Women and Families

Women and Families

One of the most interesting concepts in the opening chapter The Nuclear Family is the insistence of society to continue to hold the traditional family structure in highest regard. It’s like the saying ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. Even though most families are non- traditional we haven’t accepted it. It was a good point by Coontz(1997) to say that “holding on to these nostalgic ideas creates problems for contemporary families.” By hanging on to this notion that families aren’t good enough with a mommy and a daddy and three kids, I think really does delay the development of solid, clear, moral foundations for modern families. If these families are considered secondary and not as good in the first place then there’s going to be hesitance to even bother improving them. The children of these families would benefit most from the relinquishment of the traditional ideal. They need to be secure in the fact that their family is as good as anyone else’s.

Another outstanding truth about society is the views on motherhood. The Ellen Goodman quote on page 168, “the cultural consensus still says that professional mothers should be home with the kids while welfare mothers should be out working” is really funny to me that there is such a strong hypocrisy about whether mothers should work or not. It’s as if everyone has a the perfect simple solution, but it‘s not perfect. You are poor then you should work, but if you work, then you are not a good mother. A single mother cannot win! Also on page 168 a court case was mentioned where a felon father was granted custody over a child, rather than giving custody to the child’s lesbian mother. That is just outrageous for someone, especially someone in a powerful positi...

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...hink back, I remember a least one or two mothers who were abusive to their children, but everyone watered it down to deserved punishment. The part about the mother bragging about how she controls her son by pinching him, then asking the reader to imagine that happening in a man and woman situation really gripped me. I’ve never thought about the small abuses children go through, probably because I haven’t experienced it myself. But I know it happens every day and I think it’s horrendous that the United States hasn’t signed the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. There’s one thing after another that makes me question our politicians sanity. In chapter 14 of bell hooks I thought it was interesting yet, expected that men were willing to accept equality in the bedroom because they got better sex, but refused to accept household equality by helping out a little.