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Sociology of the Family
I.
The Rise of the Modern Family
a. “The Sentimental Revolution”
i. Changes in male-female relations
ii. Changes in parent-child relations
iii. Changes in family-society relations
The Contemporary Family Revolution
a. Cohabitation, Fertility, Divorce, and the Role of Parents in Socialization
II.
Before you read today’s reading, how would you have answered the following questions?
 Is the relationship between married couples in industrial societies today more or
less close today than it was 300 years ago?
 Is the relationship between parents and children in industrial societies today more
or less close today than it was 300 years ago?
 Is the family more or less “protected” or “set apart” from the “intrusions” or
“threats” of the larger society today than it was 300 years ago?
Our “person in the street” would almost certainly answer “less” to all three questions… and
s/he would be wrong on each count (and dramatically so).
What makes the modern family unique?
1. The process of family formation is quite distinctive:
a. Who or what determines who people marry?
i. Romantic love
*Only since the 17th-18th centuries has romantic love come to play the
predominant role in the selection of marital partners

Far more typically, marriages were arranged between kin groups – between families
– as a way of forging political and economic alliances between families.
 Why? In most pre-industrial societies kinship was a powerful way of “getting things
done” – economic activities, political activities, religious activities, etc. were all
carried out in the context of kin groups. The family took precedence over the
individual.
 Before the “Sentimental Revolution” of the 17th-18th centuries, marriages were not
formed on the basis of mutual attraction (that came later, one hoped).
2. Relations between parents and children are quite distinctive:
Parent-child relations are much “closer” today in the sense that parents make a much
larger emotional investment in their children than they did in the past (e.g., decline of
wet nursing.
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 The “creation of childhood” (e.g., Philippe Aries’ Centuries of Childhood)
3. The relation between “family” and “society” is quite distinctive:
The “construction of domesticity” – the establishment of the nuclear family as a
private and primarily emotional unit that is needing and deserving of “protection” by
society and the state.
Q: what drove the “sentimental revolution”?
A: Students of the family suggest that we can directly link the Sentimental revolution to
the rise of capitalism and Industrial revolution. (i.e., a set of basic changes in the
material infrastructure of modern societies).
Exhibit A: Romantic love as a basis for marriage
 The economic egoism (individualism) demanded by the new capitalist economy
spilled over into the non-economic realm
Exhibit B: Changes in parent-child relations
 The rising emotional investment of parents in children is a result of the decline in
infant and child mortality that followed the industrial revolution
Exhibit C: The rise of domesticity
 A reaction to the growing egoism, individualism, and intense competition
demanded by the new capitalist economy (in Christopher Lasch’s famous terms,
the family gets constructed as a “haven in a heartless world”)
The Contemporary Family Revolution
In just the past few decades, family life in the industrial societies has undergone another
profound revolution. The “fronts” on which this contemporary family revolution have been
waged include:
1. Rising Cohabitation. Might it replace marriage? It seems to be doing so in some
industrial counties (e.g., Sweden).
2. Declining Fertility. Total Fertility rate declined in the U.S. from 3.5 in 1965 to 2.1 in
2007.
 Childlessness rose 10% of all U.S. women aged 40-44 in 1980 (i.e., as the “clock”
shuts off) to 20% by 2006. Childlessness among married women aged 40-45 rose
from 7% in 1980 to 15% by 2006.
The family is thus becoming less of a reproductive unit and more purely affective or
emotional unit. (Given these facts, gays and lesbians ask, “Why can’t we get married
too?)
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3. Rising Divorce Rates. In 1960, the divorce rate was 2.2. That means that 2.2 of ever
1,000 people got divorced in that year. By 2000 the divorce rate had risen to 4.2/1000
(i.e., nearly doubled). Marriage is thus increasingly “risky”.
4. Declining role of parents in socialization, growing separation of worlds of parents and
children. Formal institutions, not parents, play an increasingly significant role in the
socialization of children (e.g., from daycare, through preschool, through primary and
secondary school, on through college)
 A “push-pull” phenomenon: The development of an elaborate commercial youth
culture “sells” an idea of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood that
undercuts parental authority (e.g., the world that takes you – under the tutelage
of a single media conglomerate – from Nickelodeon, through MTV, to VH1). At
the same time change in the gender division of labor and in household structure,
means that parents, at the same time, don’t have the time they once did for
their children.
Rising cohabitation, declining fertility, rising divorce rates, and the growing separation of the
worlds of parents and children raise profound questions about the future of the family.
 Thus, as Stark notes, concern for the “decline of the family” remains a dominant
theme in sociological thinking in the family. But “decline” relative to what?
 Rather than focus on the “decline of the family,” it may be better to think
seriously, before forming one, about: 1. What sort of family life do you envision
leading in the future? 2. What do you need to do to have that kind of family life?
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