Evolving Family Structures: Traditional and Contemporary Perspectives

1. FAMILY STRUCTURES AND DIVERSITIES • The Decline of the Nuclear Family

2. What is Family? • The debate between structural functionalism and Feminism continues into the new millennium. • What is Family? • How is it organized?

3. Issues regarding “Family” • IS A FAMILY A COLLECTION OF INDIVIDUALS UNITED BY LOVE? • IS FAMILY AN INSTITUTION? • IS FAMILY A COLLECTIVE IDEAL OF DAYS GONE BY?

4. Functionalist-nuclear family is the foundation of human society • Conflict/Feminist-nuclear family is a capitalistic creation feeding industry through invisible labour inside the home.

5. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST-”Family is a unity of interacting personalities” • See Ernest Burgess of the Chicago School.

6. Stages in Family Patterns • 1900 –1914 Domestic family • 1914-1918 WW1 –women in factories • 1919-1929 Return to domesticity

7. Mid 20thc to Now • 1929-1939 Depression and survival • 1945-1960 Cult of domesticity Nuclear • 1960-1980 Second Wave Feminism • 1980-1990 New Right vs Third Wave Feminism • 1990-2008-Global economy.

8. Historical Family Types • The CLAN • The Extended Family • The Bi-lateral extended family • Nuclear family

9. New Alternatives • Modified Extended Family • Single Parent Family • Same Sex Family • Blended/Reconstituted or Step Family

10. The Traditional Nuclear Family and New Alternatives legally married  never married singlehood, nonmarital cohabitation with children  voluntary childlessness two-parent  single-parent permanent  divorce, remarriage male primary provider, egalitarian (dual-career) ultimate authority sexually exclusive  extramarital relationships heterosexual  same-sex relationships, households

11. Some Alternative Family Forms: • Stepfamily • Common-law couples, • Gay-lesbian couples, • Single/never married older adults • Voluntary Childless couples

12. Crude Divorce Rate, Canada, 1968-2003 The crudedivorce rate is the number of divorces that occur in a year for every 1,000 people in the population. Divorces per 1,000 population Year

13. The Growing Diversity of Canadian Families, 1981-2006 (in percent) 1981 2006

14. 20th century family changes • Separation of the workplace and the home. • Retreat of the family into domesticity • Identification of stages in life such as childhood and adolescence. • More clearly defined life transitions leaving home, marriage, separate household.

15. William Goode 1963 • In his book World Revolution and Family Patterns Goode argues... • " There is a fit between industrialization and the nuclear family...the world direction is towards some kind of conjugal/nuclear family pattern-

16. The Decline in Household Size • The average household sizeis declining in Canada and this is especially evident with the increase of people living alone.

17. Living Alone- • Living Alone- In 2001, 35 percent of women and 16 percent of men aged 65 and over lived alone. • This was an increase of 10% since 1981

18. Living Alone • The proportion of households comprising people living alone grew from … • One fifth of all households in 1981 • To about one quarter in 2001 (Statistics Canada 2002e)

19. Sandwich Generation • . The 2001 Census shows that 41 percent of young adults aged 20 to 29 lived with their parents, a substantial increase from 27 percent in 1981

20. Older Kids Living at home • . Living at home is more likely for young men than women aged 20 to 24 (64 vs. 52 percent) and aged 25 to 29 (29 vs. 19 percent). • This could be called the "adolescentizing" of young adults.

21. Married with Children • ·        Married with children falls short of majority • ·        Legally married with or without children ¾ of all families • ·        Canadian families dispersed along various dimensions • ·        Most Canadians marry at least once • 60% of all between 25-29

22. Common Law Families • 2001, 7.5 percent of families were common-law couples, • 6.3 percent of families were common-law couples with children,

23. Common-law with children • There is a declining percentage of married couples with children. • There is an increase in common-law couples with children at home

24. Same Sex Coupling • A total of 34 200 couples, 0.5 percent of all couples, identified themselves as same-sex in this census. • Macionis Society Updated Second Canadian Edition (p. 324)

25. Gay and Lesbian families- • Gay fathers are better at setting limits and are more responsive to their children than heterosexual fathers, gay fathers are less traditional. • Better childhood adjustment and majority of the children are heterosexual. (Bailey, 1995; Golombok and Tasker, 1996)

26. Civil Marriage Act • On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the approval of the Civil Marriage Act.

27. Court decision • Court decisions, starting in 2003, each already legalized same-sex marriage in eight out of ten provinces and one of three territories, whose residents comprised about 90% of Canada's population.

28.     Step Families/aka. Blended Families • Some marry some do not- • Step parents often use different child rearing practices. • Children often view stepparents as intruders.

29. Stepfamily Problems • More friction is noted particularly among uneducated working class families. • Girls are most effected by the introduction of stepfather to single parent households headed by women.

30. Summary • THE UNIT OF THE FAMILY IS SMALLER AND MORE DIVERSE THAN EVER BEFORE. • FUNCTIONALIST LAMENT THE DECLINE OF NUCLEAR FAMILY • FEMINISTS-see diversity as a capitalist creation