Idea of progress

 Idea of progress: family matters

Introduction: the family is traditionally defined as a group composed oftwo parents and their children. The family at large also indicates those that were born from the same ancestors. Today the family is a more complex term because families evolved at the same time as our society which was shocked by changes of mentality during the last century.
We are going to see in what the evolution of our modern society is linked to the evolution of the family structures.

I- traditional family models around  half of the 20th century

1 The social changes
- extract of the novel "The myth of the Traditional familty" taken out in 1997 teaches us that the great depression and the World War II have been difficult for Americans because they lived with many persons in homes with strangers.
-It was the “great economic boom in the 1950s” and government spending (to build highways, real estate subsidies) that allowed the construction of mass homes in the suburbs.
-The prosperous family was an ideal not really imaginable before that. After this experience the Americans all wanted to get their own home to start a family in which the mother kept the house and the children: this is the model of the nuclear family.

2 The Nuclear Family
-Kathy Henry’s article from 2009 shows that the nuclear family was the family norm at the time, was made up of a “Breadwinner” man who was working to bring money back for the family, a woman who stopped working when she was pregnant to take care of he children and the home.
-they were considered as second class citizens. Divorce rate dropped around 1940, women were often dependent on their marriage bond: American society discriminated against women whether for their studies or work, They were forced into the role of the mother who take care for the children and her husband who had much more power in the family.

II- The evolution of society and family norms from the 1950s to now

1 After the 1950s, family models  are diversified, there were no more traditional norms: Kathy Henry’s text tells us that women have more rights, Divorce is common in our society and sometimes children live with a single parent.
- Women are no longer obliged to stay at home as in the nuclear family, they can be independent in their family life, at the same level as men, even if in reality somes inequalities remain for work (salaries, etc...)

-In our modern society there are new types of families: the article by Lisa Respers “The Evolution of the TV Family” explains that the family no longer has its own definition: laws for same-sex marriage or abortion and the change in mentalities mean that homosexuals and blended families can live normally and have more freedom.

Conclusion: In the 1950s the man was the one who brought the family with him while the woman cared for the children and stayed at home. After the break of traditionnal family models and the changing values of society: women have emancipated financially and sexually. Society has been more tolerant and diverse since the emergence of these new family structures.

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