Modern Families: Society and the Changing American Family

Catalog description

The purpose of this course is to understand the American family as a contemporary social institution. We begin by asking how families define themselves. Who counts as a family member, who decides, and how has the definition of family changed over time? We then uncover the work that families do to sustain themselves. How do families negotiate and carry out time-intensive activities like paid work, childrearing, caregiving, housework, emotional labor, self-care, and community involvement? We explore how social institutions like employers, schools, and government challenge or enable families to succeed in this work. Finally, we focus on inequalities between families. How do families absorb the gendered, racialized, and socioeconomic inequalities that permeate American society, and how do they push back?