Decline of Family: Conservative, Liberal and Feminist Views
Reading #6 – Janet Giele
Problem
Cultural and Moral Weakening
p. 77 – “…the modern secularization of
religious practice and the decline of religious
affiliation have undermined the norms of
sexual abstinence before marriage and the
prohibitions of adultery or divorce
thereafter.”
- the breakdown of individual and cultural
commitment to marriage and the loss of
stigma for divorce and illegitimacy
- culturally we are more concerned with
instant gratification so adults look out for
themselves before they think of their children
Problem
Bottom p. 81 – Family crisis stems from
structural more than cultural change
- “changes in the economy, a pared-down
nuclear family, and less parental time at
home.”
- capitalism has eroded the family – changed
what was once personal trusting relationships
into specific impersonal transactions – families
used to benefit from relationships of exchange
that served each others’ mutual interest
- shift from industrial to post-industrial
economy – young men without college
educations have fewer job opportunities in
the service sector; young men unable to
provide in the breadwinner role
CONSERVATIVE – model p. 77
Effects of the Problem
Erosion of the two-parent family
- fatherless families related to welfare
- rise of divorce
- rise of mother-headed households
- cohabitation, divorce rates, out of wedlock
births
- less parent supervision and companionship
to children results in more children falling by
the wayside, victims of drugs, obesity,
violence, suicide, or failure in school
LIBERAL – model p. 81
Effects of the Problem
Changing Family Forms
- work requires more commitment to it than
to family
- young women have children out of wedlock
because the young men they might marry
have fewer economic prospects
- women are in the paid labor force because
of normative changes surrounding women’s
equality and the need for women’s income to
finance children’s expensive college
education; and uncertain economy makes
women stay in the paid labor force just in case
the primary breadwinner loses his job
Negative Consequences for Children:
Under investment in children- two types - p. 84
- material poverty – characteristic for the poor
- time poverty – characteristic for middle class
Solution
Reinvention of marriage
- revitalize and reinstitutionalize marriage so
that culturally we give higher priority to
marriage and parenting than to work, material
consumption, or leisure
- need to return to shaming those who have
children out of wedlock, and those who
divorce
- have individuals take pledges: to practice
abstinence until marriage; to spend more time
with their children; and the like
- government cutbacks – cut back on the
benefits to young men and women who
“violate social convention buy having children
they cannot support” – turn back the
debilitating culture of welfare and turn that
role over to neighborhoods and churches
Solution
p. 81 – bottom – government sponsored
safety net which will facilitate women’s
employment, mute the effects of poverty, and
help women and children to become
economically secure.”
- examples of legislation that is trying to
address both material poverty and time
poverty summarized in two paragraphs on p.
85
Problem
- Disappearance of Community – rise of
individualism and self-sufficiency moves the
responsibility of caring for family and its
members to individuals rather than the
community.
- Not recognizing diversity in family forms as
the norm is problematic.
- p. 89 “Lack of institutional supports for the
new type of dual-earner and single-parent
families that are more prevalent today.”
- women are paid less than men in the paid
laborforce ($.77 on every man’s $1)
- lack of adequate child care
- women in jobs without flexibility to care for
children – incongruence between work and
family
- lack of medical benefits for poor children and
lone-parent families
FEMINIST – model p. 86
Effects of the Problem
- More often than not, caregiving work
becomes “women’s work” and it is not valued
the same as work in the paid labor force. If
she is in the paid labor force, she often
experiences the “double burden” of both paid
and unpaid work.
- Narrow definition of family sets the two
parent family up as the standard against
which all other families are measured/judged
and sways family policy to support one type of
family rather than all family forms.
- this lack of support has negative
consequences for children – ill health,
antisocial behavior, and poverty among
children.
- latchkey kids
- stressed out parents and stressed out kids
Solution
p. 87 – “What is needed is a reorientation of
priorities to give greater value to unpaid
family and community work by both men and
women.”
- p.88 “National family policy should instead
being with a value on women’s autonomy and
self-determination that includes the right to
bear children. Mother-citizens are helping to
reproduce the next generation for the whole
society, and in that responsibility they deserve
at least partial support.”
p. 87 – “National policies should also be
reoriented to give universal support to
children at every economic level of society,
but especially to poor children.”
p. 89 – Other countries “have not seen the
same devastating decline in child well-being,
teen pregnancy, suicides and violent death,
school failure, and a rising population of
children in poverty. These other countries
have four key elements of social and family
policy which protect all children and their
mothers: (1) work guarantees and other
economic supports; (2) child care; (3) health
care; and (4) housing subsidies.
- p. 89 – “one of the obvious places to begin
raising children’s status is to raise the
economic status and earning power of their
mothers.”
p. 91 – “reintegration of work and family life
….parental leave, flexible hours and part-time
work shared by working parents but without
loss of benefits and promotion opportunities;
home-based work; child care for sick children
and after school supervision.” – and these
should be available to both women and men
p. 91 – “…reorient educators or employers to
factor in time with family as an important
obligation to society.”