Marriages and Families:
Changes, Choices and Constraints
Seventh Edition
Nijole V. Benokraitis
Chapter Three
The Colonial Family
How different were colonial families than
families of today?
They differed in social class, religious
practices and geographic location, but
they weren’t much different in family
roles and family structures.
The United States Family in
History
Were there really any “good old day” where life was
simpler and less complicated?
Social Scientists have been trying to determine if
these eras actually existed for may people or for
only an advantaged few.
Did people really pull together after the Great
Depression?
Were the 1050s the golden era it is made to be in the
mass media?
Family Structure
The nuclear family was the most common family
form in both England and the United States in
the early settlements.
During these early years, few people survived
outside families and most settlements were
small.
The family was a self sufficient business—
members worked together to provide what they
needed.
The family provided schooling for children.
The family provided a vocational institution.
The family provided a church and many other
functions that today are performed by other
social institutions.
Sexual Relations
The puritans did not believe in premarital sex
and tried to prevent it in several ways.
However, many young women during this era
were married and already pregnant.
Adultery for women was considered immoral
and illegal, while adultery for men was
generally ignored, a double standard we
still see today.
Husbands and Wives
Even though they had strong family
relationships, women were still
subordinate to me in relationships in
early America.
Few courts permitted divorce at the
time, but for someone to get a divorce
the charge had to be adultery, bigamy,
desertion or impotence.
Husbands and Wives
Men were expected to look after the
economic well being of the family and
women were to provide a supporting
role.
Women generally did not own
businesses, had little access to credit
and were severely constrained in
money matters.
Children’s Lives
Between 10 and 30 percent of all colonial
children died before their first birthday.
Children’s lives were dominated by the
concepts Puritans believed that children
were born with original sin and were
inherently stubborn, willful, selfish and
corrupt. The entire community worked
together to keep children in their place.
They were expected to be extraordinarily well
behaved, obedient and docile.
Social Class and Regional
Differences
There were different social classes in early
America
– In the Merchant Class, or upper class, the
patriarchs typically were shipping and
commercial entrepreneurs.
– Highly skilled occupations, apprenticeship
systems and cooperation among relatives
characterized the artisan class or middle class.
– The laboring class, or working class was made
up of people who had no voting privileges and
little education.
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
American Indians - By the time that
European settlers had arrived in American,
there were almost 18 million Indians living
in North America who spoke 300 different
languages.
American Indians were enormously diverse.
– Family Structure-family structures and customs
varied from one Indian Society to another
– Polygamy was accepted in more than 20% of
marriages in Indian communities.
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
Approximately 25% of Native American
Indian tribes were matrilineal, which
means decent was traced through the
mother’s line, not the father’s line.
Despite our mainstream cultural beliefs
about Native American Women, they held
considerable power in their tribes.
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
African Americans-The first African
Americans were brought to this country
as indentured servants.
By the mid 1660’s the southern colonies
had passed laws prohibiting blacks from
testifying in court, owning property,
making contract, legal marrying, traveling
without permission etc…
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
Slavery had begun in the “new world”.
– While some plantation owners encouraged
their slaves to marry and have large families,
their motives were to sell off the children when
they were old enough to be sold at a slave
auction. Thus many families were disrupted
by slavery.
– There were many different ways of being
“slave families”.
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
In some slave families, men were very
important as role models for the
younger men. In other slave families,
mothers were important because of
their jobs of raising families, cooking
meals, and taking care of the
plantation owner’s children as well.
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
Slavery was abolished in 1863, many
families set out to reunite. Former
slaves were allowed to have legal
marriages and many African families
moved north to escape the prejudice
held against them in the south.
Early American Families
from Non-European Cultures
Mexican Americans-After 30 years of
war and conflict, in 1848 the United
States annexed territory in the west
and southwest that was originally part
of Mexico. Most Mexicans became
laborers. The loss of land was
devastating to their culture.
Mexican Americans
Mexican laborers were essential to the
prosperity of the southwestern
businesses. Men and Women both
worked outside the home for menial
wages. They were known for hard
work with little wages.
Mexican Americans
Mexican family life was characterized by
Familism—that means that the family came
before individual well being.
– This is still practiced in some Latino
communities today.
– Women were the guardians of the family
traditions even though many mothers worked
outside the home because of economic
concerns, Women nurtured Mexican culture
thought folklore, song and other auspicious
occasions.
Mexican Americans
Mexican men were usually the head of
the households. Masculinity for these
men was of the utmost importance.
Industrialization
Industrialization changed the American
family in many ways. Gender became
more contained in family roles I.e.
men became the breadwinners and
women stayed home to raise the
children. This “domesticity” glorified
women’s domestic roles—the world of
the home became the world of the
female.
Men’s Roles
By the early 1800s most middle and
upper class men’s work was totally
separated from ht e household with
his being the struggle to “make a
living”.
This was when roles of men and women
became very different.
Children and Adolescents
Father’s began to lose control over the lives
of their children simply because they had
fewer acres to divide among sons, so they
had less power over who the son married.
As for women, the percentage of women who
were pregnant at the time of marriage shot
up to 40% by the mid eighteenth century.
Perhaps the biggest change, was that families
started to view childhood as a discrete
section of life and they treated children less
as “miniature adults”.
The Impact of Immigration
and Urbanization
Immigrants to the US provided a large
pool of unskilled and semi-skilled
labor that fueled emerging industries
and gave investors huge profits.
Immigrant families were certainly the
poorest of the poor.
Men and Women immigrants tended to
move into specific jobs.
The Impact of Immigration
and Urbanization
By 1890 all but 9 out of the 369 industries
listed by the US Census Bureau employed
women.
By the late 1800s, Irish girls as young as 11
were leaving their homes to work as
servants; 75% of all Irish teenage girls were
domestic servants. Many were sexually
assaulted by their male employers and not
paid their agreed upon wage.
The Impact of Immigration
and Urbanization
Most manufacturing jobs were segregated by
sex.
One of the biggest problem for immigrant
families was the lack of decent housing in
densely populated areas.
The buildings were so tightly jammed together
that the population of one tenement house
was the same as the population of one
entire town!
Health
Of course with such crowded conditions,
came many health problems and
disease.
Cholera killed nearly 20% of a crowded
New York neighborhood.
The Modern Family Emerges
Because of all of these changes happening in
the United States, families changed as well.
The “Companionate” family was born.
The companionate family were ones that
were build on sexual attraction,
compatibility and personal happiness. Thus
husbands and wives were not just
economic units as they had been in the
past, but the were dependent on each other
for company and a sense of belonging.
The Great Depression
On October 29, 1929 the U.S. Stock Market
crashed and the Great Depression began.
By the mid 1930’s there were huge lay
offs by manufacturers.
The Great Depression affected every life in
America. Often, men left their families in
search of work, leaving the rest of the
family with little or no resources.
Many young women moved to cities to
support their families. Women were more
likely to be hired in factories where they
were paid less.
World War II
After the US entered the war in 1941 families
again saw huge changes in their structure
and function.
Millions of women went to work for the first
time outside the home to fill in for jobs that
men had to leave behind to fight in the war.
Working class women were portrayed in very
positive roles.
Divorce Rates
Divorce had been on the rise since
1940, but they increased dramatically
at then end of the War.
Some women found new economic
independence and decided to end
unhappy marriages.
The Golden 50’s
After WWII women were no longer welcome
in the workplace because men were
returning from the war and needed jobs.
Movies and Television featured two
stereotypical portrayals of women
– Innocent Virgins such as Doris Day and Debbie
Reynolds
– Sexy Bombshells such as Marilyn Monroe and
Jayne Mansfield
The Baby Boomers
The post WWII era produced a generation
known as the Baby Boomers. Families
plans that had been disrupted by the war
were renewed and families were
encouraged to have large families.
There was also a rush to move to the suburbs
and live away from central cities.
Homeownership grew and construction of
new homes skyrocketed.
An Idyllic Decade?
Were the 1950s really all we “remember” them to be
or are those years largely a figment of our mass
media?
In fact, many families during the 50s still
experienced severe racism.
Child abuse and Domestic Violence were rampant
during this decade—perhaps because people
were recognizing the risks better.
Open homosexuality was taboo.
Many people even those “happy” housewives tried
to escape their unhappy existences through
alcohol and drugs.
Families since the 1960s
In the 70s families had lower birth rates and
higher divorce rates compared with the 50s.
Out of wedlock births especially to teen age
mothers declined in the late 1990s and began
to climb in 2006.
Gender roles have changed dramatically since
the 1950—women have much greater
opportunities by going to college and having a
career. Families, though are stressed by time
constraints.
Economic Impact
The economy has had a huge impact on
the family of the 21st century.
Many older people who were retired had
to return to work because their
retirement portfolios shrank by at least
50% in some cases.
Health costs are skyrocketing.
Economic Impact
The family has really experienced change
rather than staying steady for the last 200
years or so.
Many families have survived and thrived even
though we are facing now one of the
biggest economic crunches since the Great
Depression.
The American Family is GREAT at
adaptation!