Both are “social”
◦ Boys in larger groups
Girls
◦ Greater verbal ability
Boys
◦ Greater visual-spatial ability
◦ More aggressive
Sex = biological fact
Gender = cultural & social-psychological fact
◦ Culture & Society assign gender-specific
psychological & personality traits
We learn to be male & female in distinctive
ways (socialization)
Men: active, intelligent, rational
Women: passive, nurturing, emotional
“Culture Lag”
◦ William Ogburn
Legal Assumptions of Male Support
◦ Feminization of Poverty
Pct. of Children below poverty line
14.2% white
33.3% African-American
28.6% Hispanic
53.3% of all households below poverty line are femaleheaded
3:4 absent fathers pay no child support
Gender and Work (“Pink Collar Ghetto”)
◦
◦
◦
◦
74% of K-12 teachers
96% of clerical workers
84% of personal service providers
77 cents to the dollar, F/M pay ratio
Under-represented in higher paying jobs
◦ 11% of engineers
◦ 31% of physicians
◦ 34% of lawyers/judges
Need for two paychecks
Lower fertility rates
Greater opportunities
Changing Cultural Norms
The “New Woman”
◦ Aspirations
Career & Motherhood
◦ “Superwomen”
Role strain
Poor Fit Between Family & Professional Lives
◦ Loss of seniority
◦ No flex time
◦ Maternity and paternity leave
◦ Private, for-profit day care
Cost
Quality
Men
◦ Breadwinner “trap”
Over-identification with economic position
◦ Emotional under-development
Conflict Theory
◦ Division of Sexual Labor
Sexual exploitation
◦ Family: “superstructure”
Reproduce
Legitimate
◦ “Half-selves”
Men: control emotions (work)
Women: Career aspirations interfere with “primary”
purpose
Functionalists
◦ Gender roles are efficient
Make the most of economic opportunities
◦ As the economy has changed, gender roles have
adapted
“That institution in society that arranges for:
◦ Regulation of sexual relations
Who may have sex with whom?
◦ Child-Rearing
Who takes care of the children?
◦ Household Composition”
Who lives with whom?
Regulation of sexual relations
◦ Incest
◦ Unites previously non-united families
Network of social ties
Child-Rearing
◦ “Legitimacy”
◦ Lineality:
“the path along which a person’s blood & property
lines are traced”
◦ Establishes & clarifies a person’s social identity
◦ Grounded in and linked to the social world
Household Composition (“Forms” of Family)
Shaped by norms guiding mate selection
◦ Monogamy
Polygamy (more than one wife)
Polyandry (more than one husband)
◦ Exogamy
Rules for marrying outside a certain group
◦ Endogamy
Rules for marrying inside a certain group
◦ Homogamy
Tendency for people from similar backgrounds to mate
Love
But in cultural, societal, historical context
Changes in household composition
◦ Smaller
Single parent households
Declining fertility
◦ Female Labor Force Participation
60-70% of moms with school-aged kids
Necessity
Opportunity (smaller families)
Happier marriages, if wife wants to work
Changes in household composition
◦ Child care
Cost
Quality
Socialization
60-65% of pre-schoolers in school
Start earlier, stay longer
TV: pre-schoolers, 33 hrs. per week
New Status of the Child
◦ Fewer kids
Expensive
◦ Smaller families, working parents
◦ More attention & resources
Divorce
◦ Rate = No. of divorces/100 married persons
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
Crude Divorce Rate
13.4
17
16.9
23.1
25.8
32.8
49.7
51.4
The Good News
How the 50% rate is calculated
◦ Annual marriage rate per 1,000/Annual divorce rate
per 1,000
◦ 2003:
7.5 marriages per 1,000
3.8 divorces per 1,000 (NCHS, 2005)
Better method of calculation
◦ How many people who have ever married
subsequently divorced?
Highest rate = ca. 41%
The even-better news
◦ Divorce rates lowest for college graduates
1/3 to ¼ the rate of non-graduates
Age
◦ Nearly ½ under age 18
◦ 40% under age 20
◦ 24% over age 25
Religion
◦ Born-again Christians same as general population
(ca. 1/3)
(90% of those after conversion)
Catholics: lowest divorce rate
Baptists: highest divorce rate
More likely to divorce than atheists or agnostics
Cited in a posting from Smart Marriages Listserv on Jan.
25, 2002
Alabama: ¼ of population are Southern Baptists,
majority of pop. are Evangelicals
4th highest divorce rate in US (NV, TN, AR) (Barna Research
Poll, 2001)
◦ Region
Highest rates
South & Midwest
“Red” states higher than “blue” states
from Smart Marriages Listserv , Jan. 4, 2005
◦ Cohabitation
Couples cohabiting before marriage
40-85% higher risk of divorce than couples not cohabiting
before marriage
Factors decreasing risk of divorce
Factors
% Risk
Decrease
Ann. Income over $50k (v. under
$25K)
Baby 7 months or more after
marriage (v. before)
Marrying over 25 years of age (v.
under 18)
Intact family of origin
-30
Some College (v. h.s. dropout)
-13
-24
-24
-14
Why increase in divorce?
◦ Emotional satisfaction > economic security
◦ Reduction in necessity and benefits of marriage
◦ Increased female opportunities
women in labor force
reduction of stigma -- no-fault divorce
◦ Cultural Change
Baby Boom
1960s & 1970s
Remarriage rate has kept up with divorce rate
◦ rejection of partners, not institution
◦ married still happier than single
Women still do the bulk of the work around
the home
◦ still face conflicts between individual fulfillment and
family roles
Alternative Family Forms
◦ Living together has increased > six-fold
Often short term
Higher divorce rate
◦ Staying single:
2000: 27.2 million people, 26% of all households (in
1950, 9.3%)
Vs. 22% married couples & their kids
21% married couples living alone
Later marriages
Median Age at First Marriage
Male
Female
1890
26.1
22
1920
24.6
21.2
1950
22.8
20.8
1980
24.7
22
2003
27.1
25.3
Children in single-parent households by
race/ ethnicity, 2006
(American Community Survey & Annie E. Casey Foundation,
2006)
White
Black
23%
65%
AmerInd
49%
Asian
Hispanic
17%
36%
Single Parent Households
◦ 2000: ca. 13.5 million single parents had custody of
21.7 million children under 21 years of age
◦ % of population made up by married couples with
children decreased from 40% in 1970 to 24% in
2000
Single parent households increased from 9%
in 1990 to 16% of all households by 2000.
Of all custodial parents, 85% were mothers
Urbanization & Industrialization
Reduced fertility
Smaller families
Culture
Higher Divorce Rates
More household forms
Single
Single Parent
Two parents, etc.
Unusual Society
◦ Patterns of lineality & locality
◦ Patrilineal
Trace blood & property lines along father’s side
◦ Matrilineal
Trace blood & property lines along mother’s side
◦ Matrilocal
Children live with mother
◦ Patrilocal
Children live with father
Locality & lineality have separated
◦ Divorce
$ goes with dad
Kids go with mom
Matrilocal & Patrilineal Society
◦ Bureaucratization of the family
◦ To meet child rearing function of family
due to household composition changes
◦ State has stepped in
Welfare
AFDC (until 1997)
TANF (since July 1, 1997)
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