Q.1: Describe how changes in the family have affected U.S. society since 1950. Which of those changes have been positive? Which have been negative? Explain. (450-500 words)

In the 1950s mothers stayed at home while fathers went to work however due to changes in the family since then, the workforce of modern society consists of almost 50% women. Due to the increase in the age of the first-time mother, more and more women are pursuing further education. Changes in the family have resulted in a society where it is increasingly common for men to offer more assistance with housework duties that were traditionally reserved for women. Such changes in family life have been reflected in society through social initiatives advocating gender equality (Eagly, Nater, Miller, Kaufmann, & Sczesny, 2020).  In the current American society, fewer people opt for marriage. Instead, some people may prioritize having successful careers and end up not getting married. This has led to a society where personal achievement is as equally valued as raising a good family. People who are unmarried and are cohabiting are more common than in earlier years when such practices were viewed as unethical. This apparent change in cultural values can be attributed to family changes that have been introduced by the added interaction and exposure to different worldviews from around the globe.

One of the positive changes on society resulting from changes in families such as the prioritization of career development over starting a family early has resulted in higher incomes for families than in earlier times. Divergence from the traditional Judeo-Christian family tradition has resulted in a society that is more liberal. This has resulted in the enactment of favorable social policies on issues that were once extremely controversial but are now almost universally accepted, for example, the legalization of same-sex marriage a faraway dream before 1970 is a reality today (Rosenfeld, 2017). Changes in the family have resulted in a society where families remain small in size by opting to have a single child or having only two children. Changes in the family over the years have resulted in a more secular society where increasingly fewer people attend churches. In the 1950s smaller house sizes than are now common were the norm, nowadays while the size of the family remains small, more people strive to have larger homes resulting in higher demand for housing which translates to prices of housing increase rapidly. This move has resulted in some of the social problems now prevalent such as homelessness and socioeconomic inequality. Another housing trend witnessed in society is that it has become more practical for families to rent homes than own them.

Divorce rates have steadily increased over the years resulting in a society where blended families are common.  More American families own pets which are viewed to be part of the family. Childless families are also becoming more common which in turn contributes to a decline in the growth of the population (Rybińska, 2020). Also, families comprising of only one parent instead of both or reconstituted families are on the rise. More people are economically vulnerable especially those from households experiencing joblessness where both parents are unemployed or comprise of an unemployed single parent. Due to changes in society, today fewer people are living in traditional family households like the nuclear families.

References:

Eagly, A. H., Nater, C., Miller, D. I., Kaufmann, M., & Sczesny, S. (2020). Gender stereotypes have changed: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of U.S. public opinion polls from 1946 to 2018. American Psychologist, 75(3), 301-315. doi:10.1037/amp0000494

Rosenfeld, M. J. (2017). Moving a Mountain: The Extraordinary Trajectory of Same-Sex Marriage Approval in the United States. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 3, 237802311772765. doi:10.1177/2378023117727658

Rybińska, A. (2020, January 22). A Research Note on the Convergence of Childlessness Rates Between Women with Secondary and Tertiary Education in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7642055/

Q.2: Describe how social changes in U.S. society have affected the family since 1950. Which of those changes have been positive? Which have been negative? Explain. (450-500 words)

The inclination of modern society towards diversification has resulted in the decline of the iconic breadwinner-homemaker family of the 1950s. Instead of this family model being replaced by another dominant family structure, there are various kinds of family structures. These family structures may include dual-income families, children raised by grandparents with no parents, single-parent families, and families where a parent lives together with an unmarried partner. Social changes that popularized the nuclear family over other forms of family structures such as the extended family have resulted in fragmented fragile units and while attempting to optimize individualism. This trend has made families more unstable with time (Randles & Avishai, 2018). The sexual revolution, civil rights movement, and gender equality trends have transformed the family in ways that were not anticipated in the 1950s. Same-sex families are on the rise, families that are led by women are as common as those which traditionally had a man as the head of the family, and men and women are participating equally in domestic duties that were traditionally the domain of the housewife.

The expanding roles of women in society in terms of education and the workplace led to changes that diverged from the idealized patriarchal child-centered family. With increasingly more rights being granted to same-sex couples and the legalization of gay marriage in 2015, families are becoming more stylistically, religiously, ethically, and racially diverse. Some assumptions of functionalist theoretical perspectives about family are no longer valid in modern families; for example, sexual activity is treated more casually nowadays due to media influence and the traditional family no longer serves the role of regulating it. This is because trends in social practices have resulted in a new culture where marriage and sexual activity are separated. More and more people who are not married are active sexually changing the norms through various avenues such as media. Unintended pregnancies arising from these activities have resulted in the steady growth of single-parent families. Due to changes introduced by social practices in favor of more diverse family structures that favor individualism, stability in the lives of children is decreasing.

The shifting social and cultural expectations have transformed marriage from a lifelong commitment to a more temporary arrangement. This has led to some of the people who get into marriage end up divorcing and remarrying. Nowadays a person can go through several marriages within their lifetime with some of them resulting in children. The result of this social trend is that blended families are becoming more common than in earlier years (Lehrer & Son, 2017). Due to the adaptation of contraceptives combined with birth control initiatives the birth rate in the United States is continually decreasing. The result of this social campaign is that families with two kids, or less are becoming the norm with a large number of families opting for one child and others deciding to remain childless. To these families changes in social and cultural practices have made it equally acceptable to adopt a child or children instead of obtaining children by procreation.

References:

Lehrer, E. L., & Son, Y. J. (2017). Marital Instability in the United States. The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy, 74-96. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190628963.013.4

Randles, J., & Avishai, O. (2018). Saving Marriage Culture “One Marriage at a Time”: Relationship Education and the Reinstitutionalization of Marriage in an Era of Individualism. Qualitative Sociology, 41(1), 21-40. doi:10.1007/s11133-018-9375-1