Colleen Marron

Dr. Kate Rosenberg

ENGL 137- RCL
October 30, 2017

The All-American Family

There is a very specific picture that comes to mind when one hears the phrase, ‘the All-

American Family’. This picture consists of a mother and father and their two kids, most likely

one boy and one girl, standing in front of their suburban home with the family pet next to them.

This specific picture stems from advertisers marketing the American Dream with this exact type

of family, picket fence and all. The image is so vivid and so perfect, that any self-respecting

decent American would strive for that kind of life. People were exposed to this expectation of the

American family through their daily television. Family sitcoms have been a prevalent part of

American’s daily lives since TV’s became mainstream in 1954 when 55.7% of American home

owned a television set (Baughman). From the 1900s to the 2000s there has been a major shift in

the dynamics of families seen on TV, reflecting the ever-changing family ideals in American

culture, government policy, and economic hardships.

There is generally two popular opinions regarding this shift in family life; that the American

Family ideals are declining; or that they are simply just evolving. A proponent of the argument

that the American Family is in decline, David Popenoe, defines the family “as a relatively small

domestic group of kin (or people in a kin-like relationship) consisting of at least one adult and

one dependent person” and thus excluding couples without children or elderly living with them

and roommates who may or may not share an intimate relationship (529). The definition of a

family is important when attempting to argue whether or not the ideals of that family are

declining. A major problem he argues is that the increasing divorce rate has been affecting

families, specifically the children. He shares the statistics that the chances that children born in
1980 would live in a single-parent household by the time they were 17 was projected at 70% for

whites and 94% for black children. This was an increase from children born between 1950 and

1954 with the chance of 19% for white children and 48% for black children (qtd. In Popenoe

531). Popenoe credits a direct correlation between the increase of children living in single-parent

homes and the increasing cultural acceptance of divorce. This paper will focus on this cultural

acceptance of divorce and the changing American family through pop culture, government

policy, and the change in the economy.

The television set became more common in the American household in the 1950s and

therefore there was a new platform to express societal norms through entertainment. An early

example of the ideal American family being portrayed in a sitcom was the Donna Reed Show,

which aired between 1958 to 1966. This fictional family consisted of a stay at home Mom,

Donna, her pediatrician husband Alex, and their two children Mary and Jeff. Each episode

contained a new adventure for Donna and her family and did not necessarily represent the typical

American family at that time, but rather the ideal version of it. One of the first television shows

that depicted a family with varying dynamics was from 1969-1974 when the Brady Bunch aired.

Each episode had a similar plot line as the Donna Reed Show, as it followed the adventures of a

normal family. The only difference is that The Brady Bunch is a large family that formed when a

widow and a divorcee got married. As the idea that a typical family can have stepchildren and

stepparents became more widely accepted with the public, pop culture made those same

adjustments. This is not just seen on media such as television, but even the Hallmark company

released the “Ties That Bind” series dedicated to people who came together due to a second

marriage (Baughman et al., “Marriage and Family”). Later decades produced shows that

reflected the continued change in what was considered typical in regards to family. One example
is Modern Family, which began in 2009 and is still on air today (2017). This show hits every

aspect of what is known as the present day American Family; it includes straight, gay, adopted,

and multicultural connections in one large family. The characters of Phil and Claire are the white

parents of three children with very different personalities. Then there is Claire’s father, Jay,

whose wife is not only a large number of years younger, but Latina as well. This eclectic family

also includes Jay’s gay son, Mitchell, and his partner Cameron, who have adopted an Asian

daughter. This most recent show again covers a similar trend where the audience follows the

adventures of a single family. Only this time, the family is a lot more complicated and inclusive

than the original ideal American family. This shift seen through popular TV sitcoms is simply a

reflection of the changing societal norms. What is viewed as an American family begins to spark

a new mental image than it did in the 1950s. These same changes can be seen through the

government policies that were adopted at the same times of changing family ideals.

Television sitcoms give audiences a glimpse into what are acceptable changing values of the

American family. However, this new common thought process has been influencing government

policies and laws way before the television set was invented. The divorce rate nearly doubled

between 1968 and 1972 partly as a result of the women’s movement since new laws gave women

and men equal property rights in a divorce (Baughman et al., “Marriage and Family”). Many

women would remain in marriages because it had been their only option. Since they did not have

their own property rights, which belonged to the head of the household or the man in the family,

it was impossible for women to divorce their husbands and survive financially. Changes in laws

that treated women as individuals who did not need to rely on a man (whether her father or

husband), gave them a freedom they did not have before. This increase in divorce led to the more

accepted stepfamily, as men and women remarried. Stepparents were given responsibility over
their stepchildren, but were awarded no rights for a while. As the remarried family became more

of a norm, The Stepfamily Association of America was able to increase the acknowledgement of

stepparents. One example of this acknowledgement was “by accepting their signatures on school

registration forms and field-trip permission slips” (Baughman et al., “Family Life”). This new

acceptance of stepparents and their importance in the child’s life allowed more people to

acknowledge this type of relationship as a ‘typical’ family. The laws and policies were shifting

with the social norms. It was becoming more acceptable to recognize families as more than

Mom, Dad, and children. Not only was pop culture embracing this shift, but government officials

and other people of authority were starting to change their way of thinking to adjust to changing

times. Not only did laws help aid this new shift, as in increasing the ability for women to

financially survive a divorce, but the laws and policies then continued to change with the shift

that divorce sparked. A similar trend can be seen through the same-sex marriage debate. Only

recently, in the Obergefell v. Hodges case in 2015, did the Supreme Court rule that same-sex

marriage is legalized in all 50 states. The debate that surrounded this case outlasted the change in

the majority of the public’s opinion. The Supreme Court could only legalize same-sex marriage

by declaring that it is unconstitutional to remain illegal. The Supreme Court judges were still

avoiding a decision because they refused to admit that the opposition’s thinking to same-sex

marriage was based on discrimination. Meanwhile, during this same period of time, 36 states had

already decided to allow same-sex marriage (Sorkin). As opinions changed about same-sex

marriage as a family, the lawmakers were forced to adjust as well. However, laws weren’t the

only factor influencing the way families were structured. Economic peaks and troughs influenced

the way people approached relationships, children and family in general.

 A family’s size in the late 1800s was decided based on function. Before child labor laws were

an issue, many parents had many children in order for them to work the family farm or add

additional income to the household. The less money a family had, the more children they would

have in order to add an additional income (Baughman et al., “Home Life”). It was not until later

in the 1900s that children became more sheltered. The two-child ideal family most people

thought of as the typical American family was actually not how it had always been. However, it

is hard to visualize in today’s world, a set of parents having children for the sole purpose of

putting them to work. The 1930s saw the largest change in the family structure. As America

entered the Great Depression, a lot began to change in people’s attitudes towards marriage and

children. Suddenly, it was too expensive to get married, have children or get divorced. Many

couples delayed getting married as it would cost them too much, and therefore they would also

delay having any children as they could not afford to take care of another person. Couples who

were already married as the Depression hit were typically forced to stay married, even if they

were unhappy or in unhealthy relationships, due to the economic benefits to staying married, or

due to the economic deficit to becoming divorced. Couples were able to qualify for relief if there

was a family that they needed to take care of. However, the amount of husbands living away

from their families, even while still married, increased during this time (Baughman et al.

“Making Do: Family Life in the Depression”). This Great Depression era was followed by the

Baby Boom generation, since wartime families often included the father going to war. There was

a sudden rush to get married and have children in between the Depression and war. Many

families in more recent times have adjusted to their economic standing. The typical “Homemaker

Mother” became the “Working Mother”. The need for a two-income household seems a lot more

prevalent than it once was. The first decade of the new millennium can be seen as just a long
period of recessions and subpar economic growth. By 2011 the typical male who worked full

time earned almost exactly the same as the typical male working full time in 1972, or as John

Cassidy puts it, “when Richard Nixon was in the White House, O. J. Simpson rushed a thousand

yards for the Buffalo Bills, and Don McLean topped the charts with ‘American Pie.’” (“Poverty

and Income in America: The Four Lost Decades”). The stay at home Mom became less of an

option for the middle class ‘typical’ family, whose single-income was no longer able to keep up

with the rising prices. Families adjust out of necessity of the economy and this helps force a shift

in common opinion of what constitutes a typical family.

There can be various classifications of family. These can include actual kin relationships, best

friends who consider themselves as close as family, or even a team that uses the term family to

create unity amongst themselves. Society is specific, however, in how it views the traditional

family and this definition is ever changing, evolving. The change is not necessarily a decline in

family values. The way a family functions is completely dependent on the environment in which

they live. With the changing economic conditions couples face, or the variance in laws that

allows families and individuals to make decisions that work best for their lives. For example, the

shift towards a two-income household mentioned before does not necessarily cause children to

be neglected, like many advocates for traditional values argue. In fact, in bad economies it is

necessary to have a two-income household in order for the children to have sufficient food,

clothing and the best access to education and health care. Before anyone assumes that this shift

in the ‘typical’ American family structure is a decline of important values and a hindrance to

society, it is important to view other events going on at the time; political, social and economic.

The shift in family structure has been evident through and influenced by pop-culture references,
specifically television family sitcoms. The family structure is ever evolving, exactly as society

as a whole evolves.
 Works Cited

Baughman, James L. “Television Comes to America, 1947-57.” Television Comes to America, 1947-

57, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Mar. 1993, www.lib.niu.edu/1993/ihy930341.html.

Popenoe, David. “American Family Decline, 1960-1990: A Review and Appraisal.” Journal of

Marriage and Family, vol. 55, no. 3, 1993, pp. 527–542. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/353333.

"Marriage and Family." American Decades, edited by Judith S. Baughman, et al., vol. 7: 1960-1969,

Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

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Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.

Sorkin, Amy Davidson. “The Here and Now of Same-Sex Marriage.” The New Yorker, The New

Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/obergefell-v-hodges-supreme-

court-same-sex-marriage.

Cassidy, John. “Poverty and Income in America: The Four Lost Decades.” The New Yorker, The New

Yorker, 20 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/poverty-and-income-in-america-

the-four-lost-decades.
"Home Life." American Decades, edited by Judith S. Baughman, et al., vol. 1: 1900-1909, Gale,

2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

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"Making do: Family Life in the Depression." American Decades, edited by Judith S. Baughman, et

al., vol. 4: 1930-1939, Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

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