Family & Marriage

What is a Family?
There are various definitions of “family” based on
culture:

 In US = One Woman, One Man, and Children
 Other Cultures practice Polygamy (multiple
wives) or Polyandry (multiple husbands)
 Some cultures consider family to be the unit
responsible for children

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rights reserved. 1

Family Defined:
Family is universal, but definitions of what
constitutes family vary widely across cultures

Hence, the sociological definition is broad:
“A family consists of people who consider
themselves related by blood, marriage,
or adoption.”


Types of Family
 Nuclear: one man, one woman, average 2.5
children (this is the emphasis in the US)

 Extended: additional relatives (grandparents, aunts,
uncles, cousins, in-laws)

 Family of Orientation: family an individual is
born into (with one's parents, guardian, caretaker)

 Family of Procreation: family formed with the
birth of a child (individual becomes parent/caretaker)

What is Marriage?
There are various definitions of marriage
based on culture:

 Traditionally between one man and one
woman in the US
 Acceptance of Same-Sex Marriages in the
West Changes the Definition
 Some cultural definitions don’t include
sexual relations
 One culture even allows marriage between
deceased individuals


What is Marriage?
All societies have coupling customs, but the
definition varies by each culture

Hence, the Sociological Definition of
Marriage is broad:
“Marriage is a group’s approved mating
arrangement…usually marked by a
ritual.”


Common Cultural Themes
of Marriage & Family:
Families Establish Patterns of:
 Mate Selection:
 Endogamy: to marry within one's own social group
• ex: people often informally marry within the same
race and same social class; gay marriage
 Exogamy: to marry outside one's own social group
• ex: legally must marry outside of your close blood
relatives; heterosexual marriage
 Descent (who is considered related to whom):
 Bilineal system: related to both mother's and father's
family
 Patrilineal system: related to only father's family
 Matrilineal system: related to only mother's family

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Common Cultural Themes of
Marriage & Family (cont):
●Inheritance:
▪Bilineal: property passed to both male and
female descendants (common for the modern western world)
▪Patrilineal: property passed only to male
descendants (historically used in US and western Europe)
▪Matrilineal: property passed only to female
descendants (very rare)
●Authority:
▪Patriarchy: power vested in men
•critics argue that all societies have been patriarchal
to varying degrees
▪Matriarchy: power vested in women
▪Egalitarian: power divided equally amongst men and
women

Family and Marriage
Internalized
Our norms about family and marriage seem
natural because we have internalized them

However, specific customs for family and
marriage are arbitrarily defined by various
cultures, and are not natural, but rather socially
defined

Marriage and Family:
Functionalist Perspective

Functionalists argue that family units contribute to
the well-being of society by fulfilling Basic Societal
Needs:
– Economic Production
– Socialization of Children
– Care of Sick and Aged
– Recreation
– Sexual Control
– Reproduction

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 Functions of the Incest Taboo:
 To avoid Role Confusion
• Ex: a father-daughter incestuous relationship is confusing
because the role of father and husband have different
levels of power within the relationship, so there's a
questions of which role should be adhered to
 Builds alliances, increases resources
 Dysfunctions of Nuclear Family:
 Isolation

 Emotional Overload (there are less family members to
provide emotional support)


Conflict Perspective
Conflict Perspective

Conflict Theorists believe that:
 Conflict is part of Marriage
 Generally, husbands have had more power
 Power Struggles develop over:
 Housework
 Child Care
 Money
 Attention
 Respect
 Sex


Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic Interactionism
 Symbolic Interactionists note that:
 Both wives & husbands are spending more time on
childcare than in the past
 Both wives & husbands spend less time on social activities
now
 Labor-saving technologies promised more leisure time for
parents, but the Microwave is the only technology to
actually reduce labor time (standards of cleanliness have
increased, so people complete housework more efficiently, but more
often, thus not reducing labor time)
 Gender Division of Labor: men are expected to work in
the paid labor market, while women are expected to
perform unpaid housework and childcare (this is becoming more
egalitarian)

The Family Life Cycle

 Romantic Love in Global Perspective
 Marriage
 Likely to marry a partner of similar Age,
Education, Social Class, Race/Ethnicity
 Homogamy
 Result of being near others with similar social
locations


Childbirth:
 Ideal family size has decreased over time
– Majority of Americans want only 1-2 children now

 Marital Satisfaction Decreases upon birth of child
(because intimacy, time, & attention are divided between an
extra individual when the social group changes from a dyad to
a triad)

– Parents must also learn to rearrange roles, and
work can become unbalanced


Child Rearing:
 Married Couples – kids more likely to be cared for by
father when the mother is at work, while Single Mothers
rely more on organized daycare, grandparents, & relatives
 Day Care
 ¼ kids in daycare
 Low daycare salaries  lower quality care
 Nannies
 High quality, personal care
 Generally only affordable for upper-middle class
 Social Class & Parenting Styles
 Working class believe kids develop naturally, less intervention
 Middle class believe kids need nurturing, more intervention


Family Transitions:
 Adultolescents
 Not-So-Empty Nest: kids are moving at later
because of the increasing cost of living,
prolonged education, poor economy
 Boomerang Children: kids leave home then
move back, can create additional financial
hardships for aging parents, and role conflict
 Widowhood
 Women more likely to become widowed
(because they have longer life expectancies)
 Widowhood Effect: decreased health &
earlier death for widows; due to grief & loss of
social support

Diversity in U.S. Families
 African-American Families
 More likely to have Fictive Kin (non-relatives who are considered family)
 Family values differ more by social class than race
 Latino Families
 Machismo: heavy emphasis on masculinity, strength, dominance,
sexuality
 Values differ by country of origin and social class
 Asian Families
 Often retain cultural values of collectivity, discipline, hierarchy, respect
for elderly, success, moderation, & obligation
 Values differ by country of origin and social class
 Native American Families
 Importance of elders in childcare & disciplining
 Decisions to keep traditional language & customs or to assimilate to
mainstream culture
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 There is no standard Asian family, black
family, etc

 Groups are not homogenous; very diverse

 Distinctions more about social class than
race/ethnicity

 Issues over whether to assimilate or retain
traditional values

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Diversity in U.S. Families
Increase in One-Parent Families:
 Tend to be poor
 Most children live with mothers, despite divorced mothers
earning less than fathers on average
Families without Children:
 Number of married women without children doubled in last two
decades
Increase in Blended Families (two divorced families united):
 Confusion and power struggles between step-families
Gay & Lesbian Families:
 Often lack legal protection & benefits
 Lesbian couples are more egalitarian
 Upper-class has more options for adoption and having kids

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Trends in U.S. Families
 Postponing Marriage and Childbirth
 Age of first marriage is at all-time high in US
 Age at first childbirth is at all-time high in US
 Increase in Cohabitation (couple living together in
sexual relationship, not married)
– More likely to end in divorce
– Reasons to cohabitate (just don't like marriage, trial
marriage, convenience, planning on marriage)
significantly influences divorce/breakup rates
 Skipped-generation Families = grandparents as
parents
 Sandwich Generation = simultaneous childcare &
eldercare

Divorce and Remarriage
 Methods of Measuring Divorce:
 Marriage to Divorce Ratio per year: 50% (half as many
divorces as marriages per year)
 Divorce rate per year: 2% (2% of all married couples get
divorced per year)
 Percent
of people divorced during a lifetime: 40%
**50% divorce rate does not mean that each couple
has a 50% chance of divorce (varies by couple)**
 Serial Fatherhood: decreased contact with biological
children, move on to new family
 Ex-Spouses: source of both stress & relief
 Remarriage
 Men more likely to remarry
 Women with more education & no children less
likely to remarry

Divorce & Remarriage


Dark Side of Family Life
Spouse Battering
– Rates about equal between men & women; however, men more
likely to instigate & women more likely to use in self-defense
 Child Abuse (includes neglect, poor living conditions, physical or
sexual abuse)
≈900,000 reports/year are substantiated
 Marital or Intimacy Rape
– Legal throughout much of US history
– More common than it's believed to be
– Can include gay or lesbian couples
 Incest
– Most common in socially isolated families
– Perpetrator most likely uncle

Family & Marriage

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