Family Problems & Social Change

Catalog description

This course in family problems is sociological in focus and specifically addresses how families are influenced by the social and economic context in which they exist. It will address major historical transformations in society (i.e. social change) and corresponding family change. This course is organized in three main sections. The first section of the course approaches families historically and geographically, examining Western family patterns prior to the Industrial Revolution. It examines changes in family forms beginning with the 18th century and resulting in the nuclear family form of the 19th century. In reviewing families of the 20th and 21st century, we will discuss patterns of fertility, divorce, remarriage, “singlehood,” women’s labor force participation, and accompanying structural and cultural changes that coincide with these changing patterns of organization. The second section examines multiple family forms, including but not limited to variations based on ethnicity/race, class, and sexual orientation. The final section of the course examines specific problems contemporary families face, including family violence, child and elder care, and equitable division of labor in the home.