Living Sociologically

Chapter 10: Marriage, Family, and the Law

 Chapter 10
Lecture Outline

• Family and Society

• Changes in Marriage and the Family
• Challenging Family Norms

© 2018 2
 Chapter 10
Learning Goals
• Define family and kinship, and describe how kinship systems have
changed over time
• Understand how the family is connected to systems of inequality,
such as race, class, and gender inequality
• Define the nuclear family, and describe how divorce,
single-parent families, and the delay in marriage have led to
changes in the traditional nuclear family
• Comprehend the main feminist critiques of the family, and show
how women’s movements for greater equality have led to changes
in family dynamics
• Describe the changes in attitudes and laws that have become more
accepting of multiracial families as well as lesbian and gay families

© 2018 3
 Chapter 10
Marriage, Family, and the Law

© 2018 4
 Chapter 10
Family and Society
• Understandings of families
change as societies changes
– “A householder and one or
more other people living in the
same household who are
related to the householder by
birth, marriage or adoption”
(U.S. Census Bureau)
– “Groups of related people,
bound by connections that are
biological, legal, or emotional”
(Cohen 2014: 4)

© 2018 5
 Chapter 10
Family, Kinship, and Society
• Kinship systems
– Socially conditioned rules for
thinking about family
relationships
– Nothing “natural” about
• the terms used to describe
relatives
• the rights and responsibilities
associated with different types
of relatives

© 2018 6
 Chapter 10
Intimacy and Social Support
• Families normatively provide members with
social support
– Material and immaterial support (e.g., care of
infants, children, and the elderly, financial
assistance, etc.).
– Key source of identity and belonging

© 2018 7
 Chapter 10
Family and Inequality
• Families may also
reinforce social inequality
– Parents shape
opportunities available to
their children
– Family dynamics have been
a major source of gender
inequality
– Legally recognized
marriages are granted
special privileges

© 2018 8
 Chapter 10
Marriage and Family as Social Institutions
• Public and private
– Provides rules to distinguish between our private
family life and the public world
– Traditionally prepared people to become effective
members of society
• Gender roles and family roles
– Families define and model gender roles
– Family roles often shaped by systems of inequality
– Gendered expectations are reinforced by media
© 2018 9
 Chapter 10
Traditional Families and Nuclear Families
• Traditional nuclear family
– consists of a heterosexual couple
living together with children
– not universal, but more common in
contemporary society
• Culturally enter the public
consciousness in the early 20th
century
– Oxford English Dictionary in 1925,
and in Merriam-Webster Dictionary
in 1947
– Image of the suburban nuclear
family broadcast by American
television

© 2018 10
Chapter 10
Divorce
• Pre-1960s
– Associated with significant social
stigma
– Have to prove in court that one party
is at fault
• Post-1960s
– Feminist research demonstrates ways
family reinforces patriarchy
– No-fault divorce spreads throughout
the U.S.
• U.S. divorce rate
– Rate has declined, but is still higher
than earlier decades
– Reinforces existing systems of
inequality

© 2018 11
 Chapter 10
Single Parent Families
• Around one-third (32%) of all children in the U.S. live in a single-parent
household, compared to only 13% of children in 1968 (Livingston 2018)
• Overwhelmingly headed by women, and strongly associated with childhood
poverty
• Race, gender, and class intersect in the lives and choices made by many
single mothers

© 2018 12
 Chapter 10
Delay and Decline in Marriage (1)
• 48.6% of all U.S. adults were married in 2015,
which was down from 72% in 1960 (Cohn et
al. 2011)
– Fairly large racial disparity (Raley et al. 2015)
– Widespread occurring in wealthy countries
throughout the world (OECD 2018)
– Cohabitation increased; sociological research
shows that it is associated with an increase in
family instability (Ishizuku 2018)

© 2018 13
 Chapter 10
Delay and Decline in Marriage (2)
• 48.6% of all U.S. adults were married in 2015,
which was down from 72% in 1960 (Cohn et
al. 2011)

© 2018 14
 Chapter 10
Transnational Families
• International migration has increased
significantly since the 1980s
– In the U.S., nearly one-quarter of all children
under the age of 18 now live in immigrant families
(Foner and Dreby 2011: 546)
• Migrants create transitional families that
maintain bonds across borders

© 2018 15
 Chapter 10
Challenging Family Forms
• Living alone is a sign of
being a successful adult
– Gives people a greater
degree of freedom in
choice
– Feminist ideas
encourage people to
think about the power,
violence, and inequality
that exists within
marriages

© 2018 16
 Chapter 10
Feminist Challenges to the Family
• In The Feminine Mystique,
Betty Friedan argued that
equating motherhood and
femininity
– kept women from realizing
their full potential
– relieved men from the
responsibility of doing
any housework
• Most people today are
accepting of a variety of
ways to organize housework
and other family matters

© 2018 17
 Chapter 10
Blended Families
• 16% of all children are now living in a blended
family
– Households with a step-parent, a step-sibling, or a
half-sibling
• Continue to proliferate, and in the process
challenge traditional understandings about
what a “normal family” looks like

© 2018 18
 Chapter 10
Multiracial Families
• More than 10% of all children born in the U.S. today
have parents who come from different racial groups
– Not fully legal in the U.S. until 1967
– Interracial marriages remained uncommon before the
1980s
• Multiracial families are
– generally more accepting of racial diversity in their
neighbor
– tend to live in neighborhoods that have significantly
higher levels of racial diversity (Gabriel 2016)

© 2018 19
 Chapter 10
Lesbian and Gay Families
• Before the 21st century, marriages
between same-sex partners were not
legally recognized globally (Biblarz and
Savci 2010: 480)
– In 2003, 58% of Americans were opposed
to same-sex marriage
– In 2015, at the time of the Supreme Court
decision, fewer than 40% opposed it
(Fingerhut 2015)
• Today, more than two-thirds of people
in the U.S. believe same-sex couples
should have the same legal rights as
heterosexual couples (Pew 2013)

© 2018 20
 Chapter 10
“Old” Questions – “New” Tools

© 2018 21
What’s Next

© 2018 22