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In his 1943 work, “Sex Roles in the American Kinship System,” Talcott Parsons addresses his beliefs that the individual gendered roles in the nuclear family are essential to creating a functioning family dynamic. During this time period, the United States was in between wars and working to recover from the Great Depression. These significant events greatly shaped society not only at the time, but for future generations as well. It is almost impossible for a theorist of this time, such as Parsons, not to be influenced by such drastic social conditions and changes. One of the greatest social influences of this time was the Great Depression. It taught individuals and families from varying social classes to appreciate economic security and recognize
the importance of enduring hardships such as this one rather than taking risks and being careless. Another example of social change in this time came from the newfound understanding of and wariness towards totalitarian principles that were practiced in countries such as Europe and Japan, leading Americans to develop a new appreciation for democracy. The significant and fundamental social changes of the time period left many citizens with a newfound respect for America’s cultural past and its traditional political ideals. This reaffirmation of traditional ideals extended to ideals within the home, therefor influencing Parsons’ concepts in “Sex Roles in the American Kinship System.” In regards to males being the primary earners of the average household, Parsons says that “to be the main ‘breadwinner’ of his family is a primary role of the normal adult man in our society.” In this statement, Parsons is asserting that this traditional family dynamic is the norm. Overall, he argues that roles are structured in order to establish socially acceptable and expected patterns of behavior and action associated with a particular position or status – thus creating social norms. These roles and norms in relation to family structure are greatly influenced by social events, such as the aforementioned complex conditions of this time.
A main theme in this small town’s culture is the issue of gender and the division of roles between the two. Not uncommon for the 1950’s, many women were taught from a young age to find a good man, who could provide for them and a family, settle down and have children – the ideal “happy family.” As Harry states after singing the showstopper “Kids,” “I have the All-American family: A great wife, 2 wonderful kids and a good job.”
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
Today 's generation have changed many ways since the beginning of the century. In “The American Family”, Stephanie Coontz discusses many situations that has occurred during the beginning of the 21st century and suggested solutions to solve those issues in the future. For instance, she argued that women are being treated unfairly, family are not discussing their problems openly, and institutions need to change to fit the families’ requirement. In “Complexity of Family Life among the Low-Income and Working Poor” Patricia Hyjer Dyk, argued that women still doesn’t have enough choices, low income families doesn’t have enough jobs, and Government are not helping many families. Dyk’s review of the scholarly research on low-income families support Coontz’ evaluations of the problems faced by 21st century families and the solutions Coontz recommends, like improving women 's lifestyle, discussing problems openly, improving institutions and changing institutions so it can to fit to fulfil families need. .
Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, two of the leading figures in sociology, may be considered the founding fathers for the ideas of the “modern family” and the “male-breadwinner family.” Collectively, their work has influenced how Americans analyze families and has sparked new ideas regarding the American family from sociologists such as Stephanie Coontz and Arlie Hochschild. However, when studying the American family, Parsons and Bales fail to understand that the “ideal” family may not be so ideal for everyone. They neglect to consider societal influences and economic changes when discussing patriarchal social norms as the most optimal family structure. Their description of the male-breadwinner family consists of the father being the “instrumental leader” within the home, providing economically for his family based on his occupational earnings. Meanwhile, the mother is considered the manager of the household, providing for her husband and children physically, emotionally, and mentally.
As gender roles were enhanced, the nuclear family was birthed. This ideal family, mainly portrayed in popular culture, had a working father, homemaking mother, and children. Television shows depicting this type of household, Leave it to Beaver, and I Love Lucy, were not representative of the reality of America. Not all of Americans were white, and not all women were happy living as housewives (Boyer 101). Although most did not fit the mold
As century pass by generation also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men was the breadwinner. during this century those perspective have changed argued Stephanie Coontz the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believe women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality. Robert Kuttner, the author of “The Politics of Family” also believe that women should not be only the caretaker but whatever they want as a career. Robert Kuttner 's text does support Stephanie Coontz’ arguments about the issues related to traditional
Many couples in the United States idealize the myth of a “tradition family”. The idea that a woman can spend quality time with her child while maintaining an effective sexual life with her partner seemed to have caused a lot of stress during the 1950s. Coontz’s says “this hybrid idea drove thousands of women to therapists, tranquilizers, or alcohol when they tried to live up to it.” (Coontz, 569). Which explains that it is merely impossible to try to mold a family to be “ideal.” Many families still strive for a traditional life, which they define as life “back in the day.” They need to forget the past and start living in the 21st century. “Two-thirds of respondents to one national poll said they wanted more traditional standards of family life.”(Coontz, 582). Which goes to show that many families want to change to what once used to be perceived as an “ideal family” but “the same percentage of people rejected the idea that women should return to their traditional role.”(Coontz, 582). Families want to take bits and pieces from what used to be “traditional families” over time and create their own i...
The events of the 1930’s, or the Great Depression, did the most to influence contemporary America. During the twenties, America was at its most prosperous economic times until the stock market crashed in 1929. The stock market crash led to a dramatic decline of the U.S. economy. The decline in the economy changed Americans everyday lives. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president and he created the New Deal to provide relief, recovery and reform. The Depression impacted America in the 1930’s in every aspect of life and still impacts America today. Although contemporary America was shaped by many events that occurred in the 20th century, America was most influenced by the 1930’s because of legislation that improved daily life during the Depression, the effects on the economy, and how leisure time and entertainment changed our culture.
In our society in the United states, men are regarded as the dominant sex and are given differential treatment in regards to the division of labor. Though there have been various strides from the Women 's Movement, which have historically garnered women the right to vote, to work in their field of choice and leave the home, but also recently, to join the military.(p. 301) Women continue to seek total equality in our society, yet equality cannot be attained while they are constantly regarded as objects and sex symbols. This all can be traced back to the introduction of the market economy and primal warfare, when men would go out and hunt while the women would stay back as harvesters and nurturers. (p. 302) Theorists like Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox use this separation to explain why men perpetuate patrilineal aspects, since men are out “hunting”, they do not form connections with the children like the mother does, so to make up for this connection lost between generations they form it with other men in the hunting group.(p.
By the 1980s, Marxism, the economics forces define the political and cultural realities in society, mixed with feminism claimed “that gender is not class but a driving force of history.” This created the notion that “when women are subordinate men benefit” and that women had a disadvantage to men in the workforce (Conley 2013). Marxist feminist would called this gender conflict. The nuclear family has gender roles which are “set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female.Gender roles is more general term,but Parson’s sex roles is more of an ambiguous term. Sex roles theory states that men are work oriented, while women are domestic oriented to form the ideal nuclear family. “Sex roles created by society was formed for structuralism functionalism, which is the theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions(2013). Even though functionalist supported this theory in the 1960s, it was flawed. Sex role theory only provided one way of how a family could function. Essentialist would describe Parson’s theory as the social phenomena of the nuclear family based on the biological factor of sex. R.W. Connell described the condition in which men are dominant and privileged and that it is invisible, which is Hegemonic masculinity. Even though hegemonic masculinity is what some theorist impose, it clarifies
As introduced by Parsons (1956/1968), over the course of time, the American family has undergone a “profound process of change” (p.3) especially post-war. This structural societal metamorphosis can be seen in some of the more recent trends outlined by the author, such as divorce rates and birth rates, both results linked to an apparent and observed “loss of function of the family” (Parsons, 1956/1968, p.3). The aforementioned loss of familial function has been linked to both the newly acquired outsourcing of internal familial jobs (such as the provision of clothing), the “disorganization of transition” (Parsons, 1956/1968, p.5), and the deficit of housing facilities post World War II, which was said to be “bringing the imminent race suicide in its wake” (Parsons, 1956/1968, p.6-7) and therefore reducing the overall birth rate of the American population up until the mid-thirties.
The worldwide economic was a downturn that began in 1929 and it lasted to 1939. The social coupled with the culture effects that were no less than the staggering, especially in the United States. That was were the great depression was represented to the harshest adversity faced by Americans since the Civil War. The social effects on the great depression was when the optimism disappeared almost overnight when the wall street crash on October 29, 1929 that was the black tuesday. That was when it triggered the great depression starting the downward economic spiral that had led to bank rups, mass unemployment, and the homeless and despair. The economic effects were the American capitalism practicing stopped working. It was more than a decade were the Americans had a free market economy that had failed to operate at a new level, which allowed the Americans to attain the economic
“Families are affected by, and in turn affect, the values and structure of the society, in which they are embedded” (Haviland 2002: 245). This statement says so much about what families are and why they differ so much from one culture to the next. They fill the needs of each particular group. In America the “family” has changed dramatically over the past few decades as the country, itself, has changed. In the 1950’s and sixties the roles of each member of the family were more distinct and defined. The mother and the father were a married couple who stayed together. The mother did not work outside of the home, except in extreme circumstances or cases. She took care of the children and the home. The father was the “bread winner” and did very little work inside the home. Today most families either have both parents working or they are single parent families, or families divided by divorce. The changes to what comprises our families have also evolved to included families with gay parents; having either two mothers or two fathers or combined families from re-marriages with step-parents and siblings. In these families their function is one of raising independent children who will grow up to become better than the generation before them. And in many cases they also function as an emotional and monetary support for each other; helping each other to obtain their goals of independence.
However, one of the main factors to family of the “Golden Age” is the patriarchy and Second World War. According to Hughes and Fergusson (2004) demonstrate that the nuclear family are the most ideal household as a social institution consisting of wife, husband and dependent children. Furthermore, women must suffer for their right in the same time men are dominant in both households and society, therefore, the Golden Age described husband as ‘breadwinner’ of household and wife as ‘home maker’ (McRae,1999). Conservative thinkers have defined that “family is a place of offspring reproduction, protection of children’s safety, inculcation of proper values on children” (Hughes and Fergusson, 2004, p.60). Also, “hierarchy and stability” are the two significant components to preserve a healthy family and society (ibid.)
Families are our first introductions into the mores of society. They teach us where we came from, and form the foundation of ourselves. Often, our identities are formed in conjunction and opposition to the family structure we grow up in, as we mold ourselves into a unique yet derivative sense of self. Yet these “kinship ties” vary wildly in different societies, and the American nuclear family that we view as second nature is sexist, racist, homophobic, and generally a regressive and limiting ideal that does not depict the reality of modern life. In many ways, it never truly existed except as an abstract, conservative view of a perfect and moral society. Still, society guilts women for their inability to achieve a perfect balance between work