The Changing Family

1. The Changing Family By Timmy Bernardo Blessen Alex and Theo

2. Premarital Sex and Marriage • By the 1850's lengthy courtships and mercenary marriage was a thing of the past among working classes • indicating that romantic sentiment was replacing tradition and financial considerations • young woman of the middle-class: • carefully supervised by her mother • the young girl's virginity was guarded like the family's credit • young men of the middle-class: • were watched to but not as strictly • by the time they reached their adolescence, they have attained considerable sexual experience • Illegitimacy Explosion (1750-1850) • caused due to the increase of sexual experimentation before marriage • poverty and economic uncertainty undoubtedly prevented many from being married • many among the poor did not see the harm of having illegitimate offspring

3. Prostitution • Between 1871 and 1903 there were an estimated one million women working as prostitutes • Many of their visitors were middle and upper-class men who would indulge in their sexual appetites • Books such as My Secret Life gave an insight to the dark side of sex and class in urban society. • For many women prostitution was a stage of life and not a permanent employment

4. Kinship Ties • During the nineteenth century kinship ties were very strong in working-class homes. • These were ties to relatives after marriage. • Most newlyweds tried to live near their parents. • This was more important to most couples than ties to unrelated acquaintances. • Ties were used as comfort in crysis. • Examples: sickness, unemployment, death, or old age. • Without help some of these problems left people bereaved and abandoned. • This continues despite government efforts though welfare after 1900. • Relatives were the most reliable source of help full knowing that they would recieve the same effort in their time of need. • Help was also required in everyday life. • Example: A family is poor, a relative may move in for a while to cook and take care of the house and children so the spouse can go out to earn badly needed income. • These family groups usually lived in the same neighborhood. • Dinners and outgrown clothing were often shared.

5. Gender Roles and Family Life 1. Males • Known as wage earners • Men were given more rights than women. • like well paying jobs • women wage earnings belong to husband 2. Females • Industrial Rev. had brought great change to European women. • wives stayed home, managing household and care for the children. • women owned no property and rarely had any rights • lead to many uprisings • fought for equality

6. Gender Roles and Family Life continued... 1. Female continued.. • First women to organize feminist campaign was Mary Wollstonecraft • made up of unmarried or widowed middle-class ladies. • argued legal rights for women as well as higher education and employment. • organization won some victories • such as in 1882, giving English married women property rights. • but still in germany, the idea of women having rights did not imply, giving females a hard time receiving certification and practice as doctors or lawyers. 2. Marriage • 19 century women control and influence started to increase. • coming back home started to symbolize healing and shelter from the harsh working world. • wife determined how the money was going to be spent. • schooling, religious instruction, and decore • "Mr., Mrs., and Baby" by Gustave Drove encourage a better marriage by recommending ladies to follow their hearts and marrying men around the same age. • couples had stronger emotion toward each other. • lead to a happier family.

7. Child Rearing • In the pre-industrial age, parents distanced themselves from their children to avoid any personal ties because of the high infant mortality rate. • However, by the 19th century, parents from all classes increased their affection and improved their parenting skills toward their children. • By the 20th century, birth rates declined all throughout Europe, giving parents the capability to improve the futures of the children that they already bore. • Concerned parents soon became very overprotective of their children and even began limiting personal freedoms. • For example, parents oversaw activities such as clothing, games, diet, sleeping, and prohibited masturbation. • At home, children were comforted by their mothers, but children, especially boys, held certain grudges against their fathers due to their absence in the family life and the high expectations they held for their children. • Therefore,children reacted destructively in the long-term and had to be treated for their psychological repression. i. First explained by Sigmund Freud(1856-1939), the Viennese founder of psychoanalysis

8. Child Rearing continued... • Freud continued his research on Oedipal tensions, which he used to describe the son's competitive attitudes toward his father for his mother's affection. • This form of behavior could be the result of defense mechanisms- behavior that is motivated by unconscious emotional needs whose nature and origins are kept from the conscious awareness. • Unlike middle-class children, who were highly dependent on their families, working-class families were more lenient toward their children • Children under the working class began their work when they reached adolescence and could bargain for more independence by age 16 or 17 • And, if unsuccessful, they could leave the home to live cheaply as paying lodgers in other working-class homes. • This trend would soon develop with middle-class youths by the 20th century.