Social Institutions Family, Marriage and Intimate Relationships PDF

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Social Institutions: Family, Marriage and Intimate Re Monday, November 18, 2019

12:54 PM

Family the most important agent of socialization of all societies Internalize values and norms as represented to them by parents Family is also a social institution § Set of organized rules and statuses, patterns of behaviours and well defined relationships that meets basic social needs and organizes family lives and relationships □ Ex: family, religion, law, politics etc. ○ Cornerstone of social life § 75% of Canadians evaluated that family is the most important thing in life § Typical Canadian family: mom, dad, kids and pets (ideal image of a Canadian family) § Families have changed dramatically, increase rates of separation and divorce Social groups ○ Concrete and different from social institutions Social institutions ○ More abstract, more rules ○ ○ ○

What is a family? • Made of a mom and dad? • A nuclear or subnuclear subunit? ○ Unit composed of one or two parents ○ Extended family: aunts, uncles, grand parents, family friends etc.

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Related by bonds or blood and marriage? ○ Does not account for adopted children ○ Does not need to be related New reproductive technologies.. How many 'parents' can one child have? ○ Egg donor, surrogate mother, sperm donor, adoptive parents.. ○ Subverting assumptions about family and parent hood ○ Many parents can one child have?; imagine a situation involving an egg donor etc.. They are many potential parents for a child that involves those situations ○ Availability for technology raises a problem for the amount of parents § New born baby was conceived 6 months after his father died from a heart attack § Example: the cartoon picture shows implications □ Biological children have never been hand picked by parents □ Children have been considered a gift of life given by nature or any gods □ Children have never been considered a blessing or a curses □ New technologies are subverting these situations ® Can choose the sex of their child ® Can end the future; wish to see the perfect characteristics of their children ® If one is not satisfied with the baby, you can return it to the manufacturer ® Kids could become a commodity According to the (former) text, 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" ○ Has changed because of society From 1968 to 1985, it became easier for wives to divorce

A single type of family does not or has never existed • "solid, traditional family values. That's what my two wives and I are teaching our children"

Marriage • A legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or more individuals that carries certain obligations and usually involves sexual rights and activity • Exists in all societies • Needs to be shared publicly by the community • Marriage takes different forms across all cultures (commitment and values) • Material objects embody values and norms ○ Aisle; walking toward the light ○ Marriage is a right of passage from one life stage to another § From being married to having kids and making a family § Ex; students go from undergraduate to graduate ○ Design of churches embody values and norms § Walk down when you are married and carries you down when you are baptized • Why do people get married? ○ Tax benefits, expectations/pressure from family, gain citizenship, to show commitment to your partner, religion, companionship • Arranged marriages ○ Arranged by parents or marriage brokers ○ Bride and groom have not met ○ Young people are offered to choose their companion ○ India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. • The Bachelor Housework and Childcare Responsibilities • 60% of all Canadian marriages of double income families ○ 50% of employed women hold all year round jobs ○ Second shift is the domestic work that women perform (one month of more work a year) ○ More husbands are sharing some domestic work and childcare responsibilities ○ Cooking a meal, giving a bath and putting a child to bed = more likely to be a women's responsibilities ○ Mowing a lawn, changing a light bulb, changing oils= more likely to be men's responsibilities

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to be men s responsibilities Single moms: more responsibilities because they do everything

Love and Intimacy • Gender roles have changed since the last century • Men and women may not share the same perceptions about love ○ Females express their love verbally while men show their love by non verbal actions ○ Greek Mythology: bored so they invented human beings and then invented love § They tried love for themselves § Invented laughter so that they could stand love (love is not always fun)...