Chapter 6
Normative familism (4 Familism)
3. the value that Mexican heritage people place on family unity and solidarity.
Behavioral familism
4. the level of interaction between family and kin networks.
Wealthy (Elite) Families Race/Ethnicity
Vast economic holdings give elite families control over social resources, opportunities, and choices not available to other families in society. Although small in number they have great power and influence through their ownership and control of the major units of the economy (class control).
Zambrana (2011) Study
Zambrana(2011) Latinos in American Society In Zambrana'sstudy of kinship networks, she found that these networks varied greatly depending on the ethnic subgroup diversity, community context, institutional practices, and their intersections with family processes and well-being.
Patriarchy
o Capitalist Patriarchy o Private Patriarchy o Public Patriarchy
Two Ways of Thinking About Gender
o Traditional Gender Roles Approach o The Family as a Gendered Institution
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.
The Family as a Gendered Institution
2.) The Family as a Gendered Institution Approach (Sociological): 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 everyday in families is essential in reproducing gender.
Demographic Familism (Latino Families)
4 Components of Familism: 1. Demographic familism 2. Structural familism: 3. Normative familism 4. Behavioral familism
Household Augmentation
A strategy used by families to double-up in households. The intent is for people to pool earnings.
Cycle of Poverty -High Cost of Living
Cycle of Poverty -High Cost of Living The cost of living is proportionately higher for the poor than it is for other classes. In purchasing basic necessities -rent , food, transportation, the poor are presented with few choices and higher prices. A study of U.S. metropolitan areas revealed that lower-income families pay more for check cashing, cars/car insurance, furniture, appliances, home loans, and groceries than those who live in middle class suburbs.
Racism and Classism
Cycle of Poverty -Racism and Classism Racism and classism further restrict the neighborhoods that people can live in. Poor minorities are therefore more likely to live in neighborhoods with impoverished schools. Efforts to build public and affordable housing in middle class suburban neighborhoods is frequently met with resistance. Politicians and residents argue that public housing will bring crime, drugs and other social pathologies.
Model Minority (Asian Families)
Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S., however there has been less sociological research on Asian American families than statistically larger racial-ethnic minority groups. Often viewed as the "model minority" -a well -educated and upwardly mobile group.
Criticism of Culture of Poverty Explanations
Critics argue that cultural explanations ignore broader economic factors as well as factors of institutional racism and discrimination. Critics say that the culture of poverty thesis has it backwards. That the unstable behavior of the poor is a reaction to poverty rather than a cause of poverty. Researchers argue that the majority of poor families have much in common with mainstream society. In fact the majority of families in poverty are pro-education and pro-work.
Structural Inequalities and Racial-Ethnic Families
Economic hardship among people of color has tended to reinforce the stereotype of poor minority families. We must realize that not all people of color are poor; nor are all White people middle class. Important class variations exist among African Americans and Latinos. At the end of the 20thcentury many well-educated people of color had climbed into the middle class, with incomes, education, and lifestyles similar to those of their White counterparts. People of color have made considerable advances as professionals, managers, elected officials and entrepreneurs.
Education Level (Middle Eastern Families)
Middle Eastern immigrants are one of the most educated immigrant groups in America. In 2000, 49% had at least a bachelor's degree, compared to 28 percent of natives. While many Middle Easterners are well-educated and prosperous, a significant share are poor. In 2000, nearly one in five Middle Eastern immigrants and their young children lived in poverty, compared to about one in 10 of natives.
Diversity (Native American Families)
Native Americans have tremendously diverse family arrangements, representing over 300 tribal and language groups.
Home Ownership
One indicator of a family's wealth is home ownership. Paying off a home mortgage is the way most Americans build net worth over their lifetimes. Because racial minorities encounter discrimination in their efforts to buy, finance, or insure a home, a great racial/ethnic gap remains.
Poverty Rates (Latino Families)
Poverty rates for Latino families have risen alarmingly in the past decade. Among Latinos, Mexican and Puerto Rican families have the highest poverty rates. The broad economic changes that have affected African American families have also affected Latinos. Puerto Ricans have been especially hard hit by economic restructuring over the past 30 years. Mexican origin families are also hard hit as they are more likely to have both adults in the family employed in low-wage jobs which makes it difficult to stay above the poverty line.
Income Tax vs. Capital Gains Tax
Warren Buffet: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway ranked world's wealthiest person in 2008. Buffett has been advocating for a minimum tax on top wage earners --those like himself who benefit from the fact that capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than regular earnings. His proposal, popularly known as the "Buffet rule" and has been strongly opposed by Republicans in Congress. Capital Gains Tax: profits or the difference between the original cost basis of an asset (such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, art or real property) and the price at which it was sold.
Social Class
When a number of people occupy the same relative economic rank in the stratification system.
Individual Explanations of Poverty
members of the underclass are biologically or culturally deficient and their lifestyle and values go against mainstream society.
Structural Explanations Poverty
members of the underclass lack educational and economic opportunities. Proponents of this position also view the term "underclass" as derogatory.
Ethnicity
refers to people who share cultural practices and a cultural heritage. The most common characteristics distinguishing various ethnic groups are ancestry, homeland, language, religion, food, and styles of dress.
Sex
refers to the biological distinction between males and females (based on genitalia).
Gender
refers to the social and cultural meanings attached to women and men. It is socially constructed and varies across time and across different cultures. The gender roles people take on are on a continuum of masculinity and femininity
Family Strategies (Household Strategies) "topic: Human Agency and Family Formation"
refers to the ways in which family members cope with the problems in their lives. Instead of responding passively to the outside world, family members can take actions to adopt to changes in the larger society: Labor force participation Immigration and migration Marriage and childbearing Food allocation Education
Kinship Networks (Asian Families)
Research has found that kinship networks are important for almost all Asian groups, especially for newer immigrants.
Inside the World of Diverse Families
"We Call Them Cousin Even If We Not Blood": The Meanings of Family for African Refugee Youth Sociologist Linda Gjokaj's examined how African refugee teenagers from Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Sudan (who were living in Michigan) defined and gave meaning to their families. In order to deal with racism the teens described family as flexible, close-knit networks of people who are bonded not only by blood relations. The teens used an "adaptive identity" style where they did not completely reject mainstream U.S. middle-class ideals, but they also did not shed the influence of their home cultures.
Structural familism (4 familism)
2. measures the incidence of multi-generational (extended family) households.
Demographic familism (4 familism)
1. involves characteristics of Chicano families such as family size.
Traditional Gender Roles Approach
1.) Traditional 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.
Demographic Factors - Gender Ratio (Marriage in African American Families)
2. Demographic Factors -Gender Ratio Mismatch -there are more African American women with higher levels of education and employment than African American men. Women tend to marry men with equal or greater educational and employment backgrounds as their own. African American women outnumber African American men in the 20-49 age group. This is caused by a disproportionately high mortality rate (homicide victimization at a young age) and incarceration rate among African American men. Some social scientists have proposed that for many African Americans, marriage is less important than kinship ties of exchange and co-parenting with one's partner. College
Capitalist Patriarchy
A condition of capitalism in which male supremacy keeps women in subordinate roles at work and in the home.
Professional (Upper Middle Class) Families
Corporate relocation is commonplace (83% are for the husband's job). Professional educated women often give up their current position to relocate with their husbands and must look for a new position. These families enjoy good salaries and benefits. They are not dependent on relatives.
Income Inequality in the U.S.
Class inequality in the U.S. today is far more extreme than any time since the 1920's.
Wealthy (Elite) Families Race/Ethnicity
Elite family lifestyles are made possible by their control of labor of others (the subordinate classes whose own families must often suffer as they do work required to support elite privileges). The lifestyles of the wealthy cannot exist without denying the rights and privileges of those who serve them. Own multiple properties. Kin-based family form of the elite serves to preserve inherited wealth.
Extended Kinship Networks (Latino Families)
Extended Kinship Networks Research on Mexican origin families (the largest Hispanic group living in the U.S. has found that kin networks are based on familism-an obligation and orientation to the family.
Racial-Ethnic Categories
Given the complicated, inconsistent, and dubious meaning of "race" some social scientists have proposed doing away with the term all together and just use the word "ethnicity." However the term "race" is so prevalent in contemporary society that many academics have turned to using the term "race/ethnicity" or "racial-ethnic groups."
Families in Poverty
Hays (2003) research Flat Broke with Children (2003) found that in addition to taking on 2-3 jobs (graveyard shifts or weekends). She found some women reduced meal sizes for themselves and their families and stole items necessary for survival. Edinand Kefalas (2005) in their book Promises I Can Keep found that rather than the middle class expectations that single motherhood would disrupt a path to success, many of the poor women viewed their babies as the only positive factor in their lives.
Education and the Process of Mobility
Life Chances are influenced early on for privileged children
Circumstances of Birth
Life Chances are tied to the circumstances into which you are born.
Baca-Zinn and Wells (2000) Study
Like most research spanning the last 30 years the Baca-Zinnand Wells found long-standing participation in kinship networks for Latinos. Kinship networks vary however based on social conditions. For example immigrants are more likely than non-immigrants to live in extended family households. The researchers argue that kinship networks are not simply a cultural preference, but a long-standing adaptation to social and economic marginality. Familism and kinship however is also found among Mexican Americans adults who have high levels of education and income and among the younger generation that view it as a form of social capital.
Middle Class Families
Many middle class women hold "white-collar working class jobs" because they take orders -secretaries, clerks, retail sales, cashiers, food service. Nurses (depending on job rank & title) are also often order takers. The job of school teacher (5.3% of female labor force) is the only female dominated profession that is middle class. Black middle class is much more likely to have relatives come to them for help than the white middle class.
Marriage (African American Families)
Marriage Beginning in the 1930's, the proportion of African American families headed by two parents began to decline. During the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's Divorce rates more than doubled for African American couples, marriage rates declined, and fertility rates fell. The proportion of families in which children lived with both biological parents declined. The proportion of children reared in single-parent households rose dramatically.
Social Class (Marriage in African American Families)
Marriage and Social Class Not surprisingly, research has shown that the higher up in the social class structure African American families are, the more likely they are to be husband-wife families.
Differences Among Groups
Men are expected to act in a masculine fashion or they are sanctioned socially for "being gay" which is meant to be a putdown. Historic shifts in social forces continue to increase women's labor force participation and change many gender norms. Much of the work that women do in the home remains invisible. However research shows that this invisible work sustains family life.
Diversity (Middle Eastern Families)
Middle easterners have been arriving to the U.S. since the 1970's from countries such as Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen. Their ethnic and religious diversity, different levels of education, and places of settlement in the U.S. make it impossible to generalize about their family arrangements.
Cycle of Poverty (3 "bolded" things).
Neighborhood: low income neighborhoods have poverty schools which do not prepare students. Education: low levels of education correspond to low-level jobs, which corresponds to low-levels of income. Income: forces people to live in poorest neighborhoods where schools are ill equipped to prepare students for high-level jobs.
Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) The study began in 1968 with a nationally representative sample of over 18,000 individuals living in 5,000 families in the U.S. Information on these individuals and their descendants has been collected continuously, including data covering employment, income, wealth, expenditures, health, marriage, childbearing, child development, philanthropy, education, and numerous other topics. The study brought into question the idea that people are poor because they lack motivation or come from a family that lacks values. Findings indicated that welfare dependency is something that is not passed on generationally. Instead findings indicate that families often experience bouts of poverty due to a major life change -divorce, birth of a child, being laid off from a job, illness, etc.
Rochelle (1997) Study
Rochelle (1997) No More Kin: Exploring Race,Class, and Gender in Family Networks In Rochelle's research she found that economic changes in the border economy have disrupted kin networks and extended family relationships among Puerto Ricans and Blacks. She said that it is important for social policy makers not to assume that all ethnic minority families have such networks to fall back on.
Shortcomings of the cultural Approach
Structural Model (Sociological Model): Points to how the Cultural Approach is wrong on many counts. 1.Single-parent families are not the cause of poverty, but the result of economic deprivation. 2.Structural changes in the U.S. economy have removed jobs and opportunities form inner city residents. 3.Although living in a two-parent family generally improves the chances of economic stability, it does not guarantee it. 4.Teenage pregnancy has declined significantly over the past 20 years (especially for African American girls) yet poverty persists for this group.
Racial Formation
Sociologists use the term "racial formation" to mean that society is continually creating and transforming racial categories. More people are beginning to identify as multiracial or multiethnic. The U.S. Census Bureau has begun to capture the complex mix of racial groups in the U.S. However the U.S. Census Bureau acknowledges that the distinction between race and ethnicity is flawed. In 2010 the Census changed the Hispanic origin question to an ethnic rather than a racial group.
Stack (1974) All Our Kin
Stack, Carol (1974). All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. Researcher Carol Stack in her groundbreaking ethnography found that extended-family arrangements are a way of coping with poverty and racism. She found that black families pooled their limited resources in order to survive and that the urgency of their needs created alliances between individuals.
School to Prison Pipeline
The 5's of the school to prison pipeline: 1.Stigmatized 2.Segregated 3.Silenced 4.Supressed 5. Sentenced
Families in Poverty
The poor often work in minimum wage, insecure jobs which still keep them below the poverty level. These families often lives in crime-ridden neighborhoods with impoverished schools and substandard housing. Edinand Leinin Making Ends Meet (1997) found that poor women use survival strategies (relying on family members, neighbors, and boyfriends) as well as doing off the book jobs.
Middle Class Families
They are the most idealized family type in our society. Today most middle class families are dual-earner. They generally receive salaries rather than hourly wages They exert power over the working class (supervisors, managers) Members of the middle class are often "order givers" whereas members of the working class are "order takers"
Discrimination (Asian families)
This view ignores the history of discrimination experienced by Asian Americans. This view also ignores the fact that some Asian groups are doing well economically (Japanese and Chinese) while others are not (Cambodians and Vietnamese).
Life Chances
What are Life Chances? The chances an individual has throughout his or her life cycle to live and experience the good things in life. Families themselves transmit resources and opportunities to their members. Diverse family arrangements (nuclear, extended, single-parent) are produced by the different social locations people find themselves in based on life chances.
Structured Inequalities
What are structured inequalities? 1.Class, race, and gender are forms of stratification that foster group-based inequalities. 2.Class, race, and gender influence family life through their distribution of social resources and opportunities. 3.Class, race, and gender are relational systems of power and subordination. 4.Do not stand alone. They work together to place families and individuals in different social locations, which produce diverse family patterns. 5.Class, race, and gender are systems of subordination that shape family life, yet the family can also be a place to resist inequality.
Economic Strain (African American Families)
What has caused the movement away from marriage for African Americans? 1. Economic Strain Structural conditions that produce high levels of men's unemployment, lack of job security, and low incomes which make marriage difficult to form and sustain. Research has found that economic factors cause many African American, particularly poor and working class women to forgo marriage and to bear children outside of marriage. If marriage could not bring economic stability, poor women find little reason to marry (this is true regardless of race). Researchers however have also found that although many women remain unmarried, this did not preclude them from having strong and stable partnerships outside of legal marriage. A father's absence from the household does not necessarily mean that he is uninvolved in his children's lives.
Social Stratification
What is Social Stratification? Ranking of people in a hierarchy that differentiates them as superior or inferior (rest on group based inequalities). Inequalities are not caused by biological, cultural, or lifestyle differences. These inequalities are built into society's institutions in ways that produce advantages or disadvantages for entire groups of people.
Race
a socially defined category that groups people together who share similar physical traits deemed important by a society. Race is only a social reality not a biological reality. The choosing of skin color as a means for grouping people, rather than other physical traits -height, eye color, weight, hair color, etc. is an example of how racial categories are socially constructed. This is also evident by the fact that racial categories are always changing over time.
Racial-Ethnic Groups
a term used by sociologists which refers to groups that are socially subordinated and remain culturally distinct within U.S. society. It is meant to include: 1.The systematic discrimination of socially constructed racial groups. 2.Their distinctive cultural arrangements. Ex. In the U.S. African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans are considered racial-ethnic groups.
Gender privileges
advantages and options that are available to biological men.
Sexual identity privileges
advantages and options that are available to heterosexuals.
Class privilege
advantages and options that are available to those in the middle and upper classes.
Race privileges
advantages and options that are available to those who are White.
Compadrazgos
another feature of familism among Chicanos and Meixcans-godparents and co-parents.
culture of poverty
argument says that poverty is the result of a set of norms and values that are held by poor people that are not compatible with the society's dominant culture.
Extended Family Networks (Native American Families)
Although studies of Native American families are rare, research has found that one common thread for modern American Indian families is extended kinship networks. Extended family networks and respect for elders is quite common. Elders whether biologically related or not are important for children's upbringing, and for contributing to American Indian family cohesiveness and stability.
Professional (Upper Middle Class) Families
Are likely to merge the spheres of work and family. Leisure activities often revolve around occupational concerns. Executives and their wives are closely tied to corporations and their social functions. In many professional homes the families needs are subordinate to the demands of the husband-father's occupation.
Matrix of Domination
Patricia Hill Collins (2000): Matrix of Domination: The interconnected systems of race, class, and gender in which all individuals and families exist. People experience race, class, gender, and sexuality differently depending on their location in these structures. These systems of inequality create an imbalance of power within families as well as between families. Despite the shaping effects of class, race, and gender, families can serve as sites to resist and survive inequality and hardship.
Pattillo-McCoy (1999) Black Picket Fences
Pattillo-McCoy, Mary (1999). Black Picket Fences: Privilege & Peril among the Black Middle Class. In her research Pattillo-McCoy found that kin networks still remain strong among middle-class African Americans. These families continued to draw on their kin networks for financial aid and emotional support. She found that kin networks were a survival strategy for families in different social classes.
Sarkisian and Gerstel (2012) Nuclear Family Values, Extended Family Lives
Sarkisianand Gerstel(2012). Nuclear Family Values, Extended Family Lives: The Power of Race, Class, and Gender. Sarkisianand Gerstelanalyzed extended family support among racial-ethnic minority groups and Whites. Their findings provide support for structural rather than cultural explanations of kin support. They found high levels of family involvement among Blacks was most often related to socio-economic status. While whites reported greater involvement in financial and emotional kin support, Blacks were more likely to count on kin for practical day-to-day needs including child care, household tasks, and rides. Blacks were also more likely than Whites (as previous research has shown) to live in extended family households which also involve networks of unrelated kin.
Social Support Networks (African American Families)
Scholars have been debating about the extended family in Black communities. Is it something culturally unique for African Americans to have more social support networks and kin ties than Whites? Or does it have to do more with structural factors such as socioeconomic status? The answer depends on what type of kinship support you are asking about. Researchers have found that it is both culture and structural factors that shape kin networks for African Americans.
The Underclass Debate
Since the 1960's there has been a debate over the "underclass" population and chronic poverty. It is a debate between: Individual Explanations of Poverty Structural Explanations Poverty
The Cultural Approach
While many people dismiss biological arguments that are made to explain poverty, cultural arguments are very common.
Structural Inequalities and Racial-Ethnic Families
While some African American and Latino families have improved their life chances, others have been marginalized a there continues to be great income and wealth disparities. Racial-ethnic families in many instances live in "separate societies." Social institutions create paths in which families assigned to one group receive better jobs, housing, health care, schools, and recreational facilities. Racial-ethnic (minority families) adapt to these structural inequalities by developing new family forms -extended kinship systems, fictive kin, flexible family arrangements, accordion households, etc.
Blue Collar (Working Class) Families
Working-class families are the largest single group of families in the country. They work in lower levels of manufacturing and service sectors of the economy. Usually work for an hourly wage rather than a salary They go to work everyday and provide for their families, often at jobs they hate. They are susceptible to layoffs, plant closings, and unemployment. During hard economic times, they may depend on government assistance. They often remain just above the poverty level because of wife's income (2nd income) They depend on kin networks, and interact with kin more frequently than the middle class.
