Families Throughout History

A. Agrarian Family

B. Modern Family

The Accord Family

C. The Post-Accord Family

Basic Concepts

Family is a set of kinship and gender relationships considered typical in a given society

Kinship: The ways in which society organizes sexual and property relations

Gender relationships: Organization of women’s and men’s roles

Flexible Families: Form of family organization that prevails at the end of the millenium

A. The Agrarian Family

It prevailed before industrialization (mid 1800s)

Characteristics

A production unit--Family economy

Rural community context: Extended family

Short life-span

Arranged marriages

Children as small adults

The Modern Family

Emerged after industrialization (late 1800’s-1970)

Characteristics

Family is a consumer unit

Factory workers--The living wage

Romantic love--The companionate marriage

Privatization: The nuclear family

Gender, domesticity and class

The Modern Family
and The Accord

After WWII until mid-1970s

The Accord enhanced the Modern Family’s trends toward privatization and gender specialization

Smaller families

Extended childhood and schooling

Women’s specialization as Homemaker

Consumption as symbol of success

Breakdown of the Accord Family

Women’s isolation

Women’s increasing participation in labor force after 1960’s--Declining males’ salaries

Two salaries increased the family’s consumption capacity

Sex versus Procreation: Birth control

The Flexible Family

1980s today

Number of children continue decreasing

Divorce rate has doubled form the 1960s

Age of marriage has risen about 4 years

Number of single-parent families has increased (1/8)

Flexible Middle-Class Families

Long distance marriages

Homemaking tasks either neglected or hired out

Postpone childbearing

Flexibility in non-work roles

Flexible Working-Class Families

Increasin