Theoretical Perspectives Compared

The interactions between this week’s articles are varied.  Parson’s article concerning the relationship between individual roles in society and the health of the family coincide with the Aldous article exploring the effects of life course and family development perspectives on family dynamics and attitudes.  Although the Parsons article is understandably a bit dated, the shifting importance from adult to youth roles is evident; as more women occupy positions of power in the workforce than seventy years ago, it is possible that less emphasis is placed on maternity as a symbol of adulthood, than on other forms of adult performativity.  If Parsons is correct (that we should explore how socialization influences family roles), then it is also necessary to examine the rejection of these traditional roles in light of the roles that are replacing them.  Additionally, Parsons makes headway into understanding reasons behind the failure of the traditional family: women are required to subvert interests outside of traditional feminine roles after marriage, while men are reduced to one-dimensional robots.  It is no wonder that youth culture has grown in popularity while traditional adult roles have been altered (and also, as these youth roles fail to confront the expectations of adult gender roles, why they continue to perpetuate unequal sexual relations).  When one looks at the tendency for powerful or less traditionally feminine women to appeal sexually appealing outside or within married roles, or the current glorification of one-dimensional, immature, married men in popular media, it is not surprising that traditional marriage roles are declining ( and more interesting when one considers how many unmarried men are returning to their childhood homes).

With regards to the remaining two articles, Ben-Porath makes me wonder if it’s possible to generalize at any great geographic or temporal scale between/across families, while Booth draws numerous chicken-egg conclusions concerning genetic predisposition and family dynamics and outcomes.

Considering the former, I will ask my three questions:

1.      Using the Ben-Porath article as a reference point, Is it possible to generalize across time and space when it comes to families?  Are families heavily, and subtly, influenced by local or regional factors that make comparisons between countries/regions difficult or impossible?

 2.      To quote Aldous, “The household division of labor also became more traditional, a consequence with a positive effect on husbands' marital satisfaction but a negative effect on the more work-burdened wives”, considering that Popenoe’s conclusion was that males and females are happier after marrying, what, if any, changes to the domestic division of labor would lead to “happier” marriages?

3.      Finally, is there a connection between co-habitation of young couples outside of marriage and the identification with non-sexual family relations?  Could this negatively alter the expectations or roles of the partners, in effect weakening the romantic union?