Industrial Society: The Family

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Industrial Society: The FamilyAs told by Dr. Frank Elwell

Industrial Society: The FamilyWe live in a society whosefamily system is based on thestrong affection and closecompanionship of thespouses, and in which thebasis of marriage is romanticlove rather than economicsor family lineage.

Industrial Society: The Family Young people expect tochoose a spouse free fromfamily dictates and to havea close companion andsexual relationship withthat person.Yet this mode of familyand marital life is a uniquecreation of industrial/bureaucratic society.

Industrial Society: The FamilyNowhere before the 17th and 18th century inthe West was family and marital lifeorganized in this fashion. This presentationwill attempt to tell the story of the evolutionof the modern Western family system. Itwill examine family life in pre-industrialEurope and North America and theprofound changes it began to undergo somecenturies ago.

Industrial Society: The FamilyBecause of the demands for geographic mobilityproduced by the industrial economy, the extendedfamily would be a major encumbrance in the livesof most individuals, and thus the nuclear family isa much more adaptive type.

Industrial Society: The FamilyIn all industrial societies, the nuclear family isthe dominant form of family life. Once theextended family is no longer economicallyadaptive, the emphasis on the nuclearfamily may well be encouraged by thedesire of individuals in the West for greaterfreedom from control by the oldergeneration.

Traditional European FamiliesSociologists and social historians date thetransition of the modern family in most ofwestern Europe to around the middle of theeighteenth century. This family transition began in the middleand upper classes and diffused later to thelower classes.

Traditional European FamiliesThe pre-industrial Europeanfamily bears littleresemblance to the modernfamily in terms of thewhole tone and texture offamilial relationships.They differ in terms of:- Bonds- Boundaries

Traditional European FamiliesThere is little evidence that the relationshipbetween husband and wife was typicallyone based upon strong mutual affection anda sense of companionship. Although romantic love as we know it todayexisted, it was not considered an appropriatebasis for marriage

Traditional European FamiliesMarriages were arranged by the families ofthe respective spouses, and economicconsiderations determined the choice of aspouse, or even the decision to marry at all. Marital unions were fundamentallyeconomic rather than affective relationships.

Traditional European Families"And so much more firmly did economicsrather than emotion bind together thepeasant couple that when the wife fell ill,her husband commonly spared the expenseof a doctor, though prepared to 'cascadegold' upon the veterinarian who came toattend a sick cow or bull. That was because,in the last analysis, a cow was worth muchmore than a wife."--Edward Shorter

Traditional European FamiliesOf course a wife was valuable--but ineconomic terms. Her domestic labor wasessential, and she played a crucial role as aproducer of offspring. Yet her value to her husband went littlebeyond this, and social and economicconditions in pre-modern Europe did notencourage the development of strongaffection within the marital relationship.

Traditional European FamiliesAlso, there seems to have been little in theway of sentimental ties between parents andtheir children. Children were commonly fostered-out rightafter birth to paid wet-nurses who cared forthem for perhaps a year or more. Childrenwere frequently treated in ways that todaywould be regarded as extreme forms ofchild abuse.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large familieswere the rule: the Dudleys of Richmond, Virginia, 1903

Traditional European FamiliesThey were often left unattended for longperiods of time, sometimes were hung bytheir clothing on hooks to keep them out ofthe way, and as Shorter has remarked, werefrequently left to "stew in their ownexcrement" for long hours.

Traditional European FamiliesIn addition they were commonly subjected tophysical abuse from which they frequentlydied or suffered great injury.

Traditional European FamiliesThere is also the fact that children in the samefamily were often given the same firstname. A newborn infant might be given thename of an older sibling who had recentlydied, or two living children might have thevery same name. This suggests to some thatparents had no conception of the child as aunique individual with whom a parent canhave a special relationship.

Traditional European FamiliesThe reasons for this indifferent attitude andtreatment toward children is probably foundin the economic and social conditions of theday.

Traditional European FamiliesAs Stone has pointed out, the rate of infantdeath was so high that it would have beendifficult for a mother to invest considerableemotion in her children. To becomeemotionally attached to them, only to watchthem die in such high proportions, would bea devastating experience to bear.

Traditional European FamiliesParental indifference was a response todebilitating economic conditions and a highrate of infant and child death. The basic lack of parental affection, then,was not something parents voluntarilychose, but rather something that wasimposed on them by external conditions.

Traditional European FamiliesA final characteristic of the traditionalfamily was its fundamental lack of privacyor "separateness" from the rest of society. The family form that most of us live intoday--a private social unit relativelyisolated from the rest of society--scarcelyexisted.

Traditional European FamiliesThere was no real boundary between thefamily and the rest of society. As Shorter has remarked, the traditionalfamily was "pierced full of holes."Outsiders interacted freely with members ofthe household, and the relations betweenfamily members and outsiders were just asclose as those among the family membersthemselves.

Traditional European FamiliesThe traditional family was basically aneconomic subsystem of the larger society,much more a productive and reproductiveunit than an emotional unit. It was most vitally concerned withtransmitting property between generationsand with reproducing the species.

Traditional European FamiliesIts crucial role as atransmitter ofproperty relationsexplains thepowerful role offamily elders in thearrangement ofmarriage.

Rise of the Modern FamilyBut in the 17th and 18th centuries this modeof family life began to decay and give wayto the kind of family unit familiar to us inthe late 20th century.

Rise of the Modern Family The rise of the modern family involved thegrowth of three fundamental characteristics:- ties of affection- concern with sexual pleasure- desire for private family life

Ties of AffectionOne of the mostimportant aspects ofthe transition to themodern family was theemergence ofromantic love as thebasis for marriage.

Ties of Affection Two aspects of this phenomenon:- First, young people began to reject parentalinterference in the choice of marriage partnersand increasingly demanded the right to choosefor themselves.- Second, the marriage itself came increasingly tobe seen as an affective rather than an economicunit, one held together by the sentimentalattachment of the spouses rather than byconsiderations of property.

Ties of AffectionThe sentimental revolution in the family alsotransformed the relations between parentsand their children; a growing concern ofparents for the welfare of their childrenbecame manifest.

Concern with Sexual PleasureSocial life was becoming, at least relative tothe past, highly eroticized, and the idea ofsexual pleasure as an end in itself wasbecoming significant.

Concern with Sexual PleasureIn pre-modern Europe premarital sexappears to have been uncommon. Thereis also little evidence of much auto eroticbehavior.

Concern with Sexual PleasureMarked increases inillegitimacy in 17thand 18th. Marital sexalso seemed to becomemore common and tobe given more eroticsignificance.

Desire for private family lifeBy the middle of the 19th century the familyhad become a unit insisting upon its privateexistence and its separation (or evenisolation) from the outside world.

Desire for private family lifeShorter calls this "the rise of domesticity".the modern family was becoming more andmore private, and the boundaries between itand the rest of society more and moreclosely drawn. Members of the family came to feel farmore solidarity with one another than theydid with their various age and sex peergroups.

Evolution of the Modern FamilyThe evolution of the modernfamily was largely aproduct of the vastchanges that were takingplace during thesecenturies toward a civilization.

Evolution of the Modern FamilyModern industrial-bureaucratic societyrequires the individual to be bothgeographically and socially mobile. It requires people to move from one end ofthe country to the other to pursue theirnarrow careers. It requires people to moveup the social ladder, abandoning family andfriends along the way.

Evolution of the Modern FamilySince it is the nuclear unit that must live inrelative isolation, it makes little sense formarriage to be arranged by extended familyunit.

Evolution of the Modern FamilyChristopher Lasch (1977) has suggested thatthe private family of the 18th and 19thcenturies emerged as a kind of shelter intowhich people could escape from theincreasing harsh realities of the outsideworld. The family lost many of its importantfunctions, it became, in Lasch's memorablephrase, a "haven in a heartless world."

Evolution of the Modern FamilyThe heartless world that Lasch has in mind isbureaucratic-industrial society. Theintensely competitive character of the workenvironment, as well as its narrowing intospecialized role behavior, created the needfor a refuge in which people could recoverfrom the slings and arrows of the workworld so as to be able to enter it again.

Evolution of the Modern Family"As business, politics, and diplomacy growmore savage and warlike, men seek a havenin private life, in personal relations, aboveall in the family--the last refuge of love anddecency." --Christopher Lasch

Continuing EvolutionAs industrialization continues to intensify, thefamily continues to evolve. Many havesuggested that in the past several decadesthe family itself has been under so muchstress that it no longer is able to fulfill itsrole as a refuge.

Continuing EvolutionThe Western family since the early 1960shas suffered from enormous strains and hasundergone profound changes as a result. These changes involve both the relationsbetween husbands and wives and thosebetween parents and their adolescentchildren.

Continuing Evolution Three recent changes:- Rise of cohabitation- Decline in fertility- Rise in divorce

Continuing EvolutionOne of the more widely discussed changes infamily life since the early 1960s has beenthe marked increase in cohabitation-couples living together without marriage.

Continuing EvolutionIn Sweden cohabitation has become virtuallya universal practice, as 99 percent ofSwedish couples live together beforemarriage. In the U.S., numbers livingtogether has more than doubled since the1970s.

Continuing EvolutionCohabitation, however, does not appear topose a significant threat to marriage. Itseems to be more a preparatory stage formarriage than a permanent substitute for it. That cohabitation has become so common,however, suggests that marital and familylife is becoming very different in the past 25years, and that people have very differentexpectations of it.

Continuing EvolutionAnother major change infamily life in the past25 years has been themarked decline infertility, or women'schildbearing activities.

Continuing EvolutionSince the early 1960s the fertility rate hasdeclined markedly, all the way to 1.9children per woman for women whoseprime childbearing years came in the 1970s.

Continuing EvolutionThe divorce rate hasbeen rising sincethe mid 19thcentury.Especially sincethe 1960s,however, it hasincreased sharply.

Continuing EvolutionFrom 1965 to 1975, the rate of divorcedoubled in the United States. It peaked in1979 at 22 per thousand married womenand then stabilized at the 1994 rate of 20 perthousand.

Continuing EvolutionSince 1974, 1 million children a year haveseen their parents divorce, and 45 percent ofall American children can expect theirfamilies to break up before they reach theage of 18.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyWhat accounts for the current upheaval inmarital relationships? Why are youngpeople living together frequently beforemarriage, having fewer children, anddivorcing at alarming rates? It has often been said that the current familychanges are attributable to changing valuesand attitudes in regard to family life.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyThis explanation, even if true, would betrivial. We would still be faced with theproblem of explaining why the attitudes andvalues in regard to marriage and family lifehave changed.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyAll the evidence indicates that familialattitudes and values changed after thebehavior changed.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyIt seems that changes in values and attitudeshave actually followed rather than generatedbehavioral changes. While these attitudeand value changes then reinforce andpromote the behavioral change, they are notthe cause.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyAvailable evidence indicatesthat these recent trends aredue to fundamentaleconomic changesinvolving the participationof women in the laborforce.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyThese trends correspond closely to thedramatic increase in the proportion ofmarried women with dependent childrenwho work full-time outside the household. Such women are more economicallyindependent, and are thus less likely to stayin an unpleasant marriage.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyTheir dependence ontheir husbands hasdecreased. Withboth men andwomen involved intheir careers, theyhave fewer children,and less glue to holdthem together.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyCohabitation is a logical response to ahigher rate of marital failure--a trial periodto see if they have a good chance to make it. Because of the rise of individualism, andthe decline of most of the family's preindustrial functions, people demand thatmarriage at least provide the haven from atroubled world.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyWhen marriages fail tolive up to thisunrealisticexpectation ofproviding domesticand sexual bliss on afull-time basis,people cut and run.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyFinally, as industrialization continues tointensify we have lengthened the period ofadolescence. At the same time the familyhas lost much of its influence in thesocialization process, it now must competewith numerous institutions to instill valuesand beliefs.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyIn a world emphasizing change, parentsbecome increasingly irrelevant as havinganything of value to transmit to them. Thechildren have been pulled away by themassive development of non-familialsocialization institutions. They have beenpushed out by both parents becoming careeroriented.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyAs industrialization continues to intensify, asbureaucracies increase their dominance oversocial life, as our values, beliefs, andideologies change as a result, the family asan institution must adapt.

Recent Evolution of the FamilyAt least 90 percent of people are still optingfor marriage, and the rate of remarriageafter divorce is very high. What we appearto be moving to is serial monogamy. The changing structure of family life is butone consequence of continued industrialintensification.

Industrial Society: The Family In all industrial societies, the nuclear family is the dominant form of family life. Once the extended family is no longer economically adaptive, the emphasis on the nuclear family may well be encouraged by the desire of individuals in the West for greater freedom from control by the older generation.

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