Chapter 13

1. Chapter 13 Family Life

2. What is a Family? • Family – social institution that unites individuals in cooperative groups that care for members, regulate sexual relations, and oversee the bearing and raising of children • Nuclear Family- one or two parents and their children • Extended family- parents and children, plus grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, who often live close to one another and operate as a family unit

3. What is a Family? • Marriage- a lawful relationship-expected to be lasting-involving economic cooperation,sexual activity, usually, childbearing • Most societies link marriage with children

4. Debate over Definitions • A lot of variability in the definition and meaning of a family • Tradition al view- married couple and their children • Families of affinity- people with or without legal or blood ties, who feel that they belong together and wish to define themselves as a family

5. A Sociological Approach to Family Problems • Structure of society shapes and impacts the family • Impact of poverty and work on family • Impact of education on family • Impact of religion on family • Other…

6. Living Together: Do we Need to Marry? • Cohabitation-the sharing of a household by an unmarried couple • From 500,000 in 1970 to over 6 million today • Two million same sexed couples • Four million heterosexual couples

7. Living Together: Do we Need to Marry? • Critics of cohabitation • Marriage provides more stability • Puts woman and children at risk • Discourages marriage • Supporters of cohabitation • Living together a private matter • Meets the needs of a diverse society

8. Delaying Marriage • Delaying marriage is a function of • Changing definition of marriage • Cohabitation • Spending more time in education • Economic factors • Birth control

9. Parenting: Is One Enough? • In 2000, one in three families with children under the age of eighteen had just one parent in the household • Not all children are affected the same • Children with one parent are often disadvantaged • Economically • Socially and emotionally

10. Parenting: Race and Poverty • Single parent households cut across racial boundaries • Reasons behind single parent households • Divorce • Death of a parent • Out of wed lock births • Rate of single parent households are higher among African-Americans

11. Parenting: Race and Poverty • The Moynihan Report (1965) • African American families were in a state of crisis because of the number of children growing up with out the presence of a father • Single mothers struggling against the tide of poverty while raising children • Today among some the view is: • African-American families are not so much a family problem as they are economic

12. Parenting: Race and Poverty • African American Families: A Closer Look • Five stereotypes of African-American families • 1.African Americans do not form strong families • 2.African American men do not make good husbands or fathers

13. Parenting: Race and Poverty • African American Families: A Closer Look • Five stereotypes of African-American families • 3. The African American family is a matriarchy • 4.African American women have children for more welfare money • 5. African Americans have the same opportunities as everyone else

14. Parenting: Race and Poverty • Strengths of African American Families • Strong work orientation • Strong family orientation • Adaptability of roles • Strong religious orientation

15. Conflict Between Work and Family Life • Industrial revolution and the shift of work from family to factory • Shuffling between work roles and family roles • Informational technology and the shift of work back into the home

16. Child Care • Increase in the number of women and (men) with children that work • Child care • One third of children remain home • One third receive care from another person’s home • One third go to day care facility • Latchkey children • What option one chooses is related to income

17. Divorce • The rate of divorce increased throughout the twentieth century and has now leveled off • No-Fault Divorce • Divorce based on irreconcilable differences • Made divorces easier to obtain • Reduced the cases of alimony • Effects family (women’s) income • More so for women because of less cultural capital

18. Too Much Divorce? • Conservatives are more critical of the high rate of divorce than liberals • Divorce suggests a “me” first attitude • Liberals see divorce as away out of troubled marriages • Abuse marriages • The emergence of covenant marriage laws • An attempt to discourage divorce

19. Child Support • The problem of nonsupport after separation or divorce • Not all children are awarded support by the courts • Courts award support to 56% of children • Sixty percent of children receive only partial payment or no payment

20. Child Support • In comparing only non custodial parents women are less likely to make support • Function that women have less income than men • In 1998 congress passed the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act • Felony to refuse to provide support payments to a child living in another state

21. Remarriages: Problems of Blended Families • Blended families-families in which children live with some combination of biological parents and stepparents • Blended families offer the advantage of higher income • Blended family problems • Children learn a new social environment • Parenting and sibling relationships • Managing relationship with ex-spouse

22. Gay and Lesbian Families • Gay couples face legal obstacles to marriage and marital rights • Some states have passed domestic partnership laws conferring some legal rights on gay couples • “Full Faith and Credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution and gay marriages • One state all states • Congress (1996)and the Defense of Marriage Act • One man one woman

23. What about Gay Parenting? • About 250,000 gay couples in the United States are raising children • Public opinion is divided on gays raising children • Research shows gay and lesbian parents are just as effective at parenting as heterosexual couples • Stigma and problems of gay couples

24. Brave New Families: High-Tech Reproduction • In Vitro Fertilization-uniting eggs and sperm in a laboratory • Expensive and beyond the cost of many infertile couples • Ethical and moral questions • Surrogate Motherhood-an arrangement by which one women carriers and bears a child for another,usually in exchange for money

25. Brave New Families: High-Tech Reproduction • Surrogate Motherhood • Question about class exploitation • Legal questions over child support • Moral and ethical issues

26. Structural-Functional Analysis: Family as Foundation • Structural functional theorist view the family as the most important social unit in society • Regulate reproduction • Secure setting for socialization • Unit of economic cooperation • Provide emotional support to its members • Family the backbone of society

27. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: The Experience of Family Life • Family is based on and evolves out of the ongoing interaction among its members • Family plays a role in how we think about our self and society • Family life and experience varies from one group and individual to the next

28. Social-Conflict Analysis: family and Inequality • Family is structured to benefit some and disadvantage others • Perpetuate capitalism and class inequality • Perpetuate gender inequality

29. Conservatives: Traditional “Family Values” • The family as the core of a society • Source of problems stem from a break with traditional families • Me generation • Rising divorce and cohabitation • Solution would be to go back to traditional family and values

30. Liberals: Many Kinds of Families • Support variability in family form • Increase support to families • Child care • Economic • Social

31. Radical: Replace the Family • Family is related to inequality • Family is how property is passed on from one generation to the next • Family is related to perpetuating gender inequality • Perpetuates inequality based on sexual orientation