quiz 2

Class, Race, and Gender as Structural Inequalities

Class, race, and gender are macrostructural systems that profoundly affect microstructural family worlds. Other conditions also produce inequalities such as age, family characteristics and place of residence, however class, race, and gender are most important They are forms of stratification. They influence family life through distribution of social resources and opportunities. They are relational systems of power and subordination. They are interconnected systems of inequality. They influence families, yet family can be a place to have support when facing inequality Social Stratification refers to structured inequality. Inequalities are not caused by biological, cultural, or lifestyle differences, but, of course, class, race, and gender also refer to individual characteristics . They are built into society's institutions. Groups are socially defined. Social Stratification rests on group-based inequalities. Experiences of inequalities is oppression. Oppression has been found to have similar symptoms associated with PTSD (anxiety, depression, etc. due to the trauma experienced from these inequalities). Life Chances refers to the chances an individual has throughout his or her life cycle to live and experience the good things in life. S social stratification systems also place individuals and families in different social locations. Different social locations produce different family dynamics and diverse family arrangements Class, race, and gender are structures of power as well as systems that distribute social resources. These power relationships structure the experiences of all families in different ways. Different family forms in society are interdependent All individuals and families exist in a "matrix of domination" (Collins 2000). These interconnections have several important implications. People experience race, class, and gender differently depending on their location in these structures. These systems of inequality create an imbalance of power within families as well as between families This term interconnections is also known in popular culture as "intersectionalities of oppression.

Family Characteristics

Dual-Worker Families - dual-working families are now the dominant form in the labor force. o Research shows that dual earners have high amounts of stress; women in those families have higher self-esteem and well being. o For 20 years, research has found the health factor for women working is significant. o Many roles provide different kinds of gratification. o Married women in working class jobs appear to be more "traditional" than professional wives. The Wife as Sole Provider - in the majority of married couple families are dual earners, in about 8% the wife is the sole provider (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). o Many women find themselves in this role as a result of unanticipated economic setbacks. o Women in such jobs as health care and education have been less susceptible to job loss than their husbands in manufacturing. Wives as sole provider continued: o In some cases, women take on the primary role of provider while men stay home and care for the children and the home. o Women may also continue to work after their husbands retire, or their husband may be disabled. Single-Parent Families: Almost 1/3 of households with children are maintained by a single parent, 9 of 10 of whom are women.

Financial Decline

During the height of the Great Recession, the stock market value lost over $7 trillion, household wealth dropped $11.1 trillion, individuals lost $1 trillion from their retirement savings, and countless workers lost their health care. Personal bankruptcies increased 46 percent between March 2008 and March 2009 with 1.55 million filings in 2010

The Cultural Approach

Each class has its own culture, lifestyle, values, attitudes, and motives that are unique. Comparisons between the classes turn out to be deficit accounts of lower-status families. Cultural explanations obscure the social and material realities of class There has been a long tradition of an idealized model of family life based on dominant society families which misrepresents racial-ethnic families and views them as "different." Shortcomings of this approach: 1) it reduces family life to a group's culture; 2) it views the family as the bedrock of society, rather than being shaped by social forces; 3) it blames the victim and ignores the impact of racism and economic structure on family formation; 4) it treats all African American families and all Latino families as monolithic entities rather than acknowledging a wide range of family forms among people of color.

Elderly Immigrants

Elderly immigrants are usually legal immigrants into the U.S. • Typically they are poor and do not speak English. • They are dependent on family members for support, housing, and dealing with the new society. The dependence of the elders on their children works against traditional respect for elders. • The elders often become submissive to the children.

The Structural Approach

Examine the ways in which social class shapes the networks of relationships between families, individuals, and the institutions. Occupations are a key part of the class structure. Classes are power relationships, involving domination and subordination. T here are 5 categories of families.

Families in Today's Class Continuum

Families in Poverty - With the high rate of unemployment and limited social opportunities, poor families must do whatever it takes to survive. Blue-Collar Families - Largest single group of working families in the U.S. Middle-Class Families - Today, many families are sustained only by economic contribution of the wives. Families of Professionals- Typically merge spheres of work and family. Wealthy Families - Their network of influence in the global economy and their ability to generate additional resources is what distinguishes the elite from the rest of society.

Coping with Work and Family

Family Coping Strategies: o Coping as Human Agency - balancing work and family life produces considerable strain. The family must adapt. o For most families, housework and childcare are the most difficult things to deal with. o Parents use a variety of strategies to cope. o Parents may pay for domestic help and child care. o Most families rely on several strategies. Split Shift Parenting - is a strategy used principally by working class families. It is used to ease the burden of paying for child care. • Sequencing - is the adjustment process of juggling competing demands by adjusting the timing of events over the life span. It involves alternating paid work with child raising rather than trying to combine them. • Mommy Track, a situation that leads to fewer promotions and opportunities for women

Personal Bankruptcies

From March 2008 to March 2009, about 1.2 million debtors filed bankruptcy. A major source of bankruptcy is the inability to pay for catastrophic health care needs. Employers have increasingly cut back on health care for their employees. One tactic by employers is to hire workers as independent contractors because these workers do not receive company-paid benefits such as health insurance.

Diverse Work-Family Contexts

Gender Inequality - Both family and work impose unequal demands on men and women. • The demands of family intrude more on women's work roles than on those of men. • For men, the role is reversed. Their work demands intrude more on their family lives. • The work-family role system perpetuates women's inequality in the workforce.

The Traditional Gender Roles Approach

Gender Roles Approach: Men fill breadwinning roles outside the family, while women fill the domestic roles inside the families. This perspective ignores what is most important about roles - that they are unequal in power, resources, and prestige.

Gender

Gender is the patterning of difference and domination through socially constructed distinctions between women and men. Gender, like race and class, is a basic organizing principle of society.

Immigration Patterns

Immigration has been a major source of population growth and ethnic diversity in the United States. • The Immigration Act amendments of 1965 abandoned the quota system that had preserved the European character of the U.S. for nearly half a century. • About 1 million immigrants enter the U.S. legally each year; another 525,000 unauthorized immigrants enter and stay. • The settlement pattern of the new immigration differs from previous flows into the U.S.

The Economic Crisis

In 2007, all of this instability converged to create a "perfect storm" of economic devastation. Many major financial firms went bankrupt. The stock market dropped drastically. Credit dried up. Business slowed both here and abroad.

From Manufacturing to Service

In the 20th century, manufacturing replaced agriculture as the main employment in the US. Another shift took place when the information age started and there was a shift from manufacturing to information based technology.

Marginalization

Individuals show little involvement in maintaining the culture of origin or in learning about the other culture

Latinos

Latino families are thought to have strong kinship networks, although this depends on social conditions. • Latino families are typically viewed as settings of traditional patriarchy because of machismo, however research has found the contrary, that there is considerable variation in family decision making. • Not only is there variation among Latinos, there also can be differences within a given Latino family as they experience family life differently

The Great Recession and Its Aftermath

Many Americans bought homes for the first time during this tough financial time, but they didn't read the fine print. The terms of some mortgages were low interest rates for the first two years and then the interest rate went up. The unstable housing market mixed with the reckless and irresponsible deal-making on Wall Street made the economy more unstable

Consequences of the Great Recession for Families

Marriage—couples cohabitated more and married later. Fertility—U.S. births fell by 300,000 from 2007 to 2010. Children at Risk—the recession had a negative impact on the economic well-being of children. Divorce—couples are delaying divorce because they cannot afford to set up separate households. Shifting Family Forms—5.1 million households are now multigenerational. Underground Economy—many opted for work activities not regulated by the government or reported to the IRS. Shrinking Consumption—the recession caused many families to adjust their lifestyles downward.

Men's Employment

Men's Employment: o Men's labor force participation rate has declined from 83% in 1960 to 70% in 2012. o Declines were steeper for African American men than White men. o Among White men, the declines were due mainly to early retirement ages.

Structural Diversity of Immigrant Families

Most new immigrants do not speak English. • Some new immigrants live with people who have been in the U.S. for some time as a way to cope with being in a new environment. • Some families immigrate as intact units while others are transnational families - families whose members are living in two countries. • Sometimes children immigrate without their parents - " parachute children " arrive to pursue educational opportunities. • Chain Migration: when families arrive at different times. • Latinos: • In 1970, about 1 in 20 Americans were Latino, now it is 1 in 6. • There is great diversity within this group - with Mexican immigrants being the largest group. • Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are the most economically disadvantaged Latino groups.

Offshoring and Outsourcing

Offshoring is when a company moves its production to another country, producing the same products in the same way but with cheaper labor. Outsourcing refers to taking some specific task that a company was doing in house and transferring it to an overseas company to save money Outsourcing has three roots: 1.) There is a worldwide communications revolution brought on by the internet. 2.) There is a supply of qualified workers in English speaking countries such as India. 3.) These workers are willing to work for one-fifth or less the salary of comparable U.S. workers.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social organization where men dominate women. Patriarchy is interpersonal and structural; private and public. Private patriarchy refers to male domination over women in interpersonal relationships. Public patriarchy refers to men's domination over women in the larger institutions of society

Human Agency and Family Formation

People of color use their families in adapting to their circumstances. The concept of family strategies helps us think of some of the ways in which people use their families to cope with the problems in their lives.

Class

Persons occupying the same relative economic rank form a social class. Occupation is the most frequently used indicator of class. Social Class: When a number of people occupy the same relative economic rank in the stratification system

Latino Families in the 21st Century

Poverty rates for Hispanics have risen alarmingly in the past decade. A Hispanic underclass? Familism refers to an obligation and orientation to one's nuclear and extended families. People of color have acclimated to difficult circumstances by adapting their household structures.

Race

Racial stratification has structural foundations. The U.S. is moving from being predominantly White to being a global society of diverse racial and ethnic peoples. Scientifically, race does not exist (e.g. DNA). Race is only a social reality, not a biological reality. Race in the social context exists as a category that serves as a basis for differential distribution of power, privilege, and oppression.

Racial-Ethnic Families

Racial stratification produces different opportunity structures that shape families in a variety of ways. Racism results in limited economic resources and inferior living conditions for many racial-ethnic families.

Structural Inequalities and Racial-Ethnic Families

Social conditions associated with racial inequalities produce aggregate differences between minority and White families. As minorities adapt to structural inequalities, they develop new forms of family organization and support. There are great disparities in the income levels of White families and Black and Latino families; African American and Latino families are 3x more likely as White families to be poor

Social Support Networks

Social scientific research findings provide support for structural rather than cultural explanations for kinship patterns among racial-ethnics

African American Families in the 21st Century

Social, demographic, and economic factors underlie the lower marriage rates and higher divorce rates of Black people. Black people are more likely than white people to reside in extended family households.

Teens' Employment

Teens' Employment: o Contemporary youth are less likely to be employed and work less hours than in the past. Since 2000, there has been a steep decline in teens in the workforce. o Teens in higher income families are more likely to work than teens in low-income families. o Teens enrolled in school are less likely to be employed than those not enrolled in school. As rates of high school graduation and advanced education rise, teens rates in the workforce decrease.

Family-Supportive Government and Employer Reponses

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 provided medical leave to families and provided federally supported programs to help families. Corporation-Sponsored Work-Family Programs: o These programs have expanded since 1980. o Many companies now have family friendly policies. o Many studies have identified the importance of job flexibility in facilitating the integration of work and family life. o Corporate policies can reduce or remove some of the stresses for workers who earn a living and raise children.

The Family as a Gendered Institution

The Family as a Gendered Institution: The gendered institution perspective holds that gender is a factor in the assumptions, practices, and power dynamics of U.S. institutions. How women and men interact and what they do every day in families is essential in reproducing gender.

Food Insecurity

The Great Recession caused a dramatic increase in hunger in the U.S.; by the end of 2011, a record 17.9 million U.S. households did not have enough food at all times to sustain active, healthy lives for all family members. Government programs related to food insecurity are under attack by Congress and many state legislatures.

The New Immigration and the Changing Racial/Ethnic Landscape

The New Immigration: • Immigration: the movement of people across political boundaries. • The volume of immigration is relatively large • New residents are primarily Latino and Asian, not European as before.

Work Factors that Impact the Family

The Time Squeeze continued: o Timing and Scheduling of Work - both men and women work more hours than they did 20 years ago. The timing of work is a strong determinant of family life. o Parents are, however, maximizing their time with their children and actually spending more quality time with them than 25 years ago. Type of Work: o White Collar and Professional - In general, higher occupational prestige and income increase marital stability and marital satisfaction. • A family may benefit from such success financially; however, it may force the professional to neglect his or her family. Blue Collar - Research has found that the characteristics of employment for the industrial working class negatively impact family life. o New research is focusing on women and their work such as caring for other individuals in homes or nursing centers. o Jobs requiring "women's work" typically pays less. o This has economic consequences for those doing these jobs and their families. Professional Satisfaction from Work - work may or may not be a source of personal satisfaction. o Research in the past has focused on men's work, but is now focusing more on women's lives and learning about job conditions that foster greater control. o Occupations offering less desirable working conditions offer fewer intrinsic benefits and may exacerbate negative characteristics. o Work-family conflict is related to life dissatisfaction, depression, and hostility

Work Characteristics

The Time Squeeze: o Time is a scarce commodity; as the economy moves toward a 24 hour, seven day a week work schedule, little time is left for families. o Shift work is on the rise while a full time "day" schedule is less common. o In less than half of dual earning families, men and women both work a "regular" full time schedule.

Globalization

The essence of globalization is the movement of people, goods, services, capital, and culture across national boundaries. New technologies have magnified the connections among all peoples across the globe. The globalization of the economy is not a neutral process; decisions are based on what will maximize profits

Downward Social Mobility

The middle class peaked in 1973 but since has shrunk. Due to globalization, rising personal debt, unemployment, and the recession of 2007. Costs for health care, college, consumer goods, and transportation continue to rise

The Two Demographic Transformations of Society

The new immigration and the aging of society • These macro forces have huge consequences for society, communities, families, and individuals

The New Homeless

The number of reported homeless understate the actual count. Approximately 1 in 400 Americans (750,000) are without a home on any given night and about 1.6 million Americans stayed in shelters in 2010

Poverty

The official poverty rate increased from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 15 percent in 2011. However, government safety programs worked. The weakened economy and a reduced safety net pushed some people down out of the middle class into near poverty or poverty.

Housing Woes

The value of homes peaked in 2006, but by then, many homeowners were on the financial edge as they purchased overvalued homes assuming that their value would raise even more. When the housing bubble burst, many people lost their homes due to foreclosure. Banks repossessed 1 million homes in 2010. Renters were not immune from the nation's house crisis. An estimated 40 percent of families who rent faced eviction because of foreclosure. By 2010, 53 percent of renters were paying 30 percent or more of their household income on housing costs. Gentrification—the process of converting lowincome housing to condos or upscale apartments for the middle- and upper-classes.

Integrating Work and Family

The worlds of work and family overlap and interact. Work and family linkages vary based on the structural characteristics of each. Variance is also created through class, race, and gender stratification systems. • Work-family conflict occurs when individuals experience an incompatibility between their responsibilities as workers and their responsibilities in their families. Spillover is the transfer of moods, feelings, and behaviors between work and family settings. o Spillover can be positive or negative. o Work to family spillover tends to be more negative and happens more frequently. • For men, work stress is more likely to affect their family life and for women, family stress is more likely to influence their work lives.

Inner-City Families and the Underclass Debate

There are two ways the underclass is explained—one cultural, one structural—but both focus on issues of family structure and poverty. Some sociologists are now revisiting the culture/structure debate without "blaming the victim.

The New Second Generation

There were 17.1 million children under the age of 18 living in immigrant families in 2010 (Mather 2009). • These children account for 22% of children in the U.S. • They are the fastest growing segment of the population. • This generation tends to be fluent in English. Because parents become dependent on children's English speaking, the parent as an authority figure is sometimes lost. • Children in this situation also don't often see their parents' experiences in the old country as being relevant to their experiences in the U.S. • They may start to view their own ethnic heritage as deficient. • This generation may clash with their parents over traditions such as arranged marriages.

What Does It Mean to Families that Move Down from the Middle Class?

To deal with shrinking economic resources, many families alter their consumption and work patterns. For many families, though, downward mobility adds tensions that make family life difficult. In the year following the Great Recession: 1) 1.5 million people declared bankruptcy; 2) banks repossessed 1 million homes; 3) nearly 3 million homeowners received foreclosure notices; 4) 25% of homeowners owed more on their homes than they were worth; 5) 43 million received food stamps; 6) more than 20 million were unemployed or underemployed. At times, a married couple may continue to live together even after a divorce due to not being able to afford separate residences. More grandparents are raising children than before. In some families, women are becoming the primary bread winners. Many families have adjusted their lifestyles downward and consumption of consumer goods has shrunk

Integration

When a person shows an interest in maintaining the original culture and in learning and anticipating in the other culture(s).

"Assimilation

When an individual wishes to diminish or decrease the significance of the culture of origin and desires to identify and interact primarily with the other culture

Separation

Whenever the individual wishes to hold on to the original culture and avoids interacting or learning about the other culture(s)

Problems for Women Workers

Women are less likely than men to be employed if they live in a region where unemployment is high. • Finding stable child care can also be a hindrance to keeping work. • Increasingly, employers are seeking flexibility in employees, and women may not be able to meet the demands due to home responsibilities that fall on them. • Additionally, there is still unequal pay for women compared with earnings for men.

Agency within Constraint

Women may be subordinate in many ways, but they are not passive victims of patriarchy. Women's resistance can take many forms from subtle to active and defiant.

The Changing Work Patterns of Women, Men, and Teens

Women's Employment: o In 1940, less than 20% of the female population was in the labor force. o By 2012, the figure was 58%, compared to 70% of men. o This was not necessarily done as a cry for liberation, but more of as an economic necessity.

Forces Transforming the U.S

1.) New Technologies 2.) Globalization 3.) Applications -Scientific breakthroughs have immense implications for commerce international trade, global politics, and for individuals, pay and benefits and family formation

Job Insecurity

8.7 million American workers lost their jobs from late 2007 to January 2012. The official government's unemployment rate jumped from 4.6 percent to over 10 percent. There are important differences as far as unemployment due to race, class, and gender. Those with less education and people of color had higher unemployment rates than white people

Invisible and Unpaid Family Work

A vast amount of unpaid work is done in the family, much of it by women. • Gendered Labor in the Household—Housework is the quintessential example of work that is done inside the family without intrinsic rewards; mostly done by women, called the "second shift" for employed wives. • Other Forms of Family Work: o Interaction work o Emotion work o Consumption work o Kin work

Immigration and Increasing Diversity

About 1/3 of the people in the U.S. are African American, Latino, Asian, or Native American. • Racial minorities are increasing faster than the majority population. • African Americans have lost their position as the most numerous racial minority. • Immigration now accounts for a large portion of the population growth. • New patterns of immigration are changing the racial composition of society.

Causes of Decreased Labor Force Participatio

Advances in technology and the shift from manufacturing to service and information have had serious consequences for male laborers especially in industrial jobs. Four out of five people losing jobs are men. • As manufacturing jobs have become more scarce, men are working in the service sector which pays much less. • Men continue to supply the largest part of the family income, but the share that women provide is increasing.

More Racial-Ethnic Diversity in Families

Asian Americans are seen as the "model minority"— strong, well-educated, and upwardly mobile group—a view that ignores the history of discrimination and against this group. Native Americans have diverse family arrangements representing over 300 tribal or language groups with variability in histories and practices. Middle Easterners have ethnic and religious diversity making it difficult to generalize about their family arrangements.

Asian Americans

Asian Americans now make up more than 1/3 of all legal immigrants into the U.S. • This is a very diverse group of individuals from different countries. • The number of divorces for Asians is lower than the U.S. average. • Asian immigrants typically have a higher education than the national average. • Traditional gender inequality is related to different earning power and educational gaps between men and women. To summarize, Asian American families, like all families in U.S. society, are the consequence of the member's daily interactions with each other and the outside world. • Their experiences are constructed by social and historical situations.

The Changing Nature of Jobs and Compensation

Automation of the workplace is another way that businesses remain profitable with fewer workers. The new economy has shifted the demand for workers from physical labor to cognitive abilities; educated workers benefit. Sunset industries, e.g. steel, tires, shoes, toys, camera film, and textiles, have faded Contingent workers—temporary workers or independent contractors. Benefits have been reduced Workers make less money

Causes of Increased Labor Force Participation

Changes in the Economy - a transition from a manufacturing to a service economy has had the largest impact. • Decline in Real Earnings - families have become more dependent on women's earnings due to inflation, unemployment, and less purchasing power. Personal Fulfillment and Self-Reliance - Work outside the home, paid work, gives women pride, worth, and identity. • Women realize that gaps in work experience may relate to lower pay and job insecurity, so they understand it is in their best interest long-term to work outside the home.

The Effects of Immigration on Immigrant Families

• Ethnic Identity: • Assimilation is the process by which an ethnic group adopts the culture of the larger society. • One indicator of assimilation is language. Foreign language speakers grew in the 1990s and by 2000, slightly less than one in five people living in America spoke a language other than English at home. • New immigrants may be blamed for social problems and resistance to assimilation transformations. As a result, macrostructural forces like racism and economic order are ignored. New immigrants have four options: • 1.) Blend into U.S. culture as quickly as possible • 2.) Resist the new ways by being adversarial toward the dominant society • 3.) Resist the new ways by emphasizing ethnic ties • 4.) Move toward some bicultural pattern Acculturation- involves shedding the old culture; while assimilation involves acquiring the new culture. • Enculturation- is heritage culture retention. • Before, assimilation was a unidimensional perspective. • Next, we see assimilation as a bidimensional perspective Multidimensional model (Schwartz et al., 2010) o Multifaceted processes that occur across interconnected yet independent dimensions of cultural practices, values, and identity