The Changes of Marriage and Family Patterns in America

The Changes of Marriage and Family Patterns in America美国婚姻家庭模式的变化AbstractFamily is the basic institution and the bedrock of all societies. Family structure and family life can mirror the moral values, cultural traits and national characteristics of the society. The American society has changed a lot since the 1960s in material wealth. The enormous material wealth and the development of science and technology have also pushed people to look for more self-fulfillment. As a result, people are more and more tolerant toward people who do not follow the traditional cultural patterns. Meanwhile, marriage and family patterns have experienced tremendous changes which have tremendous influences on the American society, men, women and children. Studying the changes of American marriage and family patterns and the influences can provide us some valuable information.Key Words: American marriage; Family patterns; Changes; Influences摘要家庭是社会的基本单位，也是社会的基石。

家庭结构和家庭生活亦可反映出社会价值观，文化特征和国民特性。

20世纪60年代美国社会在物质财富方面发生了巨大的变化。

物质财富的充裕，科学技术的迅猛发展是人们追求自我享乐，整个美国社会对传统价值观的态度的转变影响了美国的婚姻和家庭模式。

文章主要探讨了美国婚姻和家庭模式的变化，以及这些变化对美国社会和人们的生活产生的影响。

研究美国婚姻家庭模式的变迁的经验结果对我们研究全球化时代中国婚姻家庭的变迁课题提供有益的参考。

关键词：美国婚姻；家庭模式；变化；影响Table of Contents1 Introduction (2)2 Review of Family and Marriage in Historical Respective (3)2.1 Origin of Family—Engle’s Theory (3)2.2 Marriage and Family (4)2.3 Functions of Family (4)2.3.1 Procreation and Socialization of Children (4)2.3.2 Emotional Support (5)2.3.3 Social Placement and Social Roles (5)3 Changes of Marriage (5)3.1 Tendency of the Marriage (5)3.2 High Rate of Divorce (6)3.3 Marriage between the Homosexuality (6)3.4 Marriage between Different Races (6)4 Diversity of Family Patterns (7)4.1 Nuclear Family (7)4.2 Blended Family (7)4.3 Dual-Employed Family (7)4.4 Single-Parent Family (8)4.5 Single Life (8)4.6 Cohabitation (8)4.7 Dink Family (9)4.8 Homosexual Households (9)5 Causes and Influences of the Changes (1)5.1 Causes of the Changes (1)5.1.1 Changes of Value (1)5.1.2 Changes of Family Roles (1)5.1.3 Social Toleration to the Alternative Lifestyle and Changes of Law (1)5.2 Influences on Society (2)5.2.1 On Parents (2)5.2.2 On Children (2)5.2.3 On Government (2)6 Conclusion (2)References ..................................................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

1 IntroductionSociety refers to the people who live in a country or area, their organizations, and their way of life. Since the 1960s the American society of the huge material wealth has changed a lot. After World War Ⅱthe American society has pushed all groups of people to fight for their rights. The Women’s Movement and The Civil Rights Movement changed observably the social and economic conditions. The huge material wealth and the development of science and technology have also pushed people to look for more self-fulfillment. For this reason, people are more and more concerned about individual rights. The society as a whole has become more tolerant toward people who do not follow the traditional cultural patterns. Marriage and family patterns have experienced tremendous changes during these years, too. If they are dissatisfied with their marriage, and they have more choices than ever before and they can end a marriage and then remarry. Family patterns have been diversi fied with the prosperous economies, women’s self-awareness, different attitudes toward social values, ect. All the changes have tremendous influences on the American society, children, men and women.In a word, this article mainly analyzes the causes and influences of the changes of the marriage and family patterns. Compared with the changes of American marriage life and family patterns, China suffers the same problems—increasing divorce rate, and marriage without children, ect. Our nation can learn from their changes, and avoid the bad situations exacerbating.2 Review of Family and Marriage in Historical Respective2.1 Origin of Family—Engle’s TheoryEngles in his book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State gave a contrast between clas s and classless societies as for the women’s status. Women in Engles’theory are a reconstruction. Women’s position changes with the changes of family．“Once it had passed into the private possession of families and there rapidly begun to augment，this wealth dealt a severe blow to the society founded on pairing marriage and the matriarchal gens．”According to Engels，in the early stages of society, the absence of private property made men’s productive work and women’s household work of equal social significance．Both sexes were equal to contribute to the economic life of the group．“According to the division of labor within the family at that time，it was the mall’s part to obtain food and the instruments of labor necessary for the purpose．He therefore also owned the instruments of labor , and in the event of husband and wife separating，he took them with him，just as she retained her household goods．” Then，with the development of the society, production for exchange took place，and possession of private property cancel into being. “Therefore，according to the social custom of the time，the man was also the owner , the new source of subsistence，the cattle，and later of the new instruments of labor, the slaves．”This changed the nature of the household，the significance of women’s work within it，and so women’s position as well as men’s position．“Thus，on the one hand，in proportion as wealth added，it made the mail’s positi on in the family more important than the woman’s，and on the other hand created an impetus to exploit this strengthened position in order to overthrow, in favor of his children，the traditional order of inheritance．This，however, was impossible so long as descent was reckoned according to mother-right．Mother-right，therefore，had to be overthrown，and overthrown it was．’’ Engles concluded that men’s ownership of private property establishes their dominance over women in the family and society)，and women’s status became separately subordinate and domestic with the development of male private property, production for exchange and class society．And also，it seems that class society tends to socialize the work of men and to domesticate that of women . The first division of labor between men and women promoted human reproduction, helped shape and make patriarchy possible and probable．Patriarchal male ideology that arose on that material basis helped shape the next stage of historical development etc．and gave birth to family．Engels argued that the family was the result of acquisition of private property. It was a social construct created by the growth of male dominance and the desire of men to ensure they could leave their property to their heirs．Civilization in the material aspect developed and gave birth to the family as defined above，replacing the previous loose relations between men and women matched through pairing marriage，but also generating inequality between the sexes. One’s material resources in possession also determine his or her position in family and society at large．However, with further development of society and material civilization，the landscape of and environment for family life，gender position，marriage and higher emotional pursuit have also undergone changes，hopefully, towards the better．And such changes，as indicators of social advancement，in turn，impacted this process．A close look at the evolution of American family will help reveal marriage and family in respect of their dual traits of economic bonds and emotional bonds，two levels of desires that are closely related and that reflect the quality of marriage and the real relationship between husband and wife．2.2 Marriage and FamilyAlthough the concept of marriage has become more complex，the currently accepted definition—a socially approved mating relationship—is very broad．Because this definition invokes the concept of the social norm —a culturally defined rule for behavior —it includes variations on marriage that we find in many different societal and cultural groups．Among the norms that help define marriage are formal laws and religious doctrines or rituals．For example，in order to be legally married U．S．citizens must meet specified requirements (e.g.，minimum age) in any state．And because the Catholics Church prohibits the dissolution of marriage，in the eyes of their church，reverent Catholics cannot be divorced.In spite of such societal and cultural variations, marriages in most western industrialized countries have some conjunct characteristics．In general, married couples are look forward to share economic responsibilities，to engage in sexual activity only with their spouses，and to bear and raise children.Traditionally, the family has been defined as a unit made up of two or more people who are related by blood，marriage，or adoption and who live together，form an economic unit，and bear and raise children．But because this description rejects a majority of diverse groups who also consider themselves families，the traditional definition has been challenged in recent years．Social scientists have asked：Are childless couples families? What about cohabiting couples? Three elderly sisters living together? Gay and lesbian couples，with or without children? Communes in which child rearing is assumed by people other than the child’s parents?As yet，social scientists have been unable to raise answers to these questions；the complexity of contemporary family arrangements is very great. Because we need a working definition，here we define family as any sexually expressive or parent-child relationship in which：(1) people live together with a commitment，in an intimate，interpersonal relationship；(2) the group has an identity of its own ；(3) the members see their identity as importantly attached to the group. Be warned that not all social scientists will agree with this definition，because it does not definitely include legalized marriage, procreation or child rearing．However, definitions may become even more complicated and more controversial in the future．2.3 Functions of FamilyAlthough family structures differ, contemporary families fulfill similar functions. In this section we explore the four major tasks today’s family is expected to perform：legitimizing sexual activity, bearing and raising children，providing emotional support to family members, and establishing members place in society．Families in preindustrial societies go on fulfill other traditional functions，such as educating their children，serving as an important economic unit, giving consideration to their elderly, and providing religious instruction to family members．It is worth noting that some families in technologically advanced societies. For example, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans----continue to perform the latter two functions．2.3.1 Procreation and Socialization of ChildrenProcreation is an essential function of the family．Although some married couples choose to remain childless，most want to raise families，and some go to great lengths to have the children they want．Today couples who are unable to conceive naturally for various reasons (e.g.，a woman’s fallopian tubes may be blocked；a malt’s sperm count may be low) have increasing numbers of opinions．Once a couple become parents，the family embarks on another critical function，that of socialization. Though socialization，the child acquires the language，accumulated knowledge, attitudes，beliefs，and values of its society and culture and learns the social and interpersonal skills needed to function effectivelyin society．2.3.2 Emotional SupportDespite the changes we will discuss, the family remains a critical primary group that provides its members with love, understanding, security, acceptance，and companionship through intimate，long-term, face to face interaction．The family is also expected to support its members in times of psychological crises and emotional stress．2.3.3 Social Placement and Social RolesTo a great extent, our position in society is acquired through our family．We are born into a certain social class, ethnic or racial group, and religious affrication．Although we can later change some of these memberships，our family shapes our initial definition of who we are (and are not) and our place in society. The family also teaches us social roles. Although the roles associated with gender and marital and parental status have not undergone a dramatic transformation during the past 200 years，they have certainly changed in numerous ways．Marriage is the foundation of the growing family and family is the societies. The development of society and the changes of families’ patterns is a hot topic in America. The researchers pay close attention to the changes. There are many statistics about the rate of marriage, divorce and family patterns which show the changes of American’s attitudes them and the changes of the traditional values about marriage and family.In 1960, the pills were widely used in American, which helped control the women’s pregnancy and the birth rate, and men and women felt more safe and free to their own sexual behavior (Wang 227).The marriage couple made up 74.8 percent of all household types in 1960, dropped to 65.4 percent in 1975, and is projected to drop further to 54.9 percent by 1990. The estimates for the female-headed family went from 17.2 percent to 23.6 percent in 1975 and were projected to 29 percent by 1990.(Daniel 50)3 Changes of MarriageWhat is marriage? Marriage is a legal union between a man and woman as husband and wife. Since the women’s situation had change a lot, the marriage changed, too. The traditional marriage pattern is that a married couple legally live together and give birth to their children. But there is a tendency that there are fewer and fewer people getting married or choosing to marry at a late age. More people end their marriage if they are unhappy. As many people fail in their marriage, divorce is on the increase, and there is a higher divorce rate, but many divorced people do eventually remarry.3.1 Tendency of the MarriageFewer and fewer people are willing to marry at an early age. Since 1990s the proportion of marriage experience keeps increasing. In 1970, there were 15.6 percent of white people over 18 and older that had never been married, but by 1991, this figure had risen to 20.5 percent (Wang 492).A woman and a man may cohabit or live together without marriage or before marriage. Under this situation, man and woman are no longer bounded by the traditional marriage patterns and they are much free to lea d a life they can dream of. What’s more, nowadays, women pay more attention to their own development, and they are not only restricted to the marriage and be a housewife any more. They have the abilities to walk out and hunt for good jobs to support themselves. People are aware of self-fulfillment and self-worth; they would pursue their wonderful dreams instead of bearing the burden of family at the earlyage .3.2 High Rate of DivorceThe enormous amount of wealth caused people to believe in more equality and social justice. Meanwhile, the ever rising expectation of women to be perfect wives caused anxiety among many of them. There was a tendency that people after World WarⅡbecame less patient with the old tradition of the putting the family wellbeing first and began to demand more self-fulfillment.Women began to doubt if staying at home serving the need of their husband and children were all they should do. With the Women’s Movement, women had achieved equalities in political, social, educational, and economic life. Due to all the changes, women no longer need men to support them and become more and more independent. They can do what they want and what they like and fulfill their ambition on their own. They are struggling for the equal rights all the time, and legal divorce is part of them.As the freedom prevailed in America in early 1960s, the rate of divorce was on the continuous increase. Toward early 1980s, divorce was the ending of a marriage between husband and wife, and the experts estimated that it would increase to 67 percent (Bureau of Census 68). Nowadays, society is more tolerant to the divorce, and many Americans have come to view divorce as a natural experience and make contributions to the high rate of divorce.3.3 Marriage between the HomosexualityBefore 1960s, homosexuals suffered much discrimination .They were considered as psychopath, and many of them were scared to unveil their true identity to the public. By 1960s, homosexuals formed their own organization and struggled to obtain the equal right. In 1970s and 1980s, with the development of the campaigns of homosexuals rights, American public become much understandingly and tolerant of the alternative lifestyle. Many states and federal government increased the items of anti-sexual discrimination in the anti-discrimination policies and laws.When the U.S. Census was conducted 1990, it shows that 150,000 same-sex parents of the whole population cohabit in American in 1990s and 594,000 in 2000s. On February 4, 2004, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts became the first state to allow same sex marriage. On May 17, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same sex marriage(Zhou 238). It seems that the rights of homosexuals will be accepted one day. They will be regarded as the normal and live a happy life.3.4 Marriage between Different RacesThe United States has always been described as “melting pot” in which many different racial and ethnic groups have assimilated into one culture. Actually many races remain their own traditions and for the most part of the melting has meant Americanization—confronting to cultural patterns of the mainstream American society. So there is another description of America society—salad bowl, where the various racial and ethnic groups have remained somewhat distinct and different from one another, creating a rich diverse country.These are many races in American society, such as W ASPs—White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. WASPs are the dominant race in American society and others are the minorities, all of them make great contribution to the development of America.Since 1960s, the number of marriage between different races is on the increase. By 1996s, all couples of different races were about 149,000, and increase to 651,000 by 1980. What’s more, the number of 2000 and 2003 has reached to 1,460,000 and 2,090,000 respectively.In general, the minorities are much easier to get married with other races which can be drawn from the declaration of racial identification from two or more races. In 2000 U.S. Bureau of Census shows that the declaration of the native Hawaii with other pacific island inhabitants, Indians, original Alaska, Asia Americans, and Afican Americans of two or more races are 54.4%, 39.9%,13.9% and 4.8% respectively and the proportion of whites are only 2.5%(U.S. Census Bureau 7).4 Diversity of Family PatternsBeginning in the late 1950s, a wave of social change swept through American life. Nearly every American family was affected. The structure of American family had experienced huge changes over the past few years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the extended family—consisting of two or more adult generations of the same family sharing a common households and economic resources—was the dominant family pattern in the United States. Today, in the minds of most American, the American family has meant a nuclear family. There are also other types of family in America, such as blended family, child-free family, single-parent family, gay and lesbian family, cohabitation and independent living, and ect.4.1 Nuclear FamilyNuclear family makes up of parents and their children who live apart from other kin. In old days, a group of people in a big family lived together and shared the wealth together. But now, many families are headed by a married couple. Mother and father have an equal voice in making decisions. Children grow up in a complete family and enjoy a lot of happy times with both their parents. But the proportion of nuclear family which once has been the dominant family patterns has steeply dropped down in recent 20 years.The nuclear American family that consisted of a breadwinner father, a homemaker mother and children were less than 15% of all American households in late 20th century. The rest of American lived in other family forms, such as child-free family, single-parent family, single life which in total surpassed the dominant modern nuclear family showing the value of the bourgeoisie in 1950s(Stephanie 33).4.2 Blended FamilyThe increase in the divorce rate has led to the creation of the blended family, in which at least one member of adult couple is a stepparent. People divorce if they undergo a bitter marriage, but they would like to build a new family again. Some of them choose to remarry with the people of the same experience to blend together two families into one, some of them will marry someone who never marries, and they do want to leave a new happy family life with others who seem to be suitable life companies. It is estimated that slightly more than one American family in six is a blended family. If current trends continue into 21st century, about one out of three adults in the United States will spend part of their lives in a blended family.In a dramatic change from the traditional bitterness of divorce, many parted patterns are doing their best to be cordial, even warm, especially on the most important days of the year. They want their lovely children to grow up in a happy and healthy environment. But it still has negative effects and this will be unfavorable to their children when they are growing up. A great number of peoples whose parents separated in their early age, and then build a new family eventually ended their marriage in divorce just follow the steps of their parents. But many couples and their children adjust successfully to their remarriage, and they consider their new marriage and family to be great improvement over the previous one.4.3 Dual-Employed FamilyOne important shift in American family patterns is that in a large majority of these families, bothhusband and wife have been employed and the family has double incomes. Women’s Limbers started a social and political movement which aimed to achieve women’s liberation by organizing groups and campaigns and by causing individual women and men to change their attitudes. As a result, women have obtained many equal political and legal rights. The economic and domestic lives of women have been changed a lot then. Women are no longer confined to their homes to do housework and take care of the children. In 1940, only about one out of seven married women worked outside the home. Today in more than 70 percent of married couple families with children both work outside.Women in dual-employed families deal with more trifles and family chorus in their daily life, though they have their own work to do. In many cases, fathers are still the breadwinner and they are responsible for the large cost of the families. But it seems that mothers are more tired in this kind of family, because they have to spend a lot of time looking after their children and husbands while working.4.4 Single-Parent FamilyIn some families, only one parent, with his or her children lives together. It may be the result of the divorce, separation or desertion. This kind of family is also called one-parent family or a lone-parent family. Mother or father alone brings up the child. Nowadays there appears more and more single-parent families in America and of all family types, single-parent families have increased most rapidly during the past few years.In 1970s, 12 percent of the total American families wre comprised of single mothers with children under 18, which increased to 24 percent in 1980s, and continued increasing to 26 percent in 1995(Daniel 56). The children with the single-parent are lack of either maternal or paternal love, and probably meet with the physical problems or obstacles which are harmful to their growth and development.4.5 Single LifeSingle life refers to people who live by themselves, which is one of the family patterns rapidly increasing in America. There is a tendency that more and more people are keen on living on their own.There are many reasons why the numbers of singles have increased since the 1970s．In general，being single is no longer considered deviant．More people arc recognizing that there are positive aspects of singlehood．Still，there are other important factors in deciding whether to miarry or to remarry．The main reason that women postponed their marriage and kept single are as follows : to get more freedom, to develop her own career, to make acquaintance with more people, to practice the ability of independence, to reduce bondage of sexual behavior (Stein & Peter 140). High divorce rate is also the reason for the increase in adults living alone.4.6 CohabitationCohabitation is a living arrangement in which two people who are not related and not married live together and usually have a sexual relationship. Cohabitation also means that two people live together without marriage, which has increased dramatically over the past few decades. In the United State, cohabitation has become much more common. As cohabiting with their future husband before marriage or people after divorce live together without marriage again.The reasons of cohabitation are as follows. People are more tolerant to the alternative lifestyle. They choose to cohabitate as a way to escape higher rate of divorce, they do not trust marriage can bring them happiness. More and more people would like to live together and think they lead a happy life. Moreover, due to more job and educational opportunities for young people, and economic hardships, a large number of women choose to delay their marriage to pursue their own careers which also make contributions to anincrease rate of cohabitation. Young people are inclined to live together because they are in an age of caving out their own career and they are not girl friend and fight for life hard together, if they want to change their jobs to another place and they are not meeting of minds, then they can split up peacefully.Experience shows that against good wills, couples who cohabit before marriage are more likely to divorce than those who do not cohabit (Axinn &Thornton 1992). So it seems that cohabitation is not a good way to keep a better marriage.4.7 Dink FamilyDink or Dinky is also called Child-free family, which is the abbreviation of Double or Dual Income, no kids. It is one of the overt family patterns in the United States. A dink family refers to a married young couple who both earn a lot of money but they don’t want to bear a child. There have appeared an increasing number of dink families. Children are no longer the link to maintain a couple’s marriage. Dink co uples get married for love, and they recommend freedom and dedicate life. Usually, both of them are well educated and well paid. Because of no children, they can spend their money on their own will. They can go to the luxury places to enjoy their life, and travel around in their leisure time. The most important thing is that they share no responsibility to bring up a child and lead a much comfortable and agreeable life.The reasons why people especially young couples choose to form a child-free family are intricate. With the improvement of the science and technology, people are leading a better life than ever before. The life span has been increasing during those years, people are more likely to put off their marriage and have babies at an older age. Owing to the fierce competition, young couples would rather dedicate their energy to their works instead of children. They want to have a more comfortable life rather than life with burdens. So they have to struggle for their own dreams or ambitions with no more responsibilities and after success they can spend their earning as they want.4.8 Homosexual HouseholdsHomosexual family is also called Gay and lesbian family. This type of family can be composed of two male adults or two female adults, and children of either one or both the couple, or adopted children. It can be made up of two divorced men /women, or one divorced men or women. It can also consist of two single men/women, with child of their own or adoption. Nowadays, governments begin to attach importance to the homosexual rights and put forward many items to against sexual discrimination and give homosexual couples many of the same rights as any married couple.。