Gengram Paper

Cultural Genogram

In creating my personal Cultural Genogram, I have come to understand patterns, beliefs, and societal influences central to my family that have changed over three generations. While I have included information from both my paternal family, and my maternal family, I have focused primarily on my mother’s side of the family. My parents divorced when I was one year old and I’ve had very little contact with my father, and have very little information about his side of the family. My mother’s side of the family had a great influence on me. The cultural norms and patterns that existed in my family played out over generations and to this day, still exist in our family interaction and environment.

My cultural genogram starts in the 1920’s and 1930’s when my grandparent’s were born. The socio-political context of my grandparent’s birth to adulthood (1920’s- 1950’s) had an effect on their families’ social norms and behaviors. In the late 1920’s, and early 1930’s the U.S. was at the start and height of the Great Depression. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President based on his promises to create Federal Government programs to end the Great Depression. Within 100 days the New Deal was signed into law, which created 42 new agencies designed to create jobs, allow unionization, and provide unemployment insurance which helped to alleviate some of our country’s economic deficit (DuBois & Miley, 2014, p. 38, 275). Although my mother’s parents were both born into middle class white families, they were also born into a nation wide economic downfall, which affected the socioeconomic status of their families. It exposed my grandmother to financial sacrifice at a young age, and therefore had an effect on her childhood. In 1941, when my grandparents were in their preteen years, the U.S. was attacked on Pearl Harbor, and this caused the start of WWII. None of my family members including my grandfathers fought in WWII because they were too young, or had physical disabilities that prevented them from joining the war. In 1945, when the war ended the United Nations was established, with many agencies for dealing with world social welfare problems, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO) (Barker, 1995). At this time, many community organization efforts were created to address community problems stemming from WWII (DuBois & Miley, 2014, p. 40). While I am uncertain if my Grandparents were deeply involved in any of these social welfare organizations, I feel it is important to recognize that they, as members of society were in some ways affected by social welfare. Social welfare addresses the “general well-being” needs of individuals and meets the universal needs of the population at large (DuBois & Miley, 2014, p. 16).

Both my mother and father were born in the 1950’s. At this time the U.S. was at war with Korea, and in 1957 the U.S civil rights act was passed (Barker, 1995). It was at this time that my grandparents on my mother’s side were pursing their educational careers. My grandmother was well educated beyond the norms for women at that time. Only approximately 8% of American women aged 25 or higher had more than a Bachelor’s degree in 1964 (U.S. Census Bureau, 1964), and by that time she had earned two Master’s degrees. It was at this time, that one of the major factors that influenced my family culturally occurred. In 1964, after divorcing my grandfather due to his severe alcohol abuse, my grandmother migrated to pursue her professional career. She was a divorced single mother, and career woman in 1960’s America. This was before the Women’s Liberation movement in the 1970’s. The divorce rate was only 24% in 1964 (CDC, 1964 and 1965), which may have brought her some negative attention at that time. It was also rare for a woman to have a professional career in a university setting at this time (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). According to my grandmother, she earned $350 a month as a fulltime faculty professor, and was one of only two women teaching in the Fine Arts Department. It was barely enough to feed her children and pay the rent. This hardship was compounded with the struggles of being a single mother when America had such a low divorce rate. Despite the social stigma attached to a woman in her position she was able to overcome many obstacles. Because she placed a lot of importance on her career, both her personal identity and the family’s identity were greatly influenced by her professional life. She gained a lot of respect in her position at the university, eventually becoming Chair of the Fine Arts department as well as a nationally recognized artist.

It was in this time period (1960’s) that my grandmother remarried my grandfather and they had my Uncle in 1967. It was also at this time that my grandmother met our family friend, who became “fictive kin” of our family. He was an art student of hers and didn’t have any close connections with a family of his own. We always referred to him as “the man who was invited to thanksgiving dinner and never left”. He played a great role in my family and later financially assisted my cousin to pursue his education.

This leads me to my next discovery within my genogram. I noticed a very consistent pattern that showed the difference between how men were treated, versus how women were treated in my family. The diagram shows that all of my uncles on my mother’s side were given money to pursue their education. They all earned their Master’s degrees at young ages, and moved out of their hometown of. My mother and aunt on the other hand, were given no money to go to school, and they continued to live in their hometown. My uncles were all married and never divorced, and never had children, while my mother and aunt were married, had children, and got divorces. My mother and aunt were also living in poverty in the 1980’s, and were both on welfare, in order to support their families as single parents. My aunt also suffered from bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and was homeless at one point. It appears that because of their gender, they were given a different set of expectations, and were treated differently by my grandparents. Men were placed on a pedestal and given preferential treatment. Even our family friend, who was fictive kin, followed the same pattern of financial support to males by supporting my male cousin, financially later in his life.

Another consistent pattern I discovered was that my mother married an alcoholic Irish-American, just as her mother did in both of her marriages. She also became a professor of art at a university (without any financial support of her parents), just as her mother had. It appears she repeated the pattern that her mother set in place. My mother, my sister and I lived in poverty throughout my childhood. My mother depended greatly on welfare support, as she wasn’t receiving child support from my father. She was a single mother working multiple jobs, and went back to school for her degree. During this time, when Clinton passed the welfare reform act called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (DuBois & Miley, 2014, p. 281), my mother’s income went from $695 per moth to $425 per month. We survived mostly on Pell grants and student loans she received while in school.

Of the information I was able to gather about my father’s side of the family, I detected a pattern of males of Irish decent with alcohol or drug abuse problems. My father was also diagnosed with bipolar II disorder, and is currently homeless. My sister was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder, and was homeless for a few months. It is apparent that alcohol abuse, mental disorders, and homelessness are key features in my cultural genogram, as well as a strong emphasis placed on higher education, and art. It was fascinating to discover that although my grandmother struggled financially as a single mother, she lent no assistance to my mother who experienced the same financial struggles as she had.

In reflecting on my own role in my families’ cultural history, I can see that I have defied some of our cultural norms. I am the first female of my family to receive a small amount of financial assistance (from my mother), for education. I am also the first female in my family to move out of my hometown, and the first to decide not to have children. My mother struggled to make ends meet in a time when there was very few social resources, while earning her college degrees. She didn’t want me to experience the same struggles she had. She instilled in me the value of helping others and myself, especially those who are at higher risk of being disenfranchised, to work towards a common goal of freedom from poverty.

References

Barker, R. L. (1995). Social Work Dictionary, 3rd ed. NASW Press. National Association of Social Workers.

DuBois, B., Miley, K. K., (2014). Social Work a Helping Profession. Pearson Custom Library, Pearson learning solutions, Boston, MA.

CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1964 and 1965). Divorce statistics analysis: United States 1964, and 1965. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_21/sr21_017acc.pdf

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2011). Employment of women, by industry, 1964 to 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2011/women/pdf/women_bls_spotlight.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (1964 to 2002). Percentage of men and women with a bachelor’s degree or more, ages 25 and older: 1940 to 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/pdf/women_workforce_slides.pdf