4.2-4.3: Changes in the Family:

Gender role socialization:

• Gender roles: characteristics and behaviors expected and associated with males and females.

• They can be socialized through: 

1. Canalization: channeling someone towards certain activities. For example, giving girls Barbies and boys cars

2. Manipulation: giving them different treatments within the family. For example, a girl will be encouraged to play gymnastics while a boy would be discouraged

3. Representation of gender in films/media

• Cultural relativism: considering all cultures on their own rather than from a Western POV

Changes in family structures over the last 50 years:

1. Marriage: rates declined, remarriage and serial monogamy were normalized, same sex marriage legalized in 2013

2. Divorce: rates increased aided by the Divorce Reform Act of 1969

3. Other changes: women have fewer children, cohabitation increased, lone parents and singletons are more common

Reasons for less marriages and more divorces:

1. Cohabitation: they're considered trial marriages and avoids wedding costs, it's an alternative living situation

2. Later marriage: people wait until they're older to get married, remarriage and serial monogamy are more common

3. Individualism: changing social attitudes and values, less stigma especially religious

4. Secularization: less importance/impact of religion, divorce is normalized so marriage is no longer sacred, and less pressure to get married

5. Policy changes: Divorce Reform Act (1969 effective 1971), Same Sex Marriage Act (2013 effective 2014), Equal Pay Act, Sex Discrimination Act, etc.

6. Gender roles: women's role in education and work (more independent), changing expectations in marriage, increasing feminism 

Conjugal Roles:

They're roles played by partners in a marriage/cohabiting. These roles can either be joint (interchangeable and share roles) or segregated (like Talcott Parson's idea of instrumental and expressive role - men work while women take care of the house respectively)

Reasons for changing conjugal roles (increasing joint):

1. Changing gender roles: women work and get educated, supported by feminism, dual earner = higher living standard 

2. Social attitudes: less stigma about gender roles such as Rutherford's idea of "new man", normalization of family diversity

3. Technology: at home you have labor saving devices which save time and increase the standard of living

Willmott and Young's symmetrical family: