Families are now defined as groups of individuals who commit to living together, forming an economic unit, and caring for any children, and who feel their identity to be inextricably linked to the group. People form kinship networks to help one other get the fundamental essentials of existence, such as food and housing. Property may be transmitted, things can be generated and dispersed, and power can be spread through kinship networks. The family as a social institution must be safeguarded in all countries since it is the fundamental group unit in societal structure (Kendall, 2013). Even though families differ greatly throughout the world, they do share some similar problems in their daily lives. Food, clothes, a home, and care for children are all essentials for everyone.
Considerable economic and political shifts – such as the crisis of 2007 – have changed American families to a great extent, given that a family is an essential and integrated element of any socio-economic system. In the last thirty years, there has been a massive growth in cohabitation. Many extenuating factors for heterosexual couples contribute to such a state of affairs (Kendall, 2013). However, it should be noted that there were no options except cohabitation for gay and lesbian partners in many states before the 2015 US Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage. This decision can be considered another circumstance that caused dramatic changes in American families.
As a result of it, numerous lesbian and gay couples pursued legitimacy for their domestic partnerships. Unmarried couples who live together in a devoted, physically intimate relationship are now allowed some of the same rights and advantages as married heterosexual couples. Moreover, females have become greater contributors to their family’s socioeconomic wealth as the number of dual-earner households has increased, yet some have been increasingly stressed by the following shift (Kendall, 2013). It is domestic labor performed at home by working women after their day at their jobs.
Marriage is an officially valid and socially sanctioned relationship between two or more persons that includes specific rights and responsibilities as well as sexual activity. Still, there may be many differences in terms of gender, choice, etc. Particularly, monogamy is the practice or state of being married to just one person at a time. Polygamy is when an individual of one sex marries two or more people of the opposite sex at the same time. Polygyny is the most common type of polygamy, which involves a male marrying two or more women at the same time. Polyandry is the second kind of polygamy, which involves a woman marrying two or more males at the same time (Kendall, 2013). Then, there may be same-sex marriages in which couples consist of partners of the same gender. Sometimes, a person can choose their partner by being guided by the principle of marrying an individual of the same race.
Nowadays, there is a visible trend that implies a shift towards diversity within families. This is due to the liberalization of the social state of mind, as well as the recognition of tolerance and dignity of each individual. Such an approach has been legally fixed in the essential documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Kendall, 2013). The latter was among the essential declarations adopted after World War II. It might be assumed that if there was an opposite trend – towards traditional family principles – women’s rights would be limited and oppressed to a significant degree. There would be no prerequisites for emancipation at the domestic level, which, according to many scholars, served as a foundation for the launch of an intense struggle for women’s rights. Many females started to see the basis for equality in their homes, beginning to extrapolate to a broader scope.
Reference
Kendall, D. (2013). Sociology in our times (11th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.