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The Sociology of the family examines the family, as an institution and a unit of socialisation, through various sociological perspectives, particularly with regard to the relationship between the nuclear family and industrial capitalism, and the distinct gender roles and concepts of childhood which arose with it. The sociology of the family is a common component on introductory and pre-university academic curricula, as it is perhaps the most simple institution to which one may apply many fundamental sociological approaches.
Contents |
Sociological studies of the family look at:
Examples of specific issues looked at include:
Research methods in the sociology of the family can be broken down to three major approaches, each with its own strengths and weaknesses; which need be employed in a study, then, relies largely on the subject of, and questions posed by, the research.
One approach is survey research of contemporary families. This holds the benefit of leaving statistical data and large and hopefully random samples from which a researcher can interpolate the general traits of a society. However, survey respondents tend to answer as would feel regular or ideal rather than as things might actually be. It also gives a very one-sided explanation view of a larger group which does not sufficiently allow for contention. The information is often out dated, not representing the true statistics of the world that we live in today. The information can also be deceiving and not represent the true points that it looks like the survey's and graphs are representing. For example, if the incomes of same sex marriages are measured it would appear as the heterosexual couples make more than the same sex couples by a long shot. This is not true and the graphs are deceiving because the lesbian income weighs down the income of gay men. It is obvious that in most situation, gay men make more than a heterosexual family but the graph does not display this.
Another method is ethnographic research of families. Where surveys allow for broad but shallow analyses, observation allows sociologists to obtain rich information on a source of a much more limited size. It allows the research an "insider" perspective, and through this closer look a better idea of the actual social framework of families. Where surveys are strong, however, ethnographic research is weak. By reducing the size of a sample size, it may be no longer evident how representative the family being researched is to families at large within a society, and then also does not allow much room in linking the specific traits of the families being observed to a society more generally.
Finally, a researcher can use documented studies of families from the past as a source of information. These sources may include very personal items (such as diaries), legal records (census data, wills, court records), and matters of public record (such as sermons).
Over many years it has been observed that there is a major problem in the way civilization views interracial intimacy. 'American Families' by Stephanie Coontz studies just how horrible it was for immigrants to be in love with a white person and be found acceptable. The fact that Chinese and White intermarriage became criminalized in 1901 was more than just inhumane. It was against the principle that all men are created equal. If a White man slept with a Black woman and had a child from that relationship, the child would be considered Black under the one-drop rule as to not threaten the white identity and privilege. Today the problems of interracial marriage in the US are not as prominent and society has rightfully backed away from those ideas and laws. However internationally the far right continue to promote ideas of racial purity.
In the Judeo-Christian belief system marriage is modeled after Adam and Eve's lifetime commitment between man and woman. The married couple produces children, constituting the nuclear family. Some sociologists now dispute the degree to which this idealized arrangement has and does reflect the true structure of families in American society. In her 1995 article The American Family and the Nostalgia Trap, sociologist Stephanie Coontz first posited that the American family has always been defined first and foremost by its economic needs. For instance, in colonial times families often relied on slaves or indentured servants to support themselves economically. The modern “breadwinner-homemaker model,” argues Coontz, then has little historical basis. Only in the 1950s did the myth of the happy, nuclear family as the correct family structuration arise[3].
Yet Coontz argues in Marriage, A History that during the 20th century, marriages have become increasingly unstable in the United States as individuals have begun to seek unions for the ideals of love and affection rather than social or economic expediency[4]. This transition has blurred the division of labor within the breadwinner-homemaker model, such that maintenance of the household and childcare, called the “second shift,” are now topics for debate between marital partners. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild argues in The Second Shift that despite changes in perceptions of the purpose of marriage and the economic foundations for marriage, women continue to do the bulk of care work to the detriment of the American family. Hochschild illustrates the ways in which an unequal division of the second shift undermines family welfare by reducing marital equality and spousal satisfaction[5].
In many cultures, especially in a traditional western one, a mother is usually the wife in a married couple. Her role in the family is celebrated on Mother's Day. Anna Reeves Jarvis was a woman who originally organized Mother's Work Day's protesting the lack of cleanliness and sanitation in the work place.[6][7] Anna died in 1905 and her daughter created a National Mother's Day to honor her mother.[6] Mothers frequently have a very important role in raising offspring and the title can be given to a non-biological mother that fills this role. This is common in stepmothers (female married to biological father). In most family structures the mother is both a biological parent and a primary caregiver.
In East Asian and Western traditional families, fathers were the heads of the families, which meant that his duties included providing financial support and making critical decisions, some of which must have been obeyed without question by the rest of the family members. "Some Asian American men are brought up under stringent gender role expectations such as a focus on group harmony and filial piety, carrying on their family name and conforming to the expectations of the parents."[8]
As with cultural concepts of family, the specifics of a mother's role vary according to cultural mores. In what some sociologists term the "bourgeois family", which arose out of typical 16th- and 17th-century European households and is often considered the "traditional Western" structure, the father's role has been somewhat limited. In this family model the father acts as the economic support and sometimes disciplinarian of the family, while the mother or other female relative oversees most of the childrearing. This structure is reflected, for example, in societies which legislate "maternity leave" but do not have corresponding "paternity leave."
Some often view mother's duties as raising and looking after their children every minute of everyday. Mothers are often criticized for not contributing to the family income but the lack of money that they contribute is due to the time that is put into raising the children, which allows no time for the mother to go out and work. If the family is really struggling and the mother does have to go out and seek work, she is also criticized. If the mother is out working, many people view her as abandoning her children and not giving them the best life. In this situation, it truly is a lose lose for the mother.
However, this limited role has increasingly been called into question. Both feminist and masculist authors have decried such predetermined roles as unjust. A nascent father's rights movement seeks to increase the legal standing of fathers in everything from child-custody cases to the institution of paid paternity leave or family leave.
Families are often influenced by the media portrayal of the way women should run their families. In the book Media and Middle Class Moms by Descartes, women are often influenced by the social norms and is often the reason as to why they believe staying home or working is the right thing to do while having a family. See Ideology of Motherhood.
In the United States, 82.5 million women are mothers of all ages, while the national average age of first child births is 25.1 years. In 2008, 10% of births were to teenage girls, and 14% were to women ages 35 and older. [9] In the US, a study found that the average woman spends 5 years working and building a career before having children, and mothers working non-salary jobs began having children at age 27, compared to mothers with salary positions, who became pregnant at age 31. [10] The study shows that the difference in age of child birth is related to education, since the longer a woman has been in school, the older she will be when she enters the workforce. [11] Other factors determining age of first child birth include infertility rates, when women meet their partners, and the age of marriage.
According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, a critical novelty in human society, compared to humans' closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos), is the parental role assumed by the males, which were unaware of their "father" connection.[12][13]
In many cultures, especially traditional western, a father is usually the husband in a married couple. Many times fathers have a very important role in raising offspring and the title can be given to a non-biological father that fills this role. This is common in stepfathers (males married to biological mothers). In East Asian and Western traditional families, fathers are the heads of the families, which means that their duties include providing financial support and making critical decisions, some of which must be obeyed without question by the rest of the family members.
As with cultural concepts of family, the specifics of a father's role vary according to cultural folkways. In what some sociologists term the "bourgeois family", which arose out of typical 16th- and 17th-century European households and is considered by some the "traditional Western" structure, the father's role has been somewhat limited. In this family model the father acts as the economic support and sometimes disciplinarian of the family, while the mother or other female relative oversees most of the childrearing. This structure is enforced, for example, in societies which legislate "maternity leave" but do not have a corresponding "paternity leave."
However, this limited role has increasingly been called into question. Both feminist and masculist authors have decried such predetermined roles as unjust. A nascent father's rights movement seeks to increase the legal standing of fathers in everything from child-custody cases to the institution of paid paternity leave or family leave.
Described as 'the science of male parenting', the study of 'father craft' emerged principally in Britain and the USA (but also throughout Europe) in the 1920s. "Male adjuncts to Maternity and Infant Welfare Centers - reacted to the maternal dominance in infant welfare and parenting in interwar Britain by arguing that fathers should play a crucial role in the upbringing of children."[14] Were such a study to be conducted into the science of female parenting, it would be called mother craft.
The words "Ma Ma" and "Mom", usually regarded as terms of endearment directed towards a mother figure, are generally one of the first words a child speaks. While 'da da' or 'dad' often precede it, this does not reflect a stronger bond between the father and child than that of the mother and child, it is merely simpler to pronounce than "Mummy" or "Mum" which require greater control over the mouth muscles. Children tend to remember daddy more because, according to research, they are more exciting to the child.[15]
In the last two or three decades the sociology of childhood has gained increasing attention and triggered numerous empirical studies as well as intensive theoretical disputes, starting in the Scandinavian and the English-speaking countries. Up to this time, sociology had approached children and childhood mainly from a socialization perspective, and the emergence of the new childhood sociological paradigm ran parallel to the feminist critique of sociological traditions. Childhood sociologists attacked the “adultocentric” approach and the “separative view” of sociology towards children. Not surprisingly, then, the key works in the sociology of childhood are quite interdisciplinary, linking history, cultural studies, ethnomethodology, and pedagogy.
The current Sociology of childhood is organized around two central discussions:
The child as a social actor: This approach derives from youth sociology as well as ethnography. Focusing on everyday life and the ways children orientate themselves in society, it engages with the cultural performances and the social worlds they construct and take part in. Theory and research methodology approach children as active participants and members of society right from the beginning. Thus they are neither analyzed as outsiders to society nor as merely ‘emergent’ members of society. Therefore, the sociology of childhood distinguishes itself from the established concepts of socialization research and developmental psychology of the last decades.
The generational order: The second approach centers on socio-structural and socio-theoretical questions concerning social equality and social order in a society, which categorizes their members by age and segregates them in many respects (rights, deeds, economical participation, ascribed needs etc.). These issues can be summarized under the overall concept of the “generational order”. Thus the categorization of societal members by age is far from being an innocent representation of natural distinctions, but rather a social construction of such a “natural truth”. It is, therefore, a relevant component of social order and deeply connected to other dimensions of social inequality. Social and economic changes and socio-political interventions thus become central topics in childhood sociology. The analysis of these issues has increased awareness of the generational inequality of societies.
Questions about socialization practices and institutions remain central in childhood research. But, they are being dealt with in a new, more sociological way. To analyze socialization processes means, therefore, to reconstruct the historically and culturally varying conceptions, processes and institutions of disciplining and civilization of the offspring. In addition, the strategies of habitus formation and the practices of status (re-)production are considered. The sociology of social inequality and the sociology of the family and private life are, therefore, important fields for childhood sociologists. Children's own action, their resistance, cooperation, and collective action among peers has to be taken into account. Meanwhile widespread anthropological assumptions concerning a universal human nature, based on a view of individual and society as opposed to each other, should be omitted from the conceptual repertoire of sociological childhood research. They are the legacy of the older socialization approach and they legitimate some forms of childhood and education practices as indispensable and even as a “natural” requirement of society, while devaluing others. In this way they generally legitimate western middle class childhood and mask inequality and the interests of social order.
The family is considered to be the agency of primary socialisation and the first focal socialisation agency. The values which are learnt during childhood are considered to be the most important in the development of a child which if they are not present may lead a child to become feral.
(Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage Harvard University Press 1981)
(Dawson, Family Structure and Children’s Health and Well Being National Health Interview Survey on Child Health, Journal of Marriage and the Family)