Chapter 4--Marriage, Family, and Work
LINKAGES BETWEEN THE FAMILY AND OTHER SYSTEMS
1. Religion and the Family
Lenski--Jews, Protestants, Catholics
Denomination and church going (# of children)2. Politics and the Family
Government laws affecting the family
Government support of the family
[Japan: familistic society]3. Education and the Family
School teaching family values
Family encouraging education
School drop-outs and the family
[Japan: education mother, exam hell]4. Economy and the Family
Conflict theory: family=class antagonism
Marx:Social class and the family
WORK ROLES OF FAMILY MEMBERS
1. Women as full-time homemakers
1994--41.2% of women, ages 16+ homemakers
The roles of homemakers; positive, negative
Cash value of household duties
Husband's contribution: 8.6 hrs/week
Marital satisfaction:(Jessie Bernard) 'his' marriage is better than 'hers'
Gender Division of labor (child disciplining: shared)2. Employed women and motherhood
1994--58.8% of women (age 16+) were employed.; Of those 54.6% were married.
Reasons and conditions for wives/mother's employment: husband's support, marital status
Marital conflict: nontaditional job held by women
Eeffect of working mothers on children3. Employed husbands, fathers, homemakers
Man married to work
Impact of unemployment and job stress on the family
[Japan: company man]
No major trend toward full-time male homemaker4. Dual-employed and dual-career marriages
Female career possibilities and aspirations
Job stress, role strain, time crunch
Latchkey children--rare, <2hrs/day, dual-career family
Child-care provided by employers5. Commuter marriage
Who would select?
Pros and Cons
Mainland China
size of the U.S. but more than 4 times the population (22% of the world population)
1911 The end of Ch'ing Dynasty
1949 Communist Revolution
1950, 1980 Marriage LawI. Traditional Chinese Family (-1900 or -1950)
The Clan (class differentiation)= "tsu" = a common surname
traced to a common ancestor
Function:
Economic:lending money to its members; financing for weddings/funerals; ancestral property
Governmental:establishing schools;tax collecting agent
Judicial:exercising judicial authority within the clan;
Religious:maintaining ancestral graves
Familial: ancestor worship; filial piety
The gentry(intellectuals; landlords; govt officials) vs the Peasantry
Gender Roles (yin: female, dark, weak, passive; yang: male, bright, strong, active)
female three obedience;female infanticide among poor pesants;arranged marriage
concubine;a widow is not allowed to remarry;foot binding; suicide(peasant women,childless women)
power of mother-in-law over bride
II. Traditional Chinese family in a process of change
1917-27 Russian Revolution --
Marx/Engeles ideology-- laws: legal equality of women
Engeles: free abortion on demand, legal equality of men and women
abolishing private property used to enhance male domination
Marriage Law of 1950
1. abolishment of the feudalistic arranged
marriage; monogamy, sexual equlity
2. probitition of bigamy, concubinage, child betrothal, interference
in the remarriage of widows
3. divorce granted when husband and wife both desired it; otherwise
People's Court mediation
Marriage Law of 1980
1. Raised the minimum marriage age from 18
to 20
2. a primary criterion for divorce : absence of love (earlier:
political difference)
III. Contemporary Chinese Family
Gender-role differences
persistence of male superiority:
preference of male children
women's double duty to work outside and inside home; lack of female
political representation
patrilinty, patriarchy, patrilocal-- unions transferring brides to
their husbands' households
Rural/Urban differences
Partner selection
Traditional arrange marriage: brideprice
(the groom's family payment to the bride's family for
preparation of the bride's dowry(material possessions the bride
brought into marriage, including clothing, jewry, land)
% arranged marriage:83%(1946)
38%(1953) 2%(1986)
Difficulties remain:lack of exposure; underdevelopment of dating
culture; mismatched couple even after dating
One-child family policy(1979)
Enforcement methods:
one-child certificate:increased income, lower-cost health care,
better nursing,larger pension,
preferential treatment in schooling and employment for their only
children
birth control policies-- woman with one child (IUD) ; couple
with two children (sterilization) ;
womam violating the rules( abortion)
Reality:In some provinces two children are
allowed if the first is a girl
To overcome traditional preference of son, the government
designed additional incentives: property is equally distributed among
boys and girls;
Effect: (positive) higher living standard;
women's emancipation; (negative) female infanticie, female
abortion
no significant difference in personality formation between only child
and child with siblings (Poston/Falbo)
