Transcript New Society, 2/e, Robert J. Brym, ed.

Sociology of The Family
Discussion Questions:
- What is the family?
- Should gays and lesbians be eligible for
spousal benefits? Why?
- Should daycare be a public matter or a
private matter?
- Why?
OUTLINE
• What is the family?
• Dimensions of the family
• Comparing the Traditional Nuclear Family with Empirical Reality.
• The Structural Functionalist Theoretical Perspective On the Family.
• Foraging Societies.
• Agricultural Societies.
• The Contemporary Family -- and its Origins in the 19th Century.
• Marriage and Sexuality.
• Gender, Marriage, and the Economic Sphere.
• Marriage and Divorce
• Parenthood.
Comparing the Traditional
Nuclear Family With Empirical
Reality.
Myths About the Family
Myths About the Family
“Family Values”
“Family Values”
The Myth of the Natural Family

Myths notwithstanding, the nuclear family is
rare today. In 1991, only 15% of Canadian
families contained a male breadwinner, female
homemaker, and unmarried children at home.
Family Structure, 1981-1991,
Canada (in percent)
%
90
80
70
60
1981
1986
1991
50
40
30
20
10
0
married-couple
lone-parent
common-law
Household Structure, Canada,
1991
Non-Family
17%
Common-law
5%
Lone-parent
9%
Other Married
56%
TraditionalNuclear
13%
Structural-Functionalism
Structural-functionalists also assume that the
nuclear family is universal because it
supposedly performs certain essential social
functions: socializing children, providing a
framework for reproduction, emotional needs,
and economic activity, etc.
 However, other social forms might be able to
perform the same functions in ways that
benefit individuals more. Existing institutions
are not necessarily universal or ideal.

A Definition.

In order to allow for diversity in family
forms it is best to define the family
broadly as the set of relationships
people create to share resources daily in
order to ensure their own, and
especially their children’s, welfare and
to socially reproduce the society.
Foraging Societies I

In FORAGING SOCIETIES people subsist by
gathering edibles and hunting wild game.
Marriage establishes the nuclear unit, but the
group of cooperating adults that is crucial for
survival is the camp, or band. There is little
private life for the nuclear unit.
Foraging Societies II

Women mainly gather and men mainly hunt;
what women provide accounts for most of the
subsistence, in some cases as much as 80%.
Foraging Societies III
Agricultural Societies
Agricultural Societies
The Origins of Contemporary Families
The Origins of Contemporary Families

Contemporary notions of family involve: a
sexual division of labour in which women
assume mothering and other domestic
responsibilities, and men assume
responsibilities in the paid labour force; the
idea that the family is a private sphere; high
levels of emotional involvement.
Contemporary Middle Class Families I

A CULT OF DOMESTICITY developed in reaction to
an emerging economy perceived as cruel, immoral,
and beyond human control. The family was idealized
as a place of peace, virtue and selfless love of
children, and a “haven in a heartless world.”
Contemporary Middle Class Families II
Contemporary Working Class Families
Contemporary Working Class Families
Meanwhile, family life was endangered in the
19th century working class. Men’s wages were
so low that small children were forced to work
for a wage. Women were economically
dependent. Relations among family members
were strained and violence was widespread.
 Trade unions responded by demanding a
FAMILY WAGE, enough pay for the male
breadwinner to support the family. The
domestic ideals of the era thus helped to shape
the class struggle.

Sexuality
Gender
Gender
Due to differences in socialization, marriage
takes precedence over other aspirations for
women much more than is the case for men.
 Economic necessity also pulls many women
into marriage; their earnings are in general
substantially below those of men.
 But the fact that most jobs require employee
devotion means that marriage often requires
that women must make tough choices between
having children and pursuing a career.

Gender
Gender
1. They assumed that they would have a male
partner and that he would be unwilling and
unable to share the household work.
2. They predicted that their future earnings,
relative to their spouses, would be low and that
it would therefore make economic sense for
them to assume household responsibility rather
than paid employment.
Gender
3. Finally, they felt that babies were better
off at home with their mothers.
Marriage and Divorce I
Marriage and Divorce II
While women are now better able to
escape abusive and unhealthy
marriages, the chief negative effect of
divorce, for women and children, is the
loss of income that follows.
 In 1994, 57% of single-parent mothers
with dependent children were living
below the poverty line.

Divorces per 100,000
Population, Canada, 1968-94
divorces per 100,000 pop.
400
300
200
100
0
68
70
75
80
Year
85
88
90
94
Housework

Men do much less housework than their female
partners because they have more decision-making
power, work longer hours outside the home, and
adhere to an ideology that assigns men and women
different tasks.
Parenthood I
Parenthood I
The gender division of labour increases
substantially when couples become parents -e.g., women take time off work while men
work harder to make more money.
 Ties to the extended family strengthen and ties
to friends weaken. Later, new friends tend to
be people who have children of the same age.

Parenthood I

Contrary to popular belief, full-time mothering
is often not beneficial either for the mother or
the child. Care by several adults and spending
part of the day outside the home helps
childhood development.
Parenthood II


Due to higher divorce rates and more births outside
marriage, 20% of Canadian families with children
were lone-parent families in 1991.
The difficulties of balancing childcare duties with
labour force activity means that the lone mother’s
reliance on government transfers has increased.
Parenthood II
The End