The Fall of the American Family Essay

Relationship Trends

Abstract

This paper looks at relationship trends in the U.S. from a sociological perspective, using feminist political stance as a way to explain the transformation from traditional family norms of the early 20th century to the mixture of families today. Today, single parenting is the new norm as half of all marriages end in divorce. More and more people are going unwed and not having children as well. The population is aging and there are effects to all these factors that are discussed as well. The pros and cons of these trends are examined and described.

Introduction

The traditional family of one hundred years ago used to be the sociological norm; today, however, the new norm is that there is no norm. Half of all marriages end in divorce, and as the Pew Research Center (2015) shows, not only are family sizes shrinking (with parents having fewer children than they used to) but family arrangements are rapidly diversifying: “Two-parent households are on the decline in the United States as divorce, remarriage and cohabitation are on the rise” (Pew Research Center, 2015). Part of the fundamental reason for these changes are rooted in the wider sociological acceptance of birth control to prevent pregnancy and the Feminist movement, which has altered the traditional family dynamic by promoting the woman’s role outside the confines of the domestic sphere with leading feminists like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem urging women to get into the workforce in the 1960s and 1970s. This has led to the old idea of “courtship” being replaced by the new idea of “hooking up,” which further undermines the traditional concept of family life (Hamilton & Armstrong, 2019). This paper will examine the statistics of relationship trends today, including unmarried, solo parenting, blended families and child free living, and discuss the pros and cons of each and how the sociological perspective and feminist politics play a role in understanding these trends.

Unmarried

In 1960, only 5% of births occurred to unmarried women. Today, nearly 40% of births occur outside of marriage (Pew Research Center, 2015). That is a significant jump over the past fifty years and indicates a radical transformation in the social structure and dynamic with regards to personal familial relationships, sex, and marriage. It aligns with what Hamilton and Armstrong (2019) have shown about the trend in relationships moving away from the concept of courtship, which implies getting to know one for the purpose of marriage—i.e., something permanent—to the concept of hooking up—i.e., having sexual flings that have no permanence attached to them. Whereas in the traditional concept, sex was linked to the procreative act, which was sanctioned by marriage, today sex is linked mainly with the pleasure principle and is not restricted to only married people.

The pros of this trend for unmarried does not mean single-parenting. Many relationships are based on cohabitation in which the two parents are living together though they are not married (Pew Research Center, 2015). This indicates that marriage as a social institution has been reduced in value among people today, which could be linked to the rise of feminism, which has promoted and celebrated autonomy among women and urged…

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…to its lowest levels since records began being kept at the beginning of the 20th century (Rosen, Osterman, Hamilton & Martin, 2018). Child free living reached a high of 20% among women in the 40s in 2005 but has since decline. Making the voluntary choice to live without children is a natural outcome of the prevalence and social acceptance of birth control today. Sex has been de-linked from the procreative act in Western society and as such it is viewed as pleasure norm rather than as a procreative norm. The morality of sex without the possibility of procreation is not challenged in popular culture, so it is not surprising that child free living should be on the rise. The pros of this situation are that people without children can enjoy their autonomy and independence without having to engage in responsibilities of the traditional family. The cons of this situation are that without children, society will not grow and the age of the population will increase, meaning there will be more old people than young people in the future.

Conclusion

Relationship trends have altered substantially over the past hundred years but have significantly picked up in terms of transformation just in the past 50 years, thanks to the rise of feminism led by Friedan, Steinem and others who de-legitimized the traditional family norm and posited that women should go out and work and be independent and not be forced to rely on a man. This has not turned out well for single mothers, who have suffered substantially for their independence. Nor has it worked out well for the…