History of the Family
Centres Lesson
Hunter-Gatherers
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Labour
Relationships
Sexual
Survival
Families
Aboriginal
Men
Hunter-Gatherers
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Food
Fruits
Children
Plants
Hunted
Tools
Time
Animals
Follow
Agricultural
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3.
11000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent area of Southwest
Asia
China, Mesoamerica and South America, eastern region of
North America
FALSE
Agricultural
• Ancestors domesticated animals and grew plants for food
• Daily quest for food was eliminated
• Able to live in more permanent settlements, communities
formed
• Provided more food but required more labour = larger
families
• Families could acquire more land and become wealthy
• Food surplus enabled development of towns and cities and
new social roles
• Private property = land defense and control of food surplus
• Men who chose not to be farmers became artisans, builders,
merchants, soldiers, and politicians
• Women’s economic activity shifted away from community to
private household
• Women cared for children and handled domestic work
Agricultural
4. Monogamy – having one marital partner
Patriarchy – men were rulers and decision makers of the family
5. Women became chattels, the property of their husbands, with few
legal rights
6. Polygamy – the practice of having several spouses
Arranged marriage – marriages that take place through
negotiations between sets of parents, or their agents
7. Since a family used land for agriculture, young adults continued to
live in their parents’ households
Pre-Industrial
Down
1. DISCIPLINE
2. FAMILIES
3. VILLAGES
5. EUROPEAN SETTLERS
6. MONOGAMOUS
8. ROLE
10. TECHNOLOGY
Pre-Industrial
Across
4. CHILDREN
7. COTTAGE INDUSTRY
9. FATHER
11. WORK
12. ECONOMIC
Urban Industrial
Status and role of women
• The notion of motherhood as the “sacred” and primary role of
women became the ideal
• Women were nurturers who worked at home and were
supported financially by their husbands
• Only worked outside the home if widowed or deserted
• Women who worked were seen as threats to the role of men
• Working women were demeaned by society and earned onethird less than men in the same job
• Thought to be more gentle, patient, and loving than men
• Felt they only reached their potential if they had children
Urban Industrial
Role and responsibilities of men
• Money earners
• Worked to provide for wives and children
• Link to family and society
• Perceived to be aggressive and tough
• Decision makers
• Sometimes discipline the children
Urban Industrial
Childhood
• No longer a need for children to work in factories
• Compulsory education started in 1871 in Ontario
• Child labour laws passed in mid 1880s
• Idealized notion of childhood as an “age of innocence”
• Expected to play under supervision of mother, attend school,
and remain protected from the hard work of the adult world
• Adolescence became a distinct age group because of the
extension of schooling into the teen years
Urban Industrial
Work
• Economy shifted from one based on agriculture and
commerce to one based on factory production
• Work became something done outside of the home
• Development of industrial class as every family member,
including children, began to work in wage-based labour force
Urban Industrial
Role of the family
• Retained its economic role
• Lost its role as a producer
• Industrial nuclear family
• No longer for economic activity, but love and emotional
support
• Young people married early and moved away because they
could support themselves
• Consumer family
Urban Industrial
Education
• Compulsory education started in 1871 in Ontario
• Working class children often left school as soon as they could
to find work to contribute money to their families
Family Size
• Smaller sized families because birth rate declined
• Delayed marriage until they could afford a separate household
• Fewer children wanted because they needed to be supported
until they could work
Urban Industrial
Technology
• TV programs such as Leave it to Beaver depicted the ideal
family and were immensely popular
• TV programs reflected what have happening in Canadian
society during the “baby boom” years from 1946-1967
Economy
• New products marketed to women, the homemakers
• After WWII the economy expanded rapidly
• Canadians knew they could afford to have bigger families
• Statistics show Canadian women averaged 4 children each in
this time period
Contemporary Canadian Family
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