Woman Studies

Traditional Definition of Family

 Social unit of people related through marriage, birth, or adoption who reside together in sanctioned relationships

Contemporary Definition of Family

 Primary group of people—usually related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption—who form a cooperative economic unit and care for any young who consider their identity to be attached to the group

Extended and Nuclear Families

 Extended families are the whole network of parents, children, and other relatives who form a family unit.

 The nuclear family is comprised of one married couple residing together with their children.

Diversity in U.S. Families

Family Structure by Race

Diversity Among Families

 Families today are smaller

 Childbearing and child rearing now occupy a smaller fraction of the adult life of parents.

 Death has been replaced by divorce as the major cause of early family disruption.

Diversity Among Families

 Married couples make up a smaller proportion of households.

 Single parent households, post-childbearing couples, gay and lesbian couples, and those without children are increasingly common.

Female-headed Households

1/2 of all children can expect to live with only one parent at some point in their lives.

Numbers are growing due to:

Pregnancy among unmarried teens

High divorce rate

Births to Teenage Mothers

Female-headed Households

 Teen mothers are less likely to marry than in the past.

 Social problems are caused by economic stress rather than the absence of a husband.

 Single fathers tend to get more help than single mothers.

Married Couple Families

 Men and women have different experiences within marriage

 Increased participation of women in the paid labor force.

The second shift

 Only 28% of married couples who both work full- time share equally

 Women perform 7.5 more hours of housework a week

The Second Shift

 2/3 of women say the amount of work they have to get done during the day is a cause of stress.

 1/2 say that they feel resentment about how little their mate helps around the house and about their lack of free time.

Stepfamilies

 Blended families demand both parents and children learn new roles.

 The lack of support systems cause stress resulting in high probability of divorce.

Gay and Lesbian Households

 Less gender-stereotyped in household roles

 42% of people in the United States, believe gay

marriages should be recognized as valid.

 48% believe that civil unions between gays should

be given the same rights.

Acceptance of Gay

Marriage

Singles

 Single people today are 28% of the population.

 Men and women are marrying at a later age.

 Being single no longer holds the same stigma it once did, especially for women.

Marital Status of the U.S. Population

Cohabitation

 Cohabitation has become common among single people.

 one-quarter of all children will at some time during their childhood live in a family headed by a cohabiting couple.

Marriage

 The values of partners, as well as the roles they play, influence their experience of marriage.

 Among couples where both partners are employed, only 28% share the housework equally.

 With the arrival of the first child, women increase their housework and lessen their employment.

Divorce

 The United States leads the world in the number of people who divorce.

 The marriage rate is 8.4 marriages per 1000 people and the divorce rate, 4.0 per 1000 people.’

Marriage and Divorce Rates

Factors in Rise in Divorce Rate

 In earlier eras, people died younger, and the average length of marriages was shorter.

 The cultural orientation toward individualism may predispose people to terminate a marriage in which they are unhappy.

Factors in Rise in Divorce Rate

 To people in unhappy marriages, divorce, though painful and financially risky, can be a positive option.

 The belief that couples should stay together for their children is giving way to a belief that a marriage with protracted conflict is more detrimental to than divorce.

Family Violence

 The National Violence Against Women Office estimates:

 25% of women will be raped, physically assaulted, or stalked by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

 22% experience physical assault

 7–10% are raped by intimates

 5% will be stalked by an intimate partner.

Families and Globalization

 Changes at the global level are producing transnational families, families where at least one parent lives and works in a different nation than the children.

 Patterns of migration, war, and economic development have a profound effect on the social structure of families.

Families and Social Policy

 The family is often blamed for many social problems the nation experiences.

 Social policies designed to assist families should recognize the diversity of family forms and needs and the interdependence of the family with other social conditions and social institutions.

Number of Marriage Partners

 Polygamy multiple marriage partners.

 Polygyny, one man having more than one wife.

 Polyandry is the practice of a woman having more than one husband.

 Monogamy is a sexually exclusive marriage with one spouse.

Property and Descent

 Patrilineal- family lineage is traced through the family of the father.

 Matrilineal- ancestry is traced through the mother.

 In bilateral- descent is traced both through the father and the mother.

Place of Residence

 Patrilocal- after marriage, a woman is separated from her own kinship group and resides with the husband or his kinship group.

 Matrilocal- a woman continues to live with her family of origin.

 Neolocal residence is the practice of the new couple establishing their own residence.

Who Holds Power?

 A patriarchy is a society or group where men have power over women.

 In a matriarchy women hold power.

 In egalitarian societies men and women share power equally, are equally valued by all societal members, have equal access to resources, and share decision making.