Transcript THE FAMILY - Camosun College

“CHOOSE YOUR
PARENTS CAREFULLY”
“My life was shaped by my
family
”
Dr. Martha Piper, Former UBC President
© Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri, 2014
Presentation Contents
Stories of the Family
 Definitions of the Family
 Sociological claims of the Family
 Application of sociological paradigms to
the Family
 Addressing Family Issues: What Sociology
Suggests
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STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
Society’s Family Story
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Until after the 18th century, in Western
societies relationship between husband
and wife was not characterised by
emotional intimacy and parents did not
love their children as special treasures.
Many non-western societies still maintain
this pre-18th century perspective of family
relations (William Kephart 2013, p. 74).
STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
The Piper Family Story
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Dr. Martha Piper, former UBC
president, has two daughters.
Emily is officially Dr. Emily Piper,
34, a consulting
Psychologist…and maintains a
private practice aside. Her younger
sister is now Dr. Hannah Piper, 29,
who, having graduated from
Princeton (BSC) and Harvard (MD)
is in the midst of a general surgical
residency (Trek, Winter/Spring
2006, p. 21).
STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
The Enin Family Story
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In the next month, Kwasi Enin must make a tough
decision: Which of the eight Ivy League universities
should he attend this fall? A first-generation
American from Shirley, N.Y., the 17-year-old violist
and aspiring physician applied to all eight, from
Brown to Yale. The responses began rolling in over
the past few months, and by late last week when he
opened an e-mail from Harvard, he found he'd been
accepted to every one. The feat is extremely rare,
say college counsellors. For most of the eight
schools, acceptance comes rarely, even among the
USA's top students. At the top end, Cornell
University admitted only 14% of applicants. Harvard
accepted just 5.9%.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03
/31/ivy-league-admissions-collegeuniversity/7119531/?csp=usattumblr
STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
The Enin Family Story
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He ranks No. 11 in a class of 647 at William Floyd, a
large public school on Long Island's south shore. That
puts him in the top 2% of his class. His SAT score, at
2,250 out of 2,400 points, puts him in the 99th percentile
for African-American students.
He will also have taken 11 Advanced Placement courses
by the time he graduates this spring. He's a musician
who sings in the school's a capella group and volunteers
at Stony Brook University Hospital's radiology
department. Enin plans to study medicine, as did both of
his parents. They emigrated to New York from Ghana in
the 1980s and studied at public colleges nearby. Both
are nurses.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/31/ivy-league-admissions-collegeuniversity/7119531/?csp=usattumblr
STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
The Rashonda Family Story
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When she got pregnant the first time, at age 15,
Rashonda Jackson of Benton Harbor, Michigan, never
considered marriage. Nor did she give much thought to
abortion or adoption. There was never really any doubt
about what she should do. With her parents’ blessing
and that of her church, Rashonda had a baby boy,
Shannon. It was enough to gain her entry into the least
exclusive club in Benton Harbor. Single motherhood.
This could be the single parent capital of the United
States, a struggling rust belt town where an astonishing
eight out of every ten families are headed by a single
parent. The vast majority are single mothers, often in
their teens or early 20s (Landsberg 1998, p. B1)
STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
The Japan Family Story
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He Averages 12-hour work days, followed by an obligatory
round of drinks with co-workers and a long commute home.
She dutifully waits up for him to return and prepares breakfast
in the mornings. The retirement rolls around and he discovers
he’s a stranger to his own family. The result is a phenomenon
Japanese are calling “vintage year divorce”, the fastest
growing component of a marital break-up rate that has doubled
since 1975. And reflecting larger changes in society, the
divorces are more likely initiated by women, often after 20
years or more together. “Expectations are definitely changing.
Many people are putting their happiness first, and if they think
they won’t find that in their marriage, they get out”, said Atsuko
Okano, 49, a divorcee and founder of a divorce counseling
service, Caratclub (Pearson 2004, p. B6).
STORIES OF THE FAMILY:
Ferdinand Toinnes’ Story
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“The domestic
Gemeinschaft or home
life with its immeasurable
influence upon the
human soul, has been
felt by everyone who
ever shared it”
(Ferdinand Toinnes,
1887, cited in Alan Sica,
2005, pp. 277).
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DEFINITIONS OF THE FAMILY
INSTITUTION (pp. 268 and 269 of
textbook)
DEFINITIONS OF THE FAMILY
INSTITUTION
FAMILY
Patriarchal
Cohabitation
Monogamy
ADOPTION
MARRIAGE Homogamy
Heterogamy
Polygamy
BIRTH
Matriarchal
Should pets count as family?
DEFINITIONS OF THE FAMILY
INSTITUTION
 Social
group whose members
are related by marriage
(affinity), and/or by birth
(descent), and/or by adoption
(legality) and are conscious of
their relations.
MAJOR CONCEPTS DEFINING
THE FAMILY
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Family of Orientation
Family of Procreation
Marriage
Divorce
Patriarchy
Matriarchy
Polygamy—Polygyny and Polyandry
Monogamy
Homogamy
Heterogamy
Propinquity
Endogamy
Exogamy
Femicide
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
ECONOMIC
Experience
MEDIA
Experience
EDUCATIONAL
Experience
FAMILY
INSTITUTION
MEDICAL
Experience
RELIGIOUS
Experience
POLITICAL
Experience
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SOCIOLOGICAL CLAIMS OF THE
FAMILY:
Families are becoming more complex
 Families are becoming more fragile
 Families are becoming smaller
 Families are affected by other social forces
 Families have far-reaching impacts
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FAMILIES ARE BECOMING MORE
COMPLEX
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(Dr. Lisa Strohschein, Associate Professor, University of
Alberta. Presentation abstract, November 29 at Uvic)
GLOBAL DIVERSITY OF THE
FAMILY
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According to sociology, there is no “ideal,
monolithic, standard or natural family”.
Rather, there is “a wide variety of family
arrangements” (Bartle 2004: 9:1).
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A single, all encompassing model of family,
especially the nuclear family of mama, papa
and kids is not, and has never been, the ideal
or norm in any society for which we have any
hard facts (Ibid.: 9:3).
GLOBAL DIVERSITY OF THE
FAMILY
Diverse Family Forms
 Polygamous (polygyny and polyandry) families
 Nuclear families
 Fatherless family arrangements (in societies without
nuclear families such as Nayar of India, Many West
Indies families, Israili Kibbutz (Barkan 2012).
 Compound or Step families
• One-Parent Families
• Childless families; Child-free families; Zero-child
families
• Cohabitation or Common Law Unions
• GLBT and Queer Couples/families
GLOBAL DIVERSITY OF THE
FAMILY
Family diversity complicated by the
following patterns:
 1. Marriage Patterns
 2. Residential Patterns
 3. Descent Patterns
 4. Power and Authority Patterns
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THE FAMILY: DIVERSITY AND
PATTERNS
THE FAMILY: DIVERSITY AND
PATTERNS
Same-sex married couples now count in
many countries
 Symmetrical Marriage
 More young adults living with their parents
in Western countries
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FAMILIES ARE BECOMING MORE
FRAGILE:
Declining Marital Rates
 Declining Fertility Rates
 Increased Divorce Rates
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(Dr. Lisa Strohschein, Associate Professor, University of
Alberta. Presentation abstract, November 29 at Uvic)
DECLINING MARRIAGE RATES
There is a declining marriage rate across
the western world
(http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/st
ory/2012/02/10/ralph-richard-banks.html)
 Japan's Institute of Population and Social
Security reports an astonishing 90% of
young women believe that staying single is
"preferable to what they imagine marriage
to be like“ (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young
people-japan-stopped-having-sex).
DECLINING MARRIAGE RATES
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Japan's 20-somethings are the age group
to watch. Most are still too young to have
concrete future plans, but projections for
them are already laid out. According to the
government's population institute, women
in their early 20s today have a one-in-four
chance of never marrying. Their chances
of remaining childless are even higher:
almost 40% (Ibid.).
DECLINING MARRIAGE RATES
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In Canada, unmarried people outnumber
legally married for the first time (Statistics
Canada 2006).
DECLINING MARRIAGE RATES
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“Black women have become the most unmarried
population in American society” (Banks 2012).
“Is Marriage for White People?”
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The premise of his book is controversial,
but Banks, who is black, says it comes in
response to a number of socio-economic
factors. Namely, the declining marriage
rate across the western world and the fact
that black women have made strides in
terms of earning power and education
while black men, statistically, have not.
“Is Marriage for White People?”
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“Black women have become the most unmarried
population in American society because of a
whole set of structural factors, that black men
are not doing very well is the chief one,” said
Banks, who teaches at Stanford Law School.
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“The problem is not the choices or the preferences of
black women, the problem is the pool of men," he said.
"Black men have not kept pace with black women.”
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The smaller pool of black men won’t be the
problem outside the strictures of
racialization and endogamy (Adu-Febiri
2012).
Canadian Divorce Rate
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4 in 10 first marriages end in divorce.
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According to Statistics Canada (2010), about 38 per
cent of all marriages taking place in 2004 will have
ended in divorce by 2035. The total divorce rate was
down slightly from its peak of about 41 per cent in
the mid 1980s, but slightly higher than the rate of
about 37 per cent recorded in the mid 1990s.
Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest rate of
divorce at 21.6 per cent — while Quebec had the
highest at 48.4 per cent (Ibid.).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/10/04/van
ier-study004.html
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Top 5 Reasons Couples Separate or
Divorce
1. Different Values and Interests.
 2. Abuse—Physical and Emotional.
 3. Alcohol and Drugs.
 4. Infidelity.
 5. Career Related Conflict.
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IMPACT OF DIVORCE
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Negative for children:
“Parental conflict and separation have a
negative lasting effect on children” (Baker
2004: 178; Demo, Fine & Ganong 2000;
Wallerstein, Lweis & Blakeslee 2002; Brym &
Lie 2015, p. 202). This is true only in divorce
situations of a) a high level of parental
conflict, b) s decline in living standards, and
c) the absence of a parent (Amato & Keith
1991, Resnick et al 1997, Jekielek 1998)
IMPACT OF DIVORCE
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Specific Negative Effects:
1. Lower educational attainment
2. Behavioral problems
3. Delinquency
4. Leaving home earlier
5. Premarital pregnancy for girls
6. Less likely to be happy
7. More likely to suffer health problems, depend on
welfare, and earn low incomes
8. Enter adulthood worried, underachieving, selfdepreciating, and sometimes angry young men and
women.
9. Higher divorce rate when they marry
IMPACT OF DIVORCE
Positive for children:
 1. Children in stable lone-parent
families are better off than those in
conflict-ridden two-parent families.
 2. Children of employed lone mothers
accept egalitarian gender roles
 Positive for the Economy, according to
functionalism.
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THE DARK SIDE OF THE FAMILY:
1. Divorce
 2. Remarriage and Stepfamilies
 3. Non-physical abuses in the Family
 4. Family Violence: physical abuse,
battering, rape, incest:
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Violence against women
 Violence against Children
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Intimate Femicide (p. 287 of textbook)
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FAMILIES ARE BECOMING SMALLER
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(Dr. Lisa Strohschein, Associate Professor, University of Alberta. Presentation
abstract, November 29 at Uvic)
DECLINING FERTILITY
Fertility rate, total (births per woman)
 Total fertility rate represents the number of
children that would be born to a woman if
she were to live to the end of her
childbearing years and bear children in
accordance with current age-specific
fertility rates.
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http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DY
N.TFRT.IN
DECLINING FERTILITY
THE PATTERN OF THE FAMILY INSTITUTION
SOCIAL FORCES
FAMILY & MARRIAGE
Social Class
Gender
“Race”; Culture
Age; Religion; Education
Sexual orientation
Ability/disability
Interaction pattern
Economy; Technology
PROPINQUITY
HOMOGAMY
Love
Courtship/Dating
Marriage practices & Rate
Fertility & Childbirth
Child rearing
Quality of relationship
Divorce rate
Conflicts & abuses
TRENDS IN THE FAMILY
Postponed marriage
Commuter marriage
Symmetrical Marriage
Unmarried couple
Unmarried mothers or fathers
More married women joining the workforce
Homosexual marriage
Marriage squeeze
Child-free family; Zero-child families
Blended family
Equal husband-wife relationship
High divorce rate
Overburdened women and displaced men
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF
THE FAMILY
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Functionalist Paradigm: HOMEOSTASIS
Families perform functions that are important for the
stability or homeostasis of society.
The Bright Side of the Family
Functions of Family of Orientation and Family of
Procreation
 1. Socialization: transmitting and enforcing
culture.
 2. Gender division of labour: Complementary
Roles produce efficiency. Expressive Role for
women and Instrumental Role for men.
 3. Regulation of sexual activity.
 4. Placement: Provides social status.
 5. Security: Material, Social and Emotional.
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF
THE FAMILY
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Social Conflict Paradigm: COMPETITION &
INEQUALITY:
The Dark Underside of the Family
Inequality and the Family:
The social-conflict approach focuses on how
competition for wealth and power in the
political economy creates inequalities in
marriage and families.
Within families, the unequal distribution of
wealth and power among women, men and
children contributes to conflict and violence
(spouse abuse and child abuse).
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF
THE FAMILY
Interactionist Paradigm: Human Agency
and Definition of the Situation—Lookingglass Self:
 Bright Side and/or Dark Underside?: “It
depends”.
 1. Symbolic-Interaction
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The family is a symbol and individual members
used their human agency to define it subjectively
and interact with it accordingly. Hence the
varying experiences and perceptions of different
family members about family and marriage.
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF
THE FAMILY
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FEMINIST PARADIGM: Patriarchy: Gender inequality
and oppression in marriage & family
Dark Underside of the Family:
Patriarchal ideologies maintain the sexual and
economic subordination of women.
a) Usually wife takes husband’s name, family
residence defined by husband’s place of work, and
the standard of living dictated by the male’s income.
b) Despite the fact that women have increased their
participation in the paid labor force they still do most
of the housework and child rearing.
c) Unequal distribution of wealth between men and
women fosters economic dependence of women.
d) Violence against mothers, wives, sisters and
daughters.
ADDRESSING FAMILY ISSUES:
What Sociology Suggests
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1. Families Living in Poverty:
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Government financial support, vocational training and
financial aid for schooling for women, early childhood
visitation and intervention programs, programs
providing nutrition and medical care (Cherlin 2009).
2. Family Violence:
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Reduce poverty, reduce gender inequality, change
male gender role socialization, educational campaign
against child spanking (Barkan 2012).
ADDRESSING FAMILY ISSUES:
What Sociology Suggests
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3. Same Sex Marriage:
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Education about the fact that same sex
marriage does not threaten the stability of
heterosexual marriage or the welfare of
children (Barkan 2012).
4. Divorce
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Reduce poverty, increase economic equality,
encourage homosocial marriages, prevent
abuse.