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Gender equality in the modern family
The impact of absent fathers
Feminist explanations of the role of the family in society today
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In David Blankenhorn’s book written in 1995, he brings to light what he calls “America’s fundamental problem”: our culture of fatherlessness. Our modern day view of fathers is that they are unnecessary both in society and in the upbringing of a child. Blankenhorn argues the contrary: the only way to solve the multitude of social problems present in America is to address the common denominator, the decline of fathers and the shrinking importance of fatherhood. Blankenhorn’s book is split into three parts: Part I: Fatherlessness, Part II: The Cultural Script and Part III: Fatherhood. In Fatherlessness, he provides the history of fatherhood and includes statistics that help to illustrate the transition of the father from head of the household to being “almost entirely a Sunday institution” (pg. 15). The Cultural Script dedicates a chapter to each type of father Blankenhorn identifies in American culture. The eight “paternal characters” Blankenhorn identifies are as follows: the …show more content…
Blankenhorn wants men to be the center of the family financially, physically and morally. Feminists are fighting for the opposite; what he describes as “The New Father”. Feminists want androgyny in household and familial work, equal power between the genders but Blankenhorn says that this is destructive to the entire idea of family. Firstly, androgyny in the home would disrupt the already unstable role of a father. Second and most importantly, without strict gender roles, family becomes improvisation. There would be no distinctions between a mother’s work and a father’s work so within each familial unit, who does what work would vary. This is dangerous because it loops back into the idea that fathers aren’t necessary. If anyone can be the breadwinner, the protector, the educator, then there is no real purpose of the father, which is the problem mentality that we are trying to
In Wade F. Horn’s article “Promoting Marriage as a Means of Promoting Fatherhood,” Horn discusses how having a child and being married is better for children because the father is more involved in the child’s life. Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas’s “Unmarried with Children,” on the other hand, takes the reader through Jen’s story about getting pregnant at a young age and deciding not to marry the father of her son. While both sources make appeals to emotion, reason, and character, Edin and Kefalas’s article makes more successful appeals and thus is the stronger argument.
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.
Although single parenthood is on the rise in homes today, children still often have a father role in their life. It does not matter who the part is filled by: a father, uncle, older brother, grandfather, etc...; in almost all cases, those relationships between the father (figure) and child have lasting impacts on the youth the rest of their lives. In “I Wanted to Share My Father’s World,” Jimmy Carter tells the audience no matter the situation with a father, hold onto every moment.
Fatherless has been one of the most important challenges and epidemics in our generation. The effects of growing up...
In the United States today more than one-half of all marriages end in divorce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reason why women have typically received custody of the children far more often than the fathers. In order to better understand child custody one must first examine how fathers have often times been left out of the picture, and conversely why mothers have had such hard times raising children on their own. This paper will first examine the perspective of a father who has lost custody of his children.
...behavior for women and perhaps to masculine. A common misconception about feminism is that women should and only stay home, watch the kids, and support the man. A common phrase would be to “keep the women in the kitchen.” Today, you can find many women getting an education, reaching higher levels beyond college, and working high paying careers and some out producing men, in this case, staying home and becoming a house wife should not be an option. Women today are not only a pretty face. With women having power in our government, control of education and big name corporations. Regardless of gender, no one should follow the influence of something that would promote people to become less than who they are. Hard work and effort would be put to waste if women today allowed themselves to just stay at home instead of doing something with themselves and for the better good.
‘Women and men are different. Equal treatment of men and women does not result in equal outcomes.’ (Corsten Report, 16: 2007) According to Covington and Bloom (2003) numerous feminist writers have demonstrated and documented the patriarchal nature of our society and the variety of ways in which the patriarchal values serve masculine needs. ‘Despite claims to the contrary, masculinist epistemologies are built upon values that promote masculine needs and desires, making all others invisible’ (Kaschak, 11: 1992).
In America, poverty has been on the rise since the 1970's.(Poverty World Book 723). The family structure has been constantly changing. The presence of a father in the family effects the poverty rate. The presence of a father in the family was higher when the poverty rate was formed. The family is four times more likely not to have a father in it today than it was in the 1950's. (Report Ties 3). Without a father in the family the chance for children to become poor and eventual...
... “ corporations have done little to accommodate the needs of working parents, and that the government has done little to prod them” ( ) Essentially Hochschild argues that change is possible but really only through government intervention and policy (re)formation. Although the economy was able to transform women it was not able to transform the rest of society. Thus it is up to the government and the corporate sector to do so. If the government were to create “a safer environment for the two-job family” and families in general, men would be drawn out of their gender roles into the lives of children. As a result, women would be greater supported and society as a whole would gear its culture towards a more family oriented atmosphere rather than a capitalistic one. ( )
The changing of American families has left many families broken and struggling. Pauline Irit Erera, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, wrote the article “What is a Family?”. Erera has written extensively about family diversity, focusing on step-families, foster families, lesbian families, and noncustodial fathers. Rebecca M. Blank, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, where she has directed the Joint Center for Poverty Research, wrote the article “Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?”. She served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton administration. Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University wrote the article “The Origins of the Ambivalent Acceptance of Divorce”. She is also the author of several other books on the changing profiles of American family life. These three texts each talk about the relationship between the parent and the child of a single-parent household. They each discuss divorce, money/income they receive, and the worries that come with raising a child in a single-parent household.
The composition of happiness can be described as having a loving family to call your own. When someone looses the happiness they found in a family unit, it can take several tolls on a person. When a child has lost a parent whether to illness, divorce of parents,or abandonment, it can negatively affect a child's ability to achieve happiness presently and in the distant future. Although the loss of a parent affects the child according to Jocelyn Romero, the death of a father figure affects their daughters more than any other known loss. Girls and women that lose their fathers during their childhood are more likely to have long-term psychological reactions, their relationships with the opposite sex is strained, and the way they perceive themselves
Mason, Karen Oppenheim, An Jensen, and Janet Saltzman Chafetz. "Chicken or Egg? A Theory of the Relationship between Feminist Movement and Family Change." Gender and Family Change In Industrialized Countries. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1995. 63-68. Print.
“Fathers love their children as much as mothers. It’s offensive that a loving, caring father is labeled a “noncustodial parent” (Smith). In a New York City Family court, Watts v. watts was announced, “The simple fact of being a mother does not, by itself, indicate a capacity or willingness to render a quality of care different from that which the father can provide” 350 N.Y.S. 2d 285 (1973). Why does there seem to be a bias in child custody cases? “Dads want their day” states that many divorced fathers believe that courts have still not heard their message and that they believe they are fighting against an anti-father bias. Father’s rights advocates and other groups are influencing several states to give the father a chance or to at least support joint custody. The most effective advocates for father’s rights may be those situated outside the movement. As fathers rights groups rise case law is shifting and becoming more father-friendly in child custody.. There are actually statistics that show that “children raised by single mothers fare poorly compared to kids raised by both parents or by single fathers” (Smith). Also it states that if joint custody is not possible, “kids are generally better off w...
Rowe, Daryl M. "Marriage And Fathering: Raising Our Children Within The Context Of Family And Community." Black Scholar 37.2 (2007): 18-22. Academic Search Elite. Web.
Michael Levin, a professor of philosophy and author of the book Feminism and Freedom, faults feminism for trying to impose an inappropriate equality on men and women that conflicts basic biological differences between the sexes (Levin, Taking Sides, 42). Women are not the same as men, neither physically nor psychologically. In the past, men tended to be the stronger more powerful gender, while women have traditionally been viewed as the weaker, more feeble one. The untrue assumption that men and women are the same in their ways of thinking and physical capabilities leads to the failure of the feminist message. Their agenda of eliminating all observable differences between men and women is doomed to fail and will inflict more pain than gain in the process. Recognizing the differences between the sexes and allowing each to do what they are strongest at will in the long run make society stronger, more efficient, and more effective.