2. My Nuclear Family

3. Nuclear Family
 The concept of a nuclear family came about during the
Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century.
 Ideally, the family provides its members with protection,
companionship, security, and socialization. The structure
of the family and the needs that the family fulfils vary
from society to society.
 The nuclear family is also important in continuing
traditions to future generations.
 The text discusses how important the nuclear family is in
establishing an individuals identity.

4. Nuclear Family Decline
 The CDC did a study of what types of home kids are
living in from survey data between 2001 and 2007
resulting in these figures:
 48.4% Nuclear Families
 19% Extended Families
 13.6% Single Mom with >1 Children
 8.7% Blended
 3.1% Other / Cohabitating
 1.7% Single Dad with >1 Children
 1.5% Unmarried, biological, or adoptive
 1% Single adult with >1 Children

5. Gender Roles in the
Family

6. Gender Roles in the
Family
 The establishment of gender roles generally begins early
on with the nuclear family and has strong tendencies to
last throughout their lifetime.
 The pictures from the last slide represent a gender
division of how men are more often seen being active,
whereas women are more often seen as just ‘being’.
 Gender identities are formed in the ‘toddler’ years, and
are commonly backed up via the purchase of color coded
clothing, toys, and choices of recreational activities.

7. Mainstream Television Families

8. Television and Gender
Roles
 Television has the ability to sculpt ideal family
situations as they write their scripts. Due to
television becoming such a large part of our lives,
we often feel pressure to live up to such standards.
Based on these expectations from television and
elsewhere, we see tragic results.
 45 – 50% of Marriages end in Divorce (First
Marriage), 60 – 67% (Second Marriage), 70 – 73%
(Third Marriage)
 Approximately 10% of the US Adult Population has
been divorced

9. Living up to Expectations
 Many families have a desire to fit a certain familial model
that our society has developed, but more often than not
fail to do so. When this failure occurs, it effects the
divorce rates, which in turn effect how children develop
their gender identities.
 Almost 40% of children today are raised without consistent
fathers.
 Children of divorce, particularly boys, tend to be more
aggressive than those with parents still together.
 Children of divorce are 50% more likely to develop physical
ailments in the two years following.

10. Gender/Sex Interaction:
Parents
 Most habits and patterns of behavior are developed
by watching and copying their parents.
 Many parents with multiple children will
predominantly interact with the child of their same
sex.
 Parents have a regular tendency to reward their
children with gender specific toys, gifts, and specific
attention.

11. Gender/Sex Interaction:
Children
 Gender identity develops generally between ages 18 and
30 months. Following this period, gender stability forms,
which is the realization of what each gender shall grow
up to be. Past this, children begin to develop particular
stereotypes based on their surroundings
 Children play a surprisingly active role in selecting their
gender.
 These choices give kids the chance to help choose their
own path in early childhood through activities, toys, and
who they want to be around.

12. Emancipatory Families
•Emancipatory Families help
create a more whole and positive
atmosphere within the family
model. They provide important
aspects that the traditional
nuclear family can’t create.
•Emancipatory Families help
develop gender roles because it
creates a pattern of sorts for
children to observe. When
children see similar things
happen across generations, it
seems to solidify certain
behaviors.

13. Dating & Relationships
•Heterosexual dating
relationships are the most studied
non-marital relationships,
indicating the privilege attached to
it.
•Most media develops an image
of the desired relationship
between a masculine man and
feminine woman.
•Many norms remain in the dating
scene in regards to heterosexual
dating. Women are expected to
make themselves attractive, men
are the initiators, and women
often hold up the emotional

14. Domestic Violence
 25% of women have experienced domestic violence.
 Women accounted for approx. 85% of victims of
domestic violence.
 Approx. 75% of Americans know someone affected
by domestic violence.
 Women ages 20-24 are at the greatest risk for non-
fatal intimate partner violence.

15. Domestic Violence
 These statistics provide shocking signs of inequality
in who is abused and who does the abusing.
 There has been little research done about children
whose parents were abused / abuse and how it
affects them in the future, at least in comparison to
the general DV studies.
 Despite the lack of formal evidence on the matter,
it’s a general assumption that people who witness
abuse consistently are more likely to be involved in
the future.

16. Conclusion
 This chapter has helped me look at the family institution
in a very different light. It seems to be one of the largest
and most involved social institutions, yet very broken and
in need of ‘re-structuring’. Even today there seems to be
a large collection of people that are totally okay with the
definition of family and don’t see a need to change that.
As much as things seem to be changing the question
about whether or not things need to change is very much
on the forefront. I come from a divorced family myself,
and my mother also followed a lesbian life style after the
divorce, which created a very unique childhood.

17. Conclusion Continued
 In many ways, I feel lucky to have grown up through
so much adversity as it has grown me immensely.
On the other hand, there are numerous things that I
wouldn’t wish on other people, ever, because it has
changed my life in ways I didn’t enjoy, desire, or that
I wasn’t prepared for. It would be tremendous if
more people had a more educated or even open
view about what the family institution is supposed to
look like, particularly before they have one of their
own.