Download Social Policy

Chapter 11
The Changing Family
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Problem in Sociological Perspective
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the family
 Men left home
 Children became an economic liability
 Formal education
 A lower birthrate
 From rural to urban
 Loss of functions
 Changes in women’s roles
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
FIGURE 11.1
SLIDE 3 – INSERT FIGURE 11.1 ON PAGE 340 OF TEXT
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Scope of the Problem
• Divorce
 Increased steadily since 1970
• Is divorce a sign of weakness or strength?
• The children of divorce
• The Nagging Dilemma of Divorce
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
One Parent Families
• Births to unmarried women
• Having just one parent
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Impact on children
Absence of the father
Trying to be two parents
Discipline
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Other Problems
• Runaway children
 Pushouts: children shoved out by parents who
no longer want them
• Family violence
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Looking at the Family Theoretically: Why
Is Divorce Common?
• What marriage means to people has undergone
extensive and fundamental change
• For most the family is a major support system
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Symbolic Interactionism: Changing Symbols
• Major Shifts in Mate Selection
• The love symbol: engulfment into unrealistic expectations
• Changing ideas about children
• Changing expectations of parenting
• Changing marital roles
• Perception of alternatives
• Changing ideas about divorce
• Legal Changes
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Functionalism
• How changes in the traditional functions of the family
are related to divorce
 Economic production
 Socialization of children
 Care of the sick and injured
 Care of the aged
 Recreation
 Sexual control of family members
 Reproduction
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Conflict and Feminist Theory
•Male domination of marriage and family
False consciousness
Reproductive labor
Second shift
•Power and the marital experience
Today’s women are less dependent on
mates.
•Marriage as an Arena for an Outgoing
Historical Struggle
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Research Findings
POSTPONING MARRIAGE
• The U-Turn in Age at First Marriage
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Research Findings
POSTPONING MARRIAGE
• Cohabitation
 Rapid increase as sexual norms changed
• Remaining Single
COUPLES WITHOUT CHILDREN
• In U.S., about 1 of 5 (19%) wives do not give birth
• Choosing not to have Children
• The “mythical child”
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
FAMILY VIOLENCE
• Extent of violence―FBI reports
• Intimate partner violence
• Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence
• Equality Between the Sexes?
• Social Class and Violence
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Alcohol and violence
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•
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 The more people drink, the more likely they
are to beat their spouse.
The social heredity of violence
Why Doesn’t She Just Leave?
Spouse abuse as a defense for homicide
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Sexual Abuse in the Family
• Types of Marital rape
 Non-battering rape
 Battering rape
 Perverted rape
 Effects of marital rape
 Why do some women put up with marital rape?
• Fear, low self-esteem, and little support
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Incest
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Incest taboo
Extent of incest
Who are the offenders? Family!
Effects on victims
The Pro-Incest Lobby
– Pedophile Liberation Army (PLA)
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The End of Marriage and Traditional
Family?
• Marriage is Weakening
• Marriage Continues Strong
• Changes and Challenges
• What Do These Changes Mean?
• The idea that the family has declined is a
“sociological myth.”
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Policy
• The Lasch Accusations: intrusions by professionals
 Christopher Lasch
• “People are trying to find in the family a refuge of
love and decency in a cruel and heartless world.”
 We have become a “therapeutic society.”
 No evidence that these so-called experts have benefited
the family
• The dilemma of family policy: taking sides
 Lasch’s claims expose division within social policy
addressing family needs.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
•
•
The battleground of definitions:
intervention or interference?
 Symbolic interactionists stress that our
understanding of what “ought” to be
depends on values.
 Often difficult to face controversial social
policy without being prejudiced.
The issue of poverty
 Many sociologists see poverty as the root of
family troubles.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Future of the Problem
• Rapid social change as normative
 Change is so rapid and extensive that parents and children live in
different worlds.
• Future shock
 Vertigo, the confusion, the disorientation experienced when our
familiar world is transformed
• Changes we can expect
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Age at first marriage will continue upward
Cohabitation will continue to increase
Marriage will become even more oriented around companionship
Divorce rate will likely decline
• The ideological struggle
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved