RCL 6: The Evolution of Basic Family Life

The stereotypical structure of a “family” has been around since practically the beginning of time. The man, the wife, and the many children. The setup is simple truly: the man goes to work and makes the money while the wife stays home to cook, clean, and tend to all of the children. In recent years, however, this stereotype has changed.

Since the 1950s, men have always been seen as the “breadwinners” of the family. During the war, they went off to fight, leaving their wives at home to tend to the children. In recent years, however, the view on family structure in America has changed. After the Women’s Suffrage Movement of the 1920s, women began to fight to obtain more rights than just voting.

Now, instead of being seen as fragile housewives, women became their own people. Many women began to join the workforce and make their own money. In even more recent years, some men have taken on the role of being a “househusband.” Men cook the dinner and do the laundry and tend to the children, while women go to work and make money to provide for their families.

The amount of children per household has decreased significantly since the 1950s as well. Many people are stopping after one, or maximizing it at two children, whereas in the 1950s, the average amount of children per household was approximately 2.33. This is an important shift because it shows how far women have come in obtaining their basic human rights and being treated like people. The story to be told here is that women are much more than just pretty faces.

This subject, in particular, draws me because I grew up in a large family, I have nineteen aunts and uncles between my grandparents on my mom’s side. To see the shift from having multiple kids and growing up with married parents to “common law” marriages and my cousins not really wanting to have kids has been a huge shock.

My main research topic will be “how has the structure of the American family evolved since the 1950s?” Some points that I would like to look into while researching include same-sex marriages as well as single-parent families. I would also like to go into the topic of rising divorce rates since the 1950s as the question of why love in our generation isn’t lasting the same way it did in our grandparents’ generation has always been a very interesting topic of debate for me.

The American family structure has shifted and changed so much since the post-World War II era, and I think it would be really cool to explore that change through multiple different lenses.

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