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Decline of the traditional family structure
Family structures in the 19th century
Family dynamics during the industrial revolution
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Industrialization prompted a change in life and working styles. Many people, including the young, left the farms to work in factories; this process led to the dissolution of many extended families. Instead of being forced to stay home because of the need to assist with farm work or family business tasks, young people had the freedom to explore their own paths. Women, instead of being relegated to domestic tasks were now granted an opportunity to earn an income, even if it was significantly less than that earned by male counterparts. In the next few pages, six subjects covered in the book titled Family in Transition by Arlene S. Skolnick and Jerome H Skolnick will be discussed; including: “The global revolution in family and personal life”,
Men were considered as the breadwinner and women were supposed to do the household work and take care of children. But in fact, the Industrial Revolution in part was fuelled by the economic necessity of many women, single and married, to find waged work outside their home.
Industrialization had a major impact on the lives of every American, including women. Before the era of industrialization, around the 1790's, a typical home scene depicted women carding and spinning while the man in the family weaves (Doc F). One statistic shows that men dominated women in the factory work, while women took over teaching and domestic services (Doc G). This information all relates to the changes in women because they were being discriminated against and given children's work while the men worked in factories all day. Women wanted to be given an equal chance, just as the men had been given.
Chapter 10 of Teresa Ciabattari book Sociology of families talks about the social policy and the future of families. The chapter starts by giving the readers a brief review of what we have learned so far in chapters 1-9. The chapter discusses the different approaches to what a family is and the changes of what the meaning of family is in the united states. The propose of the chapter is to get a better understanding of the book’s ideas yet to also see what the types of impacts they’ll have in our future society. The chapter is spilt into many categories such as Defining family, family change, family continuity, family diversity, inequality and social policy; housing policy and family inequality, state welfare policy and family, and so forth.
In conclusion this paper has shown my perceptions on the described topics. I have identified why the family is considered the most important agent in socialization. I explained the dramatic changes to the American family and what caused them. I explained the differences in marriage and family. I expressed my feelings on the trend of diverse families, and how a change in trends to traditional views would change women’s rights.
A huge part of the economical grow of the United States was the wealth being produced by the factories in New England. Women up until the factories started booming were seen as the child-bearer and were not allowed to have any kind of career. They were valued for factories because of their ability to do intricate work requiring dexterity and nimble fingers. "The Industrial Revolution has on the whole proved beneficial to women. It has resulted in greater leisure for women in the home and has relieved them from the drudgery and monotony that characterized much of the hand labour previously performed in connection with industrial work under the domestic system. For the woman workers outside the home it has resulted in better conditions, a greater variety of openings and an improved status" (Ivy Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850, pg.4) The women could now make their own money and they didn’t have to live completely off their husbands. This allowed women to start thinking more freely and become a little bit more independent.
Although the article was written more than 20 years ago, Skolnick views projects a future representation of society and how their portrayal of the “ideal family” has not change. The essay covers an array of periods; a historical view to give a background to the essay, a present view to elaborate her thoughts and a future outlook to tie it all together. Through this process, the reader is able to follow and understand the author’s views, which are refurbished by historical evidence. Skolnick stated in the beginning of her essay, “Can the family be at once a cherished “value” and a trouble institution,” (paragraph 4) as a way to establish her agreement. The statement basically means that what was once thought as the ideal family is now the main reason for typical families’ downfall.
The Industrial Revolution raised the standard of living among many people, most being a part of the middle to upper class. Those in the lower working class experienced little improvement for their situations as factory workers continued to receive low wages as well as having work taken away from them by machines. Due to the need to mass produce goods, production shifted from the traditional settings of homes to factories. This eventually led to a large scale construction of factories in large cities. With the creation of cities, also came the flow of population. In the mid-18th century there was a large population shift from the countryside to the cities as to find jobs. In the work place children labor became quite common, used to do highly dangerous tasks due to their small size such as fixing machines. The growth of child labor was also paralleled by the worsening of working conditions in factories around the country. Work environments were overcrowded and all around
Family structures are very different between cultures. That fact is obvious, but how and why is the question. As time progresses, the views of various cultures modernize. During this time the 20th century has seen the greatest change in family structures. Northern Europe and North America have been experiencing a decrease in extended families, and an increase in nuclear families. Over the previous 20 years, there has also been an increase in divorced families, unmarried families, and homosexual families. The point of this paper is to delineate the various types of family structures and why they’ve changed through time. In Cross-Cultural psychology the idea is to explore similitude and dissimilarities in values, norms, history and traditions of different cultures. Hence, I will analyze the family as a social system across various cultures.
Industrialization had a massive effect on the construct of family due to the economical slump. Working class families were living at the marginal economic standards. Stable jobs were rarities and families could not settle down permanently in a community. Ideals of “self-made man” and a “true woman” became fantasies to this working class families. Women found jobs outside of the home in factories, but the most prominent method women made money was “outwork”, which involved chores like embroidery or sewing for other people in order to generate more income for the
According to Collins, Jordan and Coleman (2013), the family is the smallest and primary unit of society. Close relationships within the unit are developed through shared activities over a prolonged period of time. Furthermore, the family can be defined as “those persons who are biologically and/or psychologically related whom historical, emotional, or economic bonds connect and who perceive themselves as a part of a household” (Gladding, 2002, p.6). Within the family, each member influences each other in an interactive and circular way (Gladding, 2002). The followings are different types of families, which have been recognised in the
In Western Society, over the past two decades there has been significant changes in the which the family is forming. We have seen major shifts in the demographic constitution of the family and public policy, especially in terms of their formation and dissolution. As a result of this there is far more diversity in people's domestic and living arrangements compared to how they were earlier in the centuries. It has been noticed over these recent decades that living patterns between individuals are less and less conforming appropriately to the model of the nuclear family leaving some commentators to claim the family is in terminal decline. Increases in divorce, cohabitation, births outside marriage and lone parent families all result in old certainties to family formations being questioned. (Kiernan, 1998)
How different are families compared to the past? Lately there has been some major changes in relationships, weather female dominance, or even just having no relationships at all. We also see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships.
The fundamental role of the family is the one that has to do with the socialization of its members. It still retains the socialization function of the family, although the values, norms and behavior patterns that are passed through it have been transformed. Currently there remains...
When society imagines the perfect family the nuclear family is the first to be brought up However the nuclear form of family was never the type of family that described our family systems in the past . Is the family becoming more diverse? Yes it is changing; becoming more complex than it was before. The family is thought to have transformed dramatically throughout the years. History shows there were always different combinations of age, ethnicity, and class that made families varied and multifaceted. The nuclear family consisting of a father, mother, and children, and although it is now the popular form of family it was rare to have that type of family. now the family is varied in a different way, the new complex nuclear family structure includes single person families, gay families and co-habiting families. These changes to the family system may show threats to the traditional household or may show the growing of our society. This essay will show how the family has become more varied in our society. It will also describe sociologist’s explanation of this phenomenon.
Societies have changed from traditional to modern over a period of time due to the efforts made by the people for betterment of societies. Traditional and modern societies are two different ideas. Traditional societies are the way communities are ruled by the predominant norms and practices. Whereas, modern societies refer to the present world we are living. Major changes in traditional society were political, economical, and social, which led to revolutionize society, to become a modern society. However, this essay will compare and contrast the traditional and modern society. The main purpose of this paper is to focus on family