Marriages and Families:Changes, Choices, and Constraints

Seventh Edition

Nijole V. Benokraitis

Chapter Three

The Family in Historical Perspective

The Family in Historical Perspective

What has changed over the past 200+ years in America?

What theories are reflected?

The Colonial FamilyHow different were colonial families than

families of today?

They differed in social class, religious practices, and geographic location, but they weren’t much different in family roles and family structures.

The United States’ Family in History

Were there really any “good old days” where life was simpler and less complicated?

Social scientists have been trying to determine if these eras actually existed for many people or for only an advantaged few.

Did people really pull together after the Great Depression?

Were the 1950s the golden era it is made to be in the mass media?

The Colonial Family

• Family Structure• The nuclear family was the most common family

form in both England and the United States in the early settlements.

• Women were subordinate to men• was a self-sufficient business• provided schooling for children.• provided a vocational institution.• provided religious teaching (Also from community)

The Colonial Family• Sexual Relations

• The Puritans did not believe in premarital sex and tried to prevent it in several ways.

• Adultery for women was considered immoral and illegal, while adultery for men was generally ignored, a double standard we still see today.

Husbands and WivesMen were expected to look after the

economic well-being of the family and women were to provide a supporting role.

Women generally did not own businesses, had little access to credit, and were severely constrained in money matters.

Children’s Lives• Many died before their first birthday (10-30%).• Dominated by the concepts of repression,

religion, and respect. • Puritans believed in original sin so children

were inherently stubborn, willful, selfish, and corrupt.

• The entire community worked together to keep children in their place.

• Children were expected to be extraordinarily well behaved, obedient, and docile.

Social Class and Regional Differences

There were different social classes in early America:– merchant class, or upper class– artisan class or middle class.– The laboring class, or working class

Early American Families from Non-European Cultures

• Native Americans - 18 million Indians• American Indians were enormously

diverse.– Family Structure varied from one Indian society

to another.– Polygamy was accepted in more than 20% of

marriages in Indian communities.– Approximately 25% of North American Indian

tribes were matrilineal—decent & possessions traced through the mother’s line.

Early American Families from Non-European Cultures

• African Americans—first as indentured servants in Jamestown in 1619 .

• By the mid-1660s, the southern colonies had passed laws prohibiting blacks from testifying in court, owning property, making contracts, legally marrying, traveling without permission, etc.

Early American Families from Non-European Cultures

Slavery & the Family– Family was affected by harsh working

conditions, poverty, splitting families through slave sales, etc.

Early American Families from Non-European CulturesSlavery was abolished in 1863. Many

families set out to reunite. Former slaves were allowed to have legal marriages and many African families moved north to escape the prejudice held against them in the South.

Early American Families from Non-European Cultures

Mexican Americans - in 1848 the United States annexed territory in the West and Southwest that was originally part of Mexico. Most Mexicans became laborers. The loss of land was devastating to their culture.

Mexican AmericansMexican laborers were essential to the

prosperity of the Southwestern businesses. Men and women both worked outside the home for menial wages. They were known for hard work with little wages.

Mexican AmericansMexican family life was characterized by

familism—the family came before individual well-being. (collectivism)– Compadrazgo - godparents were

included in more co-parenting role.

Mexican Americans– Women were the guardians of the family

traditions.– Mexican men were usually the head of

the household. Masculinity for these men was of the utmost importance—the concept of machismo.

• Dominance, assertiveness, pride, and sexual prowess

Industrialization• The period between 1820 and 1930• Industrialization changed the

American family in many ways. • men became the breadwinners • women stayed home to raise the

children.

European Immigration & Industrialization

• Economic stratified society: Upper class, middle class, & poor

• “Cult of domesticity” glorified women’s domestic roles—the world of the home became the world of the female.• The upper and middle class could aspire to this

way of life.

Other changes• Romantic Love - More marriages were

based on love and choice rather than practical, economic considerations;

Children and Adolescents• Fathers began to lose control over the lives

of their children. Less economic tie. • Pre-marital pregnancy shot up to 40% by

the mid-eighteenth century.• Perhaps the biggest change was that

families started to view childhood as a discrete section of life and they treated children less as “miniature adults.”

The Impact of Immigration and Urbanization

• Unskilled and semi-skilled labor that fueled emerging industries

• Immigrant families were certainly the poorest of the poor.

• Men and women immigrants tended to move into specific jobs.

• Harsh living & working conditions

The Modern Family EmergesBecause of all of the changes occurring in the

United States, families changed as well. The companionate family was born.

Companionate families were ones built on sexual attraction, compatibility, and personal happiness. Thus husbands and wives were not just economic units as they had been in the past, but the were dependent on each other for company and a sense of belonging.

The Great DepressionOn October 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market

crashed and the Great Depression began. By the mid-1930s there were huge layoffs by manufacturers.

The Great Depression affected every life in America. Often, men left their families in search of work, leaving the rest of the family with little or no resources.

Many young women moved to cities to support their families. Women were more likely to be hired in factories, where they were paid less.

World War IIMillions of women went to work for the first

time outside the home to fill in for jobs that men had to leave behind to fight in the war.

Divorce RatesDivorce rates had been on the rise since

1940, but they increased dramatically at then end of the war.

Some women found new economic independence and decided to end unhappy marriages.

The Golden Fifties• Baby Boom• Rush to the suburbs• Home ownership grew and construction of

new homes skyrocketed.• After WWII, women were no longer

welcome in the workplace.

Portrait of 50s Woman

An Idyllic Decade?Were the 1950s really all we “remember” them to be

or are those years largely a figment of our mass media?

In fact, many families during the 50s still experienced severe racism.

Child abuse and domestic violence were widespread but unrecognized.

Open homosexuality was taboo.

Many people—even those “happy” housewives—tried to escape their unhappy existences through alcohol and drugs.

Families Since the 1960sIn the 1970s, families had lower birth rates and

higher divorce rates compared with the 50s.

Out-of-wedlock births, especially to teenage mothers, declined in the late 1990s and began to climb in 2006.

Gender roles have changed dramatically since the 1950s—women have much greater opportunities by going to college and having a career. Families, though, are stressed by time constraints.