND
RECONSTITUTED FAMILIES
• Increase in proportion of unmarried mothers in last
two decades
• Poverty is chief problem facing lone-parent
families
 Poverty related to women’s disadvantaged position
in labour market
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
• Reconstituted families: Adults who divorce typically
remarry
 But divorce rates are higher for second marriages
(often adjustment problems for stepparents and
stepchildren)*
10-39
POLICIES TO SUPPORT
FAMILIES
• Chief problem: Difficulty of caring for children
while earning enough money to support a family
• Policy response in most industrialized countries
includes:
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Direct family subsidies
 Significant paid parental leave following birth
 High-quality, subsidized child-care facilities…*
10-40
POLICIES TO SUPPORT
FAMILIES
•
Two different policy approaches co-exist in
Canada:
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1. In English Canada, children assumed to be
private rather than collective responsibility
 Government cutbacks in social services and
avoidance of commitment to universal daycare
have increased burden on most families,
especially lone-parent families
2. In Quebec, family policies created that feature
universal, affordable childcare and family
subsidies to low-income and lone-parent
families**
10-41