Family

What is the “Family”?

The term family carries with it plentiful social and cultural meanings, and it also has profound and personal significance for most people. Most discussions about the family, however, define it in practical terms as two or more people living together who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption. The most common assumption about households (defined as one or more people who occupy a house, apartment, or other residential unit, except dormitories) is they should consist of two-parent families. However, various social and economic transformations in society have also led to a transformation of the family in recent decades, which has resulted in a decline in the traditional family share of households.

In 1960, 85 percent of households were family households; by 2000, just 69 percent were family households. Most of this decline reflects the decrease in the share of married-couple households with children. Explanations for this shrinking proportion include declines and delays in fertility within marriage, postponement of first marriage, an increase in cohabiting and single households, and a consistent divorce rate. Two-parent family households with children dropped from 44 percent to 24 percent of all households between 1960 and 2000.

The changes in household composition began gradually in the 1960s, which coincided with radical social changes in U.S. society, including the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement, and particularly with the baby boom generation heading into adulthood. The biggest decline in the share of family households was during the 1970s when the baby boomers entered their 20s. By the 1980s, change was still occurring but at a less rapid pace; by the 1990s, household composition reached a still-continuing equilibrium. So with these structural changes and the eventual quieting that occurred, why are we still concerned about the state of the family and where does this alarm stem from?

Nostalgia for Families past

In many public policy discussions surrounding marriage and the family, the common underlying theme is a desire for simpler times. This time warp in mind-set harks back to the 1950s, when a prosperous post-war economy existed and families fared well overall in comparison with an earlier generation that faced the hardships and challenges of the Great Depression. In this era between the 1950s and the late 1960s, changes [Page 353]occurred in family structure from times past, where marriage rates increased and the baby boom occurred. The revision of the breadwinner-homemaker model came about; no longer were women told they did not need to work outside the home in order for the family to make ends meet. What we need to remember about this time, however, is what it represents: a blip in our nation's history. A precursor to the women's liberation movement from this time was “the problem that has no name,” which was Betty Friedan's call to a generation of women about complacency and adherence to conformity. Still, what is often recalled from the 1950s is a romanticized version of the family, not how things really were.

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