SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Nuclear Family, Married People, Parental Leave
Family is not an easy concept to define
○
Families are relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an
economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly
attached to the group
○
Regulating sexual activity
▪
Socializing children
▪
Providing affection and companionship to family members
▪
Contemporary families are responsible for
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Historically, family is equated solely with nuclear family --> one or two parents
and their dependent children, all of which live apart from other relatives
▪
Traditional nuclear family --> family in which wife works without pay in home while
husband works outside home for money (breadwinner)
▪
Has been decrease in traditional nuclear families since 1940s and increasing
prevalence of new family forms
▪
Decline of traditional nuclear family
○
Sociologists describe families as socially constructed to convey the idea that families
are neither static, universal, nor biologically determined
▪
Increasing secularism
□
Women's movement
□
Expansion of postsecondary institutions and service sector employment
□
Support for institution of marriage and traditional gender roles begins to erode
because of influence of
▪
Social construction of family
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Mapping out the Family
Increasing delay of first marriage (30 for men, 28 for women)
▪
Results from pursuit of educational and career goals - especially women attaining
economic security, which allows them to live alone
▪
Married-couple families, although declining, remain the most common family form in
Canada
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Forgo marriage and remain single and live alone
▪
Live apart in commuter marriages, often to pursue jobs in different cities
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Marry someone of the same-sex
▪
Pursue single-parent households
▪
Canadians increasingly deciding to
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Marriage is a legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or
more individuals that carries certain rights and obligations and usually involves sexual
activity (Monogamy only legally sanctioned form in Canada)
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Grown from 5.6% of families in 1981 to 15.5% in 2005
▪
Also varies by province, 33% of Quebec families are common-law
▪
Cohabitation refers to a couple's living together without being legally married (common-
law)
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Marriage is still very popular in spite of divorce
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The majority of Canadians will marry at some point in their lives
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Majority of marriages still do last a life-time
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Predated by same-sex partners raising children
▪
Also legal in Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Iceland, Sweden,
Argentina
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2005 : Canada legalized same-sex marriage
○
Power and Families : Love and Mate Selection
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Marriage
Lecture 2.10: Family
March 29, 2017
12:00 PM
LECTURE Page 80
Document Summary
Family is not an easy concept to define. Families are relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group. Historically, family is equated solely with nuclear family --> one or two parents and their dependent children, all of which live apart from other relatives. Traditional nuclear family --> family in which wife works without pay in home while husband works outside home for money (breadwinner) Has been decrease in traditional nuclear families since 1940s and increasing prevalence of new family forms. Sociologists describe families as socially constructed to convey the idea that families are neither static, universal, nor biologically determined. Support for institution of marriage and traditional gender roles begins to erode because of influence of. Expansion of postsecondary institutions and service sector employment. Married-couple families, although declining, remain the most common family form in.
