Chapter 4: Family in the United States

Explain how, according to the lecture, the American family disintegrated from the period of traditional
familism to the period of individualism.

Notes: Traditional Familism mid-1940s to the mid-1960s: families were mostly traditional ones: married
couples with children. Men tended to be dominant and the gender roles were clear-cut. Families were
idealized and there was conformity to social norms. Individualism mid-1960s to the mid-1980s: the
sexual revolution, women’s liberation, and the antiwar movement tell us that there was less conformity
to traditional social norms; idealization of career and work and a drive for self-expression; economic
changes made it necessary for more women to work; new types of families: single-parent families,
cohabiting couples with or without children, and families in which both husband and wife worked
became common.
A hundred years ago, one heart the same kinds of comment about the American family that once here
today. In sure, that the American family is disintegrating.