Change in the Nuclear Family Essay

eitherone on the planet has a family, but not foreveryone sees affectionateness to eye about what constitutes as a real family. Since WWII, the social organization of the the Statesn family has been constantly changing. The aver come onal the Statesn family is known as the atomic family, with a catch, father, son, little girl, and occasionally, a pet. only when as time has progressed, the nuclear family has had to make headway live for larger families, maven p atomic number 18nt families, biracial families, and families with tincture and half relatives in them. later on WWII, the the Statesn familys structure changed drastically, with many types of families appearing, aside from the nuclear family structure.The mar boom direct to larger families and an increase of child births and the womens right curtilage and counterculture played part in the rise of ace parent households. With minorities pass oning to a greater extent rights, much biracial households started to appear, while couples decisions to prepare divorces led to step families and half siblings in families. The definition of a normal American family has been continuously changing since the 50s, but no matter what anyone says, it is still a family. During World war II, American families were disarrayed.With approximately 16 million soldiers leave their families and going to war, households in America were left in distress (nationalww2museum). galore(postnominal) men had to abandon their work positions to go to war, which left many jobs vacant. The women of America had to step up and fill the missing mens positions in the work force, meaning many children were left parentless during the day, In 1940 yet 8. 6% of mothers with children younger than 18 were in the work force (Boschee). though 8. 6% does not seem high, it is higher than the percent of women employed ever before at that time.Employed women with children to a lower place the age of 18 were difference many latchkey ch ildren unsupervised during working hours, causing the rate of juvenile willful neglect to rise (Todd). Other children were left under the watchful eye of tightlipped friends or relatives while their mother was working. Older sons and daughters in the family as well as had to put on new and unfamiliar roles to help support their family while the money cleric in the family was away at war. Once the war ended, and the surviving soldiers returned to their hearthstone soil in the U. S. , he familial structure in America started to change with a massive increase of births.After World War II finally came to an end, a new era started which raised the routine of children born into American families. This period of time in Americas history is known as the Baby nail and it is when the number of births increase dramatically. During the get-go year of the Baby Boom, the birth rate was incredible, In 1946, the offshoot year of the Baby Boom, new births in the U. S. skyrocketed to 3. 47 million births. pertly births continued to grow throughout the 1940s and 1950s, leading to a point in the late 1950s with 4. million births in 1957 and 1961 (Todd).The increase of births meant that more households that previously didnt ingest children now housed kids and houses that already had children contained even more. The send smelled of enthusiasm and confidence during the years immediately following WWII, Exhilaration and optimism later on the war seemed to combine with a general feeling of affluence in a booming postwar economy, and generous provisions for returning GIs, to make young couples feel able and willing to support children (Macunovich).The Baby Boom era paved a path for the nuclear family to be created, with the mother, father, son, and daughter living in a quiet little suburb with a picket white fence and a golden retriever playfully chasing the kids. But to many closed-minded Americans horror, the nuclear family succumbed to out of the norm family structur es, with more and more single parents appearing. The rise of single-parenthood was partly on bank bill of the counterculture, which was created because of the social and political events that happened in the 1950s.The counterculture elbow grease prompted many people to perplexity traditional boundaries (Roberts). This meant that many people had freer attitudes towards cultural norms identical hairstyles, types of music, and drug use. Also, a teeming amount of people under the age of 30 had freer attitudes towards versed relationships, with one poll showing that al or so two thirds of Americans over the age of 30 were against sex before marriage, while a majority of Americans under the age of 29 were not (Roberts). Because so many Americans were having premarital sex, single parent households started to show up more often.With the two who took part in the once sacred act usually going separate slipway aft(prenominal) they had sex, the female was always left alone with a baby t o bear, if she was to become pregnant. The counterculture also led to an increase of out-of- wedlock births (Himmelfarb). Both things being something most Americans living in that time period were not used to seeing. Although the counterculture elbow grease played a big role in introducing more single-parent households into American society, it is not the only event that catalyzed more changes in the structure of American families.By the end of the 1960s, a new movement called the Womens Rights Movement, also contributed to the rise of single-parent homes in the nation. During this second wave of feminism, women were more determined to gain equal rights. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed, which ended sexual practice discrimination in the work force, including wage (Women Deserve Equal). Because the women felt like they could depend more on themselves, they did not have to marry a man to support her family.Many militant feminists referred to marriage as thraldom and legalized rape (Mintz). Some of the women that felt that way still wanted children though just not a man to bind her to the house. Thus, creating another reason that single-parenthood started to make more appearances in American households. The counterculture and the second womens rights movement changed the structure of American family structure in a way that make single parents more abundant throughout the nation the civil rights movement changed the familial structure by mixing races.When African Americans gained more rights, it caused dread to bubble up in racist Americans, while the accepting American community rejoiced and felt a better sense of security if they were to fig a biracial family. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 were two major acts passed by the U. S. organisation that gave minorities more rights and protection against racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan (Lapsansky-Werner). Biracial families were once criminal in some states, Forty years ago, the U. S.Supreme Court tip over a state law in Virginia that prohibited whites from marrying non-whites. The vox populi in Loving v. Virginia invalidated similar bans in 15 other states (Powell).After biracial couples could get unite legally, mixed race households became more apparent. The ruling in Loving v. Virginia made a big impact on the familial structures in America. The statistics of biracial marriages has definitely rose, as seen in these statistics, black-white marriages increase from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005, according to Census Bureau figures (After 40 Years). much black-white marriages have led to more children with both black and white genes. In addition to more biracial families being introduced into American society, more families with more complex structures started to appear, as well. When married couples get divorced they usually get remarried, which can lead to step and half relatives. During the 60s, fifty-two percent of women who got married were pregnant and they got ma rried to avoid having a child out of wedlock (Shiono).This being said, it is safe to say that over half of married couples had at least one child during their marriage. Forty-five to fifty percent of first marriages end in divorce (Baker). Many people get remarried after divorcing their first mate, with seventy five percent of people who have gone(p) through a divorce becoming remarried (Stewart). When the father or mother gets remarried, there is always a chance his or her new spouse has children of their own already, creating step-siblings for the child they had during their first failed marriage.If the two new spouses decide to have another child, half-siblings are born. With more and more divorces and remarriages, families with half and step siblings are more likely to be found throughout the nations homes. Many people call homes that suffer from a divorce a broken home, but in reality, it is just another chance for a family to have one more shot at finding its blithely Ever After. Change is something that comes with life and it is something that the American family structure is no rum to, going through constant changes throughout the years.Going from the nuclear family structure to families with more than two kids, families being raised by one parent, and families with step and half siblings, are all changes that the familial structure in America has encountered. Change in the nations family structure is inevitable, whether it is being brought on by an increased number of births, movements that challenge everyday thinking or ones that demand more rights. Even something like a failed marriages result have brought about changes in family structure in the U. S. Every family is built from different bricks but they all have the same mortar- love.