Sociology Chapter 13
Family of Marriage
is the family an individual forms as his or her marriage
In pre-industrial societies
kinship groups may live and work together, share economic resources, and conduct social and religious activities.
Marriage Patterns
preferences of individuals influence of social groups the constraints of the marriage market in which people seek a spouse
Global divorce rates
ranges from zero percent in Ireland to 12 percent in Italy, 49 percent in the United States and 64 percent in Russia and Sweden • Covenant marriages are being introduced to minimize the impact of divorce.
Patrilioneal decent
prevalent in pre-industrial families. Individuals can trace descent and can transmit property only through male relatives.
Influence marriage rate
Demographic, social, and cultural factors
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is a family problem and affects millions of Americans. There are two kinds of domestic violence.
Alternate Definition of Family
Families are formed via marriages, which are legally recognized economic and sexual relationships between two or more persons that include mutual rights and obligations and is assumed to be permanent. This definition implies three important aspects of marriage: society must approve marriage sex and child bearing regulation for society economic exchange must be acknowledged
In industrial and post-industrial societies
Families are small and loosely knit
Media Families
United States media defines the American family.
Incest Taboo
forbids people from marrying and mating close kin.
In industrial societies
have seen a decline in household size due to migration and lower fertility. Furthermore, industrial societies have been marked by a great number of people living alone.
Sociological definition of Family
holds that a family consists of two or more persons related by blood, marriage or adoption and who are part of a relationship in which there is a commitment, mutual aid, and support.
Other forms of marriage
include group marriage and same sex marriage.
Structural factors
including size and composition of the population affect harmony and balance between men and women who are of marriageable age.
Definition of Family
is based on the purpose it is used by the defining body in conjunction with special religious and cultural conditions.
Family life course
is complex and dynamic in modern society due to changes in economic opportunities, declining income, fewer children, and high divorce rate.
Courtship
is not a fully or well-ordered structural-process. It involves a process in which people are constantly negotiating and renegotiating their social realities for meaning.
Matrilineal decent
is prevalent in hunting and gathering societies. Individuals living in this type of society can trace their descent through female relatives.
Family of Orientation
is the family in which an individual is born into
Spousal abuse
is the most common form of violence in the United States.
Child Abuse
is very high in American society. A very high number of parents commit child abuse by punching, kicking, and biting their children.
Monogamy
marriage of one woman and one man. In industrial societies, this type of marriage was very prominent. In modern societies, serial monogamy is the norm and involves several spouses over a lifetime due to the very high divorce rate.
In American Societies
middle class members rarely spend time with their family members.
Dissolving Marriage
norms that specify how marriages are to be dissolved. In pre-industrial societies, sterility may be grounds for divorce. Certain matrilineal societies, such as the Zuni Indians in Arizona, need only to place the belongings outside the door to signify the end of a marriage or divorce. Modern and western societies contain no fault divorce or divorce is reached via mutual consent.
Nearly 80%
of American single men and women feel that one day they will find the perfect mate.
Heterogamy
refers to the selection of a partner or mate with social characteristics different than one's own. In the United States, 3% of all marriages consist of inter racial couples. Most inter racial marriages are between Asian women and white men; black and white inter racial marriages are rare.
Homogamy
refers to the selection of a partner with social characteristics similar to one's own. Homogamous marriages are formed from similar religion, education, age, race, and social class categories.
Norms
regulate courtship, marriage, and divorce. regulate relationships between mothers and daughters, mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters. Royalty made be exempted from adhering to these norms.
Residence and authority patterns
there are also norms that regulate residential authority patterns. In industrial societies, the residential pattern is neolocal which means that married couples establish independent households. Because women have egalitarian authority, they have more say when it comes to the domestic decision making processes. Most married couples live near the husband's family in a patriarchal society—patrilocal residence.
Endogamy
this marriage rule requires members to find their mates within a specific group or category pertaining to racial, ethnic, and religious orientation. In modern societies, there are more exogamous marriages because of more freedoms. However, in pre-industrial and industrial societies, endogamy is preferred because kinship group dominance guarantees a disproportionate control of power, prestige, and wealth for certain family groups.
Exogamy
this normative expectation of marriage requires people to find their mates within their specific group or category.
Families of myth and history
• 100 years ago, 33% of children spent their childhood in a single parent home due to a death of a parent and not due to divorce. • The Great Depression of the 1930's was marked by a drastic increase in the poverty rate due to economic and financial difficulties. Extended families played an important role in providing members who were experiencing financial distress with comfortable levels of security and support. • During the Great Depression murder, domestic abuse, and desertion rates rose as families were experiencing high levels of economic difficulties. • The "Leave it to beaver" family television show in the 1950's was atypical of the U.S. family. United States families during the post-war era were affected by numerous social ills that characterized this corresponding time period.
Marriage and children
• 90% of all married women will have children. • The relationship between marriage and childbearing has been altered, now in the United States, 33% of births are to unmarried women.
Social Exchange
• Analogous to the market place metaphor in which people bargain and negotiate to make the best deals in marriage relationships. In traditional societies, the exchange is based on economics. • Hinges on bringing varied resources to the marriage table and family relationships in order to maximize benefits and minimize costs. For instance, level of education, physical attractiveness, intelligence, and status are exchanged as norms of reciprocity.
Marxist Feminism
• Argument hinges on the oppression of women by men is necessary to maintain a capitalist and patriarchal system. • A stigma is attached to being a female single parent. Furthermore, a double stigma is attached to being a racial/ethnic minority female single parent. In a color conscious and sexist society, single minority females will provide many benefits to capitalism. Hence, this population category is exposed to cheap labor, temporary, and dead end jobs. At the end, sexism and racism will ensure that the sexes and races are divided in order to maintain a capitalist and patriarchal society.
Divorce rates
• Based on the number of divorces per 1000 people. The 1960 divorce rate is 2.2% and the 1990 divorce rate is 4.7%. • Re-divorce rates are very high.
Marriage rates
• Based on the number of marriages per 1000 people. • Marriage rates have declined since the 1970's. The 1990 marriage rate is 9.8 marriages per 1000 (40% of total marriages include re-marriages).
Functionalist applications of Family
• Diversity in marriage customs is due to ecological adaptations which are created to guarantee the survival of individuals. For example, polygamy and child-arranged marriages are practiced by some societies to ensure their survival and stability. Another example would be the nuclear family being best suited for industrial societies. • From a structural-functionalist perspective, all family traditions and marriage practices are functional; however, some are dysfunctional.
Family in later stages of life
• Family relationship shift as a result of structural changes. For instance, the numbers of elderly families and elderly individuals are increasing and producing single-households and child-free families. • In middle and later life stages, children delay leaving home and there is a shifting of responsibility from parental to grandparental responsibilities (multigenerational families).
Conflict Perspectives of Family
• Forces of inequality shape family and marriage institutions. • Engels views the family as an instrument of power and oppression for men to advance their interests at the expense of women and children. • Modern industrial societies promote gender inequality due to patriarchy, which ultimately affects the family and marriage. For example, the bride's family usually pays for the wedding, most families prefer that their first child is a boy, and a husband's job should take precedence.
Why do Singles postpone marriage
• Major reasons to postpone marriage are: education, career, and unstable job market (live with parents). • In 1960, 28% of women and 53% of men, 20 to 24, were unmarried. • In 1990, 60% of women and 80% of men were single. • In the late 1990's, 40% of all adults were unmarried.
Symbolic Interactionist perspective
• Marriage has no fixed meaning, that is, husband and wife have different understandings of what marriage life is. Their understandings are susceptible to change and modifications as people negotiate their realities for meaning.
Families in the US
• Non-family households have more than doubled over the past four decades. • Married and nuclear family households have declined since 1970. • The most dominant family form is the child-free family. • The fastest growing family type is the dual career family in which both the husband and wife work. • Blended families are families in which at least one member of the adult couple is a stepparent and account for about 16% of all families. • There are more than 1.5 million gay and lesbian couples living in American society. An increasing number of states have approved civil unions. Conservatives are in opposition to gay marriages.
Structural Functionalist principles for Family
• Regulating sexual access in terms of definitions and limitations. • Reproducing and regulating new members. • Providing for care and support of the young, sick, and the elderly. • Socializing new members. • Assigning ascribed statuses that are based on race, social class, and ethnicity, which create an individual's social identity. • Providing members with emotional support.
Television and the family
• Television has become a member of the American family. • Members of society have conflicting attitudes and feelings towards the television media. • The television media praises, entertains, informs, and wrecks the American family. • Television shapes and reflects societal norms and values. Through soap operas, the media portrays images of family and gender roles. For example, there are patriarchal themes in which men control the action and a woman's value is related to attractiveness. • Marketing of television programming is directed at specific demographic areas. White families remain strong in television programming. • The media emphasizes the personal and does not address the social causes of domestic violence, date rape, and child neglect.
Widowhood, divorce, and singles
• Widowhood and divorce have been significant determining factors of singlehood. • In 1995, single person households accounted for 25% of all American households. • In 2000, the number of families headed by single mothers increased by 25% over the 1990 figure. This amounted to more than 7.5 million households.
Why the rise in never married singles
• dissatisfaction with marriage as an institution • greater educational and career opportunities • individualism driven society counter marriage success and deviant labels are attached to those who run into marriage
Technomedia
The new media has fostered close relationships among family members.
Cohabitation
When people engage in cohabitation they live together without legally marrying. • Since the 1960's cohabitation rates have been on the increase due to greater employment and educational opportunities, economic hardships, and more women postponing marriage in order to pursue their careers. • Number of people living together increased by 72% in the 1990's according to the United States Census Bureau. • Women under 30 and pregnant are unlikely to be married than married. • One-third of all men and women in their 30's have lived with someone before marriage.
Marriage Squeeze
an oversupply of women, called the marriage squeeze, leads to higher rates of divorce and single hood. On the other hand, an oversupply of men leads to higher marriage rates and lower ages for first marriages.
Traditional Family Structures
are changing in terms of complementary roles and responsibilities.
Parenting roles and responsibilities
are demanding and require total attention. The problem of parenting in the United States has been compounded for women who must balance work, childbearing, and other responsibilities.
Consanguineal kin
are people who are related to other people through biological or blood ties
Adopted kin
are people who are related to other through adoption
Fictive kin
are people who are related to others through friendships and rituals, for example, god-parents
Affinal kin
are people who are related to others through marriage ties, for example, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and step-relatives
Stephanie Coontz
argued that marriage as a transformed institution plays a smaller role in organizing social and personal life than in the past.
Bernard Murstein
argues that the courtship process passes through three distinct stages. These three stages are supporting principles of the stimulus value theory: stimulus stage—mutual observation of observable qualities (appearance and reputation variables are at play) value—pair determines if they have compatible values role stage—pair makes a determination in terms of how they would function in various roles such as lovers and companions.
US Census Bureau Definition of Family
defines the family as "two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption who share a common residence."
Nuclear family
Consists of parents and children who live apart from other kin; attachment is to each other.
Extended family
Consists of two or more closely related families who share a household and are economically and emotionally bound to others in the group. For example, the Navajo family emphasizes relationships among sisters and women working together.
Singlehood
Most recent decades have seen a drastic rise in the number of adults: never-married, divorce, and widowed. • Sociological survey by Sociologist Edward Lauman found that Chicagoans are to spend half of their lives as single people.
Kinship group
This type of family pattern is made up of a network of people whose social relationships are based on common ancestry: blood, marriage, adoption, and affiliation. For example, godparents.
Polygamy
a form of marriage in which a person has multiple spouses. There are two variants of polygamy. Polyandry is when one woman marries two men and polygyny is when one man marries two women.
Bilineal decent
allows individuals to trace their families through an individual mother's and father's families.
