Changing Families : Relationships In Context, Third Canadian Edition Lecture Notes

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Table Of Contents
Preface x
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Family Studies 1
Instructor's Introduction 1
Additional Class Material on Methods 1
Surveys 1
Observations 2
Experiments 3
Evaluative Research 4
Content and Secondary Analysis and Historical Research 4
Help with Analytical Questions 5
Suggested Videos 6
Suggested Light Readings 6
Short Essay Questions 6
Chapter 2: History and Cultural Diversity of Canadian Families 7
Instructor's Introduction 7
Additional Class Material on the History of American Families 7
Multiple Historical Roots 7
The Colonial Period 8
Families Become more Diverse and Stratified 9
Industrialization and New Social Definitions 9
The Twentieth Century 10
Additional Class Material on Italian-Canadian Families 10
Help with Analytical Questions 14
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 14
Suggested Weblink 15
Chapter Linkages 15
Chapter 3: Contemporary Changes in Family Life 16
Instructor's Introduction 16
Additional Class Material on Individualism 17
Chapter Linkages 18
Help with Analytical Question 18
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 18
Suggested Reading 18
Short Essay Questions 19

Chapter 4: Effects of Economic Changes and Inequalities on
Families
20
Instructor's Introduction 20
Additional Class Material 20
Chapter Linkages 20
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 21
Suggested Media 21
Suggested Reading 22
Short Essay Questions 22
Chapter 5: Impacts of Neighbourhoods and Housing Conditions
on Family Life
23
Instructor's Introduction 23
Additional Class Material on the Home Office 23
Chapter Linkages 24
Help with Analytical Question 24
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 25
Short Essay Questions 25
Chapter 6: Roles of Educational Institutions and Religious
Participation in Family Life
26
Instructor's Introduction 26
Chapter Linkages 27
Help with Analytical Questions 27
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 28
Short Essay Questions 29
Chapter 7: Couple Formation and Sexual Relations 30
Instructor's Introduction 30
Chapter Linkages 30
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 30
Suggested Media 31
Short Essay Questions 31
Chapter 8: Patterns of Family Formation and Planning 32
Instructor's Introduction 32
Additional Class Material 32
Adoption and Reunion with Birth Parents 32
Reproductive Technologies--Cloning 33
Postpartum Depression—A Sociological Critique of the Research 33

Chapter Linkages 35
Help with Analytical Questions 35
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 36
Media Options 36
Short Essay Questions 37
Chapter 9: Spousal Relationships 38
Instructor's Introduction 38
Chapter Linkages 38
Help with Analytical Questions 39
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 39
Short Essay Questions 40
Chapter 10: The Parent-Child Relationship and Child
Socialization
41
Instructor's Introduction: Gaps in the Current Literature 41
Additional Class Material 41
The Parent-Child and Spousal Relationships Compared 41
Effects of Adolescent Part-Time Employment 42
Chapter Linkages 43
Help with Analytical Question 43
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 44
Short Essay Questions 44
Chapter 11: Sibling Relationships and Situations 45
Instructor's Introduction 45
Additional Class Material 45
More on Behaviour Genetics 45
Adopted Children 47
Twins as Persons 48
Chapter Linkages 48
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 48
Short Essay Questions 49
Chapter 12: Divorce, Widowhood, and Remarriage 50
Instructor's Introduction 50
Additional Class Material 50
How to Measure Divorce? 50
Stepparents' Rights and Responsibilities 50

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Chapter Linkages 51
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 51
Short Essay Questions 52
Chapter 13: Family Violence, Abuse, and Neglect 53
Instructor's Introduction 53
Chapter Linkages 53
Help With Analytical Question 54
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 54
Media Options 54
Short Essay Questions 55
Chapter 14: FAMILY FUTURES AND SOCIAL POLICIES 56
Instructor's Introduction 56
Suggestions for Discussion, Projects, Papers 56
Short Essay Questions 56

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Chapter 1
Introduction to Family Studies
INSTRUCTOR'S INTRODUCTION
The two distinctive features of this chapter reside, first, in the broader range of theoretical
perspectives presented compared to other textbooks. All the theoretical perspectives presented in this
chapter are highlighted at some point in the text. Second, as explained in the Preface of the textbook,
the themes provide the threads that link various topics together, often leading to matters of social
policies affecting family life. The themes present the text's “voice,” “flavour,” or perspective. This
perspective comes from my own fieldwork as well as from readings that have particularly influenced
me throughout the years. These themes are useful instruments of integrative analysis, social critique,
and social policy building.
ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIAL ON METHODS
The following class material is meant to accompany Table 1.2 on Methods in Family Research.
Instructors may wish to return to this topic in a later lecture to avoid beginning the course with
methods. Although qualitative material is discussed, the emphasis is on quantitative methods. The
reason is that Canadian instructors in family studies, including myself, tend to have a greater
expertise in qualitative methods. The additional material is intended to complement instructors’
expertise whenever appropriate.
Another suggestion: You may reserve these notes and the related pages from Chapter 1 and use them
to accompany the Family Research inserts that appear in each chapter. Or these inserts may be put
together along with Table 1.2 to create a Module or special lecture on research methods in family
studies at a convenient point in your program.
Surveys
Surveys probably constitute the largest source of research information in the sociology of families.
The results of many longitudinal surveys of large samples, including several generations within a
family, are becoming available. For Canada, one can think of Statistics Canada's General Social
Surveys and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth which began in the early
1990s. In the U.S., one can think here of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the Panel Study
of Income Dynamics, and the National Survey of Families and Households--which are older than the
Canadian survey of children and youth and include several generations within a same family. Family
research utilizing surveys has recourse to a multiplicity of "instruments" (i.e., questionnaires in this
case), but a few prominent "scales" or questionnaires that have been extensively tested are used
repeatedly throughout family studies. One can think here of the Marital Adjustment Test for Marital
Satisfaction developed by Locke and Wallace in 1959, the Conflict Tactics Scale to measure the

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behaviours of people during a situation of conflict which was developed by Straus in 1979, and the
Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory developed by Tolman in 1989, which is a
self-report questionnaire for men.
Online questionnaires are now the least expensive survey method followed by phone interviews.
Face-to-face interviews are the most expensive forms of surveys. The latter, however, particularly
when combined with a self-administered questionnaire, including some open-ended questions for
qualitative data and interviewers' observations, provide a far richer and textured set of data or
information than mail or phone surveys and, so far, even online surveys.
In order to generalize to the rest of the population, surveys have to use a random sample. A random
sample gives an equal chance to all the members in a category of people of being selected. When a
targeted sample includes a small minority of the population, for instance lesbian couples who give
birth, researchers often turn to other sampling techniques that are not random. They may ask
colleagues for names of persons who would be willing to be interviewed and, in turn, these persons
may provide additional referrals. This is at times called the "snowball sampling technique." Other
researchers place advertisements on campuses for student volunteers or advertisements in
newspapers or magazines. The people who respond to these ads are then interviewed. While the
latter methods may be useful to explore a topic, they do not necessarily yield generalizable data or
information. Why? Because respondents are self-selected. For instance, fathers who respond to an ad
seeking subjects for a study of father-daughter incest may be those fathers who feel truly guilty for
their actions, who have maintained a good relationship with their daughter, or who may not have
engaged in sexual intercourse with them. In contrast, fathers in denial may not respond and neither
might fathers who are unrepentant. Thus, the study will not reach the entire spectrum of types of
father-daughter incest and consequences.
Surveys have several limitations. First, they can focus on only a limited number of topics and can
ask only a limited number of questions. Therefore, this presents a problem for secondary analyses.
That is, researchers who later have recourse to these large data banks for their own topics may have
very limited material at their disposal, such as only one question (indicator) for, say, marital
happiness. This is often too little. Second, multiple-choice questions do not offer respondents the
chance to express the magnitude of their experience or feelings. The latter are better obtained
through open-ended questions that yield in-depth qualitative data. Third, surveys often ask questions
that respondents have never thought about before or questions that do not address respondents'
current preoccupations, joys, and problems. In contrast, in-depth interviews or questionnaires can
avoid this pitfall as they are in great part driven by respondents. The students' autobiographies in the
textbook are an example of an in-depth questionnaire that allows respondents to choose which of
their own life experience and preoccupations they will use as the basis of their responses. Thus,
qualitative surveys yield richer data but they are time consuming and expensive to analyze. They
also require great analytical skills and extensive theoretical linkages.
Observations
Observers may simply record what they see or they can do audio and now videotapes that are
analyzed later by independent coders. Coders are persons hired to give a name to the behaviour they
observe on the video by segments of a few seconds at a time. A code number is generally assigned to

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each type of behaviour so that statistics can be derived. For instance, a child who smiles at his
mother while she speaks to him may be coded as "warm response" and receive a score of 5 on a
5-point scale. Such codings often take place with the help of a computer already equipped with keys
corresponding to the observed categories: The coders then simply press the key corresponding to
"warm versus cold behaviours" and then press the number or code 5 in the above example.
Indirect observations, combined with a form of instant (or “live”) surveys, are also used. For
instance, families can be given a pager or their members can be “beeped” on their cell phones at
random times during a day. At that point, all family members are asked to check multiple-choice
questions (the same for all members) in order to gain a more holistic picture and also to compare the
perspective of each family member with that of the others. For example, parents’ answers can be
compared to each other, to their children’s, or siblings to each other. Questions generally ask where
they are at the time of beeping, what they are doing, with whom, and what their mood or feelings
are, etc.
Observation studies can be designed to include a great deal of qualitative information in addition to
the statistical one. Observation of families in their natural settings is a very difficult enterprise to
undertake for many reasons. Families may be reluctant to participate, they may alter their daily
activities to look better in the observer's eyes, or they may not have enough space at home to
accommodate the observer. Naturalistic observations in public places are also possible, such as when
parents and children are playing together in a park or are talking in a restaurant.
Experiments
At times, fieldwork can include a level of experimentation, particularly when it takes place in a
laboratory setting. One can think here of the research whereby various instruments are attached to
the respondents' skin to measure heart rate, pulse, perspiration levels (as in a lie-detector test), and
even draw samples of blood to examine chemical changes in response to happiness or stress, for
example. Couples interact around assigned tasks and the researchers can follow chemical and
organic changes that take place when a stressor is introduced, when a couple disagrees, or when a
couple is affectionate.
Real experiments generally include at least two groups: The experimental group that is given a
specific stimulus such as the possibility to watch a violent or an erotic video; also needed is a control
group similar to the other one which does not receive the stimulus or the treatment in medical
research. The two groups are measured on various dimensions derived from the researcher's theory
both before and after the stimulus. For instance, along these lines, it has been found that parents who
were asked to interact with a child who had been trained by researchers to behave in an oppositional-
conflictual manner tended to drink more alcoholic beverages after the session than similar parents
who had interacted with the same child who had played a very cooperative and prosocial role with
them. These children who are trained by researchers on how to behave are called "child
confederates."
Naturalistic experiments are those that involve, for instance, the study of family functioning before a
mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and after the diagnosis or even the surgery. Such families can
be observed or interviewed. Their level of warmth toward each other, of help to the mother, and so

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on, is measured before and after a natural situation (or stimulus) occurs. Naturalistic experiments are
not frequent because researchers rarely have the opportunity of knowing in advance of positive or
negative changes that occur in a family. But longitudinal surveys often do catch changes, such as a
divorce, and are able to compare a family's behaviour years before and even after, and also compare
such a family with one in which divorce does not occur, or before and after a natural disaster.
Experiments can be combined with indirect observations mentioned above.
Evaluative Research
Evaluative studies may involve a quasi-experimental design whereby researchers test parents,
children, or families before a treatment or a social intervention is initiated and re-test them after.
Generally, a control group is involved. The goal of evaluative research is to appraise the success or
failure of an intervention or of several interventions which are being compared to see which is the
most effective. For instance, researchers recently compared two programs designed to lower levels
of wife abuse. They used pre- and post-measures as is generally the case in a well-designed
evaluative study.
Welfare initiatives are often evaluated but one has to be very careful and closely examine the
procedures involved in the evaluation, particularly when a government agency evaluates its own
programmes (self-evaluation). For instance, after WorkFare for people on social assistance was
introduced in Ontario, the government reported a sharp decline in the welfare caseload of assisted
families. This was touted as proof of success for this initiative. Yet, independent researchers found
that only one third of the former welfare recipients had actually exited poverty. The rest were still as
poor as before. At the same time, food banks were noticing an increase in the utilization of their
resources by families. Obviously, what was needed was a methodology whereby WorkFare families
(generally mother-headed) were followed up carefully to see how many were still employed,
whether they were still poor or if they were worse off than when they were socially assisted.
Reliance on just one statistics, such as a drop in the welfare rolls, can be very misleading when
evaluating the success of a programme. (Evaluative research is mentioned in the textbook in Chapter
14 as it is very important with respect to outcomes of social policies.)
Content and Secondary Analysis and Historical Research
Secondary analysis refers to the very widespread practice whereby researchers utilize the data
contained in the various surveys discussed earlier and analyze some segments of it. These analyses
are secondary because they come after the original design of the surveys has occurred. The
researchers who design a survey and analyze its data engage in a primary analysis: They had
designed the survey to answer certain specific research questions. Researchers who engage in
secondary analyses fall into two categories. Those who are knowledgeable in a field and are testing
specific hypotheses derived from their theoretical perspective or are searching for an answer to a
research question that has not yet been analyzed. These researchers know that a given survey
contains relevant information. Then there are those who are simply in search of "publishable
material" and take the data in the survey and analyze it until they find what are called "statistically
significant differences" or, yet, correlations. The latter researchers are not guided by knowledge or
theory and may try to find a theoretical perspective that explains what they have found after the fact,
so to speak.

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Content analyses of, for instance, television programmes, websites, YouTube, social media, and
magazine articles can be very useful to pinpoint trends that can influence children's behaviours (i.e.,
violence) or family relations (i.e., portrayal of parents or of the maternal or paternal role). Historical
family research utilizes, in addition to public statistics, the content analysis of personal documents
such as diaries, family genealogies and marking events, marriage and baptism records in churches of
past centuries, advice books written for parents, advertising in old magazines and newspapers, old
newspapers' accounts that pertain to family life, biographies, ledgers and bookkeeping records of
farms, estates, and plantations, ship manifests and captains' logbooks, to name only the main sources
for content analysis. Novels can also be content analyzed for portrayal of family. Paintings of family
groups can also be examined, a method that Philippe Aries has used to demonstrate that children in
earlier European centuries were part of the adult world at a relatively young age. Poetry, oral
tradition, and written songs can also be sources of insight into family lifestyles and preoccupations
of a given period.
HELP WITH ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS (located at the end of chapter in the textbook)
Question 1. Possibilities: Some instructors, for ideological reasons, see families as a "traditional"
concept. Others like to emphasize that the element of choice and intimate relations seem to fulfill
this perspective. However, not all family members are involved in intimate relations; some may
actually be strangers but still recognize that they belong to the same family (as illustrated in a quote
in the Student’s Guide and in a question also in the Guide). The emphasis on intimate relations will
not cover such family members. As well, one can have intimate relations outside the family and with
individuals who pass through one's life for only a brief period of time, and who never penetrate one's
familial circle. Thus, families and intimate relations are two separate concepts that overlap in some
instances but cover different realities in other instances. The concept of intimate relations misses the
notion of institution, the intergenerational aspect of families, and the reality of extended families. As
well, it is not a concept that is well adapted to the situation of many new Canadians.
Question 3. Linkages of themes to theories:
● Social inequalities can be linked to political economy theories, structural functionalism, rational
theory (capital), and feminist theories. They can also be linked to behaviour genetics in the sense
that social inequalities limit individuals’ development of some of their abilities, particularly at
the intellectual and personal control levels.
● Gender inequalities and roles originate from feminist theories and are also linked to political
economy theories and to social constructions of reality. They can be linked to the developmental
aspects of a family (as, for instance, one sees the continuation of the nurturing role of women
throughout the stages of family development) as well as to social exchange theory and even
interactional theories.
● Family diversity can be linked to structural functionalism or as a critique of its original
conception; to political economy theories; to feminism; to social constructionism.
● Family responsibilities can be linked to political economy theories, social structural
functionalism, feminism, social constructionism (the constructs of the roles of mothers, fathers,
and children, for instance). They can also be linked to rational theories (families provide capital)
and to developmental theories (responsibilities are continued, added, and transferred as families
grow, shrink, and parents age).

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● Effective community is itself derived from rational theory but can also be linked to interactional
theories as well as behaviour genetics.
● Cultural context is related to social construction; feminism can also present a critique of our
current cultural context.
● The interactional theme is linked to symbolic interactionism, interactive-transactional theories,
developmental and behaviour genetics perspectives (in the latter case, there is an interaction
between nature and nurture, between the shared and nonshared environments, and between
genes and these environments which form nurture). It can also be linked to political economy
theories as an explanation of the context of inequalities and its effects on family relations.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS
www.youtube.com probably still offers Jean Kilbournes’ Killing Us Softly—Advertising’s Image of
Women. This video comes in several segments. It is related both to feminism and social
constructionist perspectives and can also be used to illustrate what is meant by content analysis (of
the media, in this case).
Sut Jhalby’s The Codes of Gender also offers an analysis of advertising that includes elements of
symbolic interactionism, particular Goffman, as well as feminism and social constructionism.
The Oprah Show had an interesting hour on Sister Wives, an ideal polygamous American family,
around October 13-14, 2010.
SUGGESTED LIGHT READINGS
The two historical novels by Bernice Morgan, situated in Newfoundland, provide a very good
example of family as an institution lasting throughout a century: Random Passage (1992) and
Waiting for Time (1994), St. John’s, NF: Breakwater. These two books provide a realistic depiction
of the situation and are equally suggested for Chapter 3. A miniseries also resulted.
SHORT ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Discuss polygamy from a feminist perspective or even social exchange theory.
2. How are social constructionism and feminism related in the study of families?
3. Present a case study of an age-gapped family (or an age-condensed family) focusing on the
consequences of this situation both for parents and children within a developmental perspective.
4. Use anthropological material to illustrate some of the different social constructions of
motherhood that exist throughout the world.
5. Link the concept of the shared environment in behaviour genetics to symbolic interactionism as
well as interactional-transactional perspectives.

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Chapter 2
History and Cultural Diversity of
Canadian Families
INSTRUCTOR'S INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents a chronological narrative of the changes that have taken place among the first
three groups of founding families: the First Nations, the Québécois and their predecessors in France,
and then the British, and how the latter two have particularly affected Aboriginal families. This
chapter then illustrates the increasing diversity of origins of Canadian families as new Canadians
arrive in Canada from a broader spectrum of nationalities and religions. The focus is on black
Canadian families, Chinese- and Indo-Canadian families.
ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIAL ON THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN FAMILIES
As a comparative note, and because some overlap and similarities exist between the two societies, a
brief history of families in the U.S. follows. This section presents the broad strokes or, if you wish,
the general outlines of the history of American families. (Not only are there similarities and parallels
between Canadian and American history but also with Australia, for instance, and New Zealand. All
involve British conquests and colonial rules as well as subjugated Aboriginal groups.)
Multiple Historical Roots
Chronologically, the first set of civilizations belonged to the Natives: they were quite diverse by
the time the first colonists arrived. In the south, some Native nations had already been in contact
with Spaniards. In the northeast, other nations had been trading and even intermarried with the
French. Much later on, in 1867, Alaskan Natives were included after having been under Russian
rule; to this day, many still carry Russian surnames. The second set of historical roots lies in
Protestant Europe, particularly England of the seventeenth century. These British Europeans
became the dominant group in American society. A wide spectrum of African societies, whose
members were brought to the American shores in chains, formed the third influence on American
family life. The Latinos, ranging from Puerto Rico and then Florida to northern Mexico, in the
latter case what became the American southwest, represented the fourth early cultural group in
the formation of the American family.
These diverse Latinos were already in place long before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. But
it is only much later that their territories were annexed by the U.S. It is also only toward the end of
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that other immigrant groups, largely from Europe, began
contributing to the landscape of American families. For their part, Hawaiians chronologically
constitute one of the last indigenous cultural root of family life in the U.S., although their influence
has remained largely isolated, both because of conquest and long distance.

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The cultural groups other than Europeans are now minorities; their trajectories are unique as they
have often been marked differently than the British-majority group by the same historical events. For
instance, the Civil War carried different implications and consequences for African Americans
compared to whites. Furthermore, the life courses of minority families have been deeply affected by
developments among majority families. For example, the historian Franklin (1993) discusses the role
that white males have played during slavery in African-American families and in the formation of
black masculine identity. Although, southern white women were affected by this reality even as
mothers, overall, the historical causality flowed from white to minorities.
The Colonial Period
The 20,000 Puritans who arrived from England between 1620 and 1640 brought with them the
traditional, nuclear family of father, mother, and children. Their dream was to establish a Godly
family based on the teachings of the Bible. Families raised six or seven children who learned to read
the scriptures at home and worked together as a unit of production. As the years went by and the
colonists aged, grandparents co-resided with one of their adult children. But this extended family
system at the household level never constituted the main form of family structure. The reason lies in
the fact that life expectancy was low: Relatively few elderly parents survived until all their children
were married. Further, elderly parents had many children, so that, when they lived with one, all the
others constituted separate nuclear families. (The parallels with Quebec are evident here.)
In terms of gender stratification, the colonial society was a masculine one and women were
subordinate to men, particularly their husbands and fathers. Fathers were responsible for the moral
character of their children as well as their families' honour. They were the primary parent, although
mothers were the main caretakers and it is only in the eighteenth century that they replaced fathers in
the area of religious instruction. Sexual relationships outside marriage were condemned but
nevertheless occurred and frequently led to legal proceedings. When the early moral standards of the
small cohesive communities eroded somewhat, masculine infidelity became relatively more
acceptable and, in the south, common between white men and slave women. Widowed women could
receive some land and manage their families: They were seen as replacing their deceased husbands.
Divorces were granted on a very limited basis. Fathers typically retained custody of children, as was
the case in England.
In the period roughly bounded by the years 1620 and 1780 before industrialization, adults and
children used to participate in the household economy. Families were units of production and much
of what they needed was produced at home or in the vicinity. Everyone was involved and children
contributed from an early age. Children were regarded as useful and responsible members of the
family economy. Skills were acquired in one's immediate environment; children observed what their
parents or host families were doing and learned by imitation as well as direct teaching. Families
formed an integral part of their communities and many functions fulfilled by various social agencies
in the twentieth century were taken care of at home, particularly education and social control.
Fathers were responsible not only for their children's behaviours, but for that of their live-in servants
as well as slaves. Thus, households, especially in the south, were more extensive than Canadian ones
at the same time. Religion was a constitutive element of the family dynamics of these early
Americans and was largely a masculine domain.

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Families Become More Diverse and Stratified
As the conquest of the country moved southward and westward, families began to diversify
depending upon the geographic location of settlement and the nature of their work. Small cities
became stratified, as was the ca se in Canada, along social class lines that later extended into the
countryside. Social classes then largely consisted of three broad categories of families: important
merchants and large plantation owners at the top, then artisans, and at the lowest rung were the
labouring segments of the population. At the bottom of this stratification system were the slaves.
After 1780, with the advent of industrialization, the merchant and large landowner class was
enlarged by entrepreneurs, and the artisan class by various types of clerical workers as well as army
personnel. The lower class of workers was exploited for its labour. American families were
becoming more socially diversified and rigidly stratified, their economic base was evolving, and
their lifestyles were becoming more varied.
In the eighteenth century, children often left home by the age of ten, particularly in poor families, to
become apprentices or even servants. They were incorporated within their host family, and, in the
late nineteenth century until World War II, lodgers became part of the households of the poor while
servants lived in the homes of the more affluent. Thus, while the European-American family has
always been predominantly nuclear rather than extended, the household unit often contained
additional, unrelated persons.
While the seventeenth and eighteenth century family formed an economic unit, generally working
together on a farm, the nineteenth century family, although still predominantly agricultural, became
more diversified as production gradually shifted outside the home to an urban landscape of factories
and office jobs. Around 1820, America witnessed the development of a middle-class ideal where the
family became a site of comfort. A distinction was made between the home as a private domain and
the public sphere of work, the economy, and politics from which women and children were
excluded. The role of the father became less intimate and more externally oriented toward the public
domain.
Industrialization and New Social Definitions
With the rapid growth of industrialization and urbanization in the nineteenth century, the condition
and social definition of childhood began to change. The new economy no longer needed child
labour and concerns grew about the working conditions of poor children who toiled twelve hours a
day in unsanitary environments. Moreover, romantic definitions of children as naturally innocent
combined with the movement to control idle youth in urban areas resulted in a perception of children
as needing protection and education. A consequence of these social developments taken together
resulted in child and adolescent schooling becoming the norm. Farm children as well as many
children of immigrants escaped this rule for a long time: They were needed to help their families
economically. Thus, the social reconstruction of children did not reach all social classes or all ethnic
groups simultaneously.
The new attitude toward children as objects of emotional gratification rather than coworkers as well
as the generally declining birth rate among the white middle class occurred concurrently with a new
ideology of domesticity. It was characterized by an emphasis on intensive mothering and the

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privacy of the family. Mothers were seen as naturally endowed to pursue the moral education of
their children and to nurse their sensitivities. Women's role in life was to invest their energies into
the care of their children. As a reflection of these social reconstructions, after 1860, children were
more frequently placed in their mother's custody following divorce.
The Twentieth Century
Husbands' and wives' emotional relations and companionship had become more important aspects of
marriage by the early 1900s. The division of labour by gender solidified, particularly among the
middle class: Mothers were relegated to the domestic sphere while fathers became the exclusive
breadwinners and their families' representatives in the public domains. But again these developments
occurred unevenly throughout the social class system: The working class could not exactly afford to
live without the wife's economic contribution. Nor could African Americans. Boarders became more
common in cities, particularly in immigrant households until the 1940s, in order to supplement
families' income. Thus, the separation of the domestic sphere from the public domain was at first a
white middle-class phenomenon.
As the nineteenth and twentieth centuries unfolded, most families had become units of
consumption: Productivity took place elsewhere and basic necessities had to be purchased. Family
heads worked outside for wages or occasionally had an office or business attached to their home.
Working-class children and particularly adolescents continued their contribution to the family
economy as wage labourers until the 1920s and on farms until much later. White women entered the
work force in great numbers during World War II in order to replace men who went abroad as
soldiers. But when the war was over, women were encouraged to stay home. This situation lasted
until the 1960s after which point their labour force participation continued to rise to this day.
However, African-American women had long preceded their white counterparts in this respect as
over 40 percent were employed already in 1900, and this figure is probably an underestimate.
Then, in the 1970s, adolescents re-entered the work force in part-time jobs in the service sector, in
order to acquire discretionary spending money. By 1990, 61 percent of tenth graders and 90 percent
of eleventh and twelfth graders worked at some time during the school year. By the close of the
twentieth century, the requirements of the labour market in terms of education had given rise to two
new life stages. First, that of young adulthood--which stretched adolescent dependence on parents
longer. Second, that of preadolescence, largely the result of consumerism and media influences
which sold lifestyles to children. Thus, children became more differentiated along age lines and
more isolated from other age groups, including adults.
ADDITIONAL CLASS MATERIAL ON ITALIAN-CANADIAN FAMILIES
By coming to this country to pursue new lives and find new opportunities, immigrant groups
other than the French and British have transformed the Canadian social and cultural mosaic.
Italian Canadians provide a telling example of an older immigrant group with unique cultural
traditions and family structure that, over time, has melded into Canadian society while retaining
many of its traditions and adhering to the importance of family. Italians began to arrive in
significant numbers in the late 19th century. Between 1870 and 1900, Italian immigration to

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Canada was steady if unspectacular; by 1901, there were 10,834 Italian Canadians here. Between
1900 and 1914, however, immigration exploded: By 1911, Italian immigrants to Canada
numbered 45,963. Although the First World War reduced immigration, once peace returned,
Italian immigration resumed: The prosperous 1920s saw 26,183 new arrivals. In the 1930s, as
immigration was restricted to protect Canadian workers during the Great Depression, only 3,898
Italians arrived. Then in 1940, Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, aligned Italy with Nazi
Germany, and Canada, as an ally of Great Britain, went to war against Germany and Italy. The
immigration of Italians came to a halt.
After the Second World War, Italian immigration to Canada resumed, and by 1981, over 500,000
Italians had come to this country—an immigrant group second in size only to that from the
British Isles. Since then, Italy’s economic situation has improved markedly via the European
Economic Community. Consequently, Italian immigration to Canada and the U.S. has declined.
Still, despite lower immigration rates, Italian Canadians retain a significant presence in Canada,
numbering over one million. Indeed, after the United Kingdom and China, Italy is the third most
common birthplace of immigrants to Canada.
Italians have traditionally placed great importance on family life and especially on family
solidarity between all blood relatives, in-law relations, and godparents. “One’s personal identity
was derived from his family, and family membership was essential in terms of defining one’s
place in society.... The strength of the norm of solidarity meant that the disgrace of one member
of the family affected everyone—a disobedient child was the concern not only of the parents
but of the extended kin as well.” The extended family was headed by a male capo di famiglia—
usually the oldest married male member—who made the decisions about all family matters,
including children’s education, dowries, and funeral expenses. Although the Italian family was
patriarchal, women were not without power. Even in Italy, a woman could own property and
contribute economically to her family by working part-time in the fields. She also retained her
dowry after marriage, which gave her economic leverage and went to her children, not her
husband, upon her death.
Many aspects of traditional Italian culture and family life were transplanted to Canada. Primarily
from poor and agrarian southern Italy, early Italian immigrants came largely as families.
Unmarried Italian men who decided to stay in Canada soon contacted their families in Italy in
order to find wives. As Ramirez (1989:12) notes, early Italian immigrants brought with them “a
notion of the family that rested on strict norms of authority, mutual responsibilities and honour.
The family was viewed essentially as a cooperative enterprise whose material and emotional
well-being was dependent on the specific roles that the various members were expected to
perform.”
Men’s responsibilities centred on providing for their families. Although the first waves of
immigrants who reached Canada were largely peasants and farm labourers—and some Italian
farming communities were founded in places like Naples, Alberta—the majority of men worked
in industrial jobs: mining, logging, and building and maintaining the railway. Women, on the
other hand, were relegated to the domestic realm and were responsible for producing homemade
articles (both for their families and to exchange for other goods and services); processing and
preserving food; raising domestic animals; and tending their gardens. As in Italy, women also
continued to be responsible for maintaining kinship ties, particularly with female relatives, and

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for nurturing their children. “In a world where the family status was judged not by the
occupation of the father but by the signs of family well-being which emanated from the
household, the mother played an important role in securing that status.” The extended family was
still evident in many Italian-Canadian homes after the Second World War. Although these first-
generation immigrant Italian women were discouraged from entering the wage-labour force, it
was not unusual for them to take in boarders and thus contribute to the family earnings.
At first, new immigrants brought with them Old World notions such as “pride in one’s village or
regional origin”; identity as Canadians remained elusive. However, as they began to see Canada
as a land of opportunity, many second- and third-generation Italians conformed to the social
norms of the English-speaking majority, pursued an education, and began moving into the
middle classes as restaurateurs, small business owners, and professionals. Migrating to cities—
primarily Toronto and Montreal—they tended first to settle in areas with low real estate prices.
Consequently, there emerged in every major city a “Little Italy” with Italian shops, restaurants,
and a strong social life built around the Roman Catholic Church and social and cultural
organizations.
Post-1945 immigration also says much about the cohesive nature of Italian-Canadian society
built around family, kinship, and friends. By 1950, the federal government’s more liberal
immigration policies allowed Canadian citizens to sponsor family members, including cousins,
as new immigrants. In this way, and wanting to reunite their families, members of the established
Italian-Canadian community brought family members from war-torn Italy to Canada, where
housing and employment awaited them. In the post-war economic boom in Canada, labourers
were needed in construction and in the burgeoning industries in southern Ontario. Thus, if an
Italian bricklayer brought his brother or a cousin to Canada, his brother or cousin would also
work as a bricklayer. As these new Canadians became established, they in turn sponsored other
immigrants to Canada. In his study on Italian immigrants in Alberta, Aliaga (1994) found that
family was a key factor in the decision to immigrate to Canada and to adjust to the new
environment once they were here. More than 90 percent of all Italian immigrants who came to
Canada between 1946 and 1967 were sponsored by a family member who was already residing
here. This enhanced the already existing notion that, despite social divisions in the working-,
middle-, and even upper-classes, Italian Canadians constituted a distinct ethnic community in
which family was central. Admittedly, the majority of new Italian Canadians settled in Toronto
and its hinterland; but because of overall increased immigration, other Italian communities
across the entire country expanded proportionately.
Italian immigrant husbands tended to be more educated than their wives, but both were less
educated than the general Canadian population. This situation is indicative of the low levels of
education that Italians had when they immigrated to this country. As late as the 1980s, 50 percent
of Italian-Canadian husbands had less than a Grade 9 education, compared to 22 percent of
Canadian husbands. Likewise, 56 percent of Italian immigrant wives had less than Grade 9
education, compared to 21 percent of Canadian wives. However, only 8 and 10 percent of younger
Italian males and females, respectively, had less than a Grade 9 education, indicating that
significant improvements were being made in levels of education.
Howell et al. (2001) reported from their study on ethnic groups in Toronto and Montreal that the
majority of Italian men who immigrated to Canada after the Second World War were employed

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in non-professional occupations that required long hours and backbreaking toil. Despite these
hardships and their lower educational levels, the majority of families were economically
successful. Italian Canadians placed great importance on owning their own home and, although
they tended to be employed in lower status occupations and earned less than the general
population, they were more likely than other Canadians to own their own home, even an
expensive one. As Ramirez (1989:14) notes: “This ancestral desire for a measure of economic
and psychic security to be concretized in the possession of a house became part of Italian
migration folklore: during the post-World War Two era, one of the most popular songs in Italy
spoke of ‘a little house in Canada which had a pool with fish inside, was surrounded by lots of
lily flowers, and was admired by passers-by.’”
The economic success of Italian immigrant families has been due in part to women’s economic
contributions. Given that Italian immigrant men earned considerably less on average than
Canadian men, women’s salaries in the post-1945 era were crucial to a family’s economic well-
being. After the Second World War, large numbers of young Italian immigrant women entered
the paid labour force, indicating greater gender equality among second and subsequent
generations of Italian immigrants. Because of their lower educational levels, most Italian
immigrant women gained employment in the clothing, food, and light–manufacturing industries,
and in service jobs such as cleaning. Whereas 52 percent of Canadian-educated females were in
the labour force, 63 percent of Canadian-educated Italian females were employed. In one
instance, Aliaga (1994) found that 84.7 percent of married Italian women in Calgary were either
employed or had been in the workforce. Many employed Italian mothers relied on family
members, friends, and neighbours to help with the children in their absence.
Increased participation by females in the labour force is not the only change that has taken place
amongst Italian Canadians. Research indicates that, as early as the 1950s, second and subsequent
generations of Italian immigrants increasingly detached themselves from traditional Italian
cultural values and family structures and assimilated into the Canadian population. There has
been a steady increase in the number of Italians who speak English rather than Italian in their
homes, and more Italian Canadians have married non-Italians. Where first-generation families
tended to be large, families of second and third generations have become smaller; though still
strongly attached to the Church, younger women do not want the same kinds of domestic
burdens that affected their mothers and grandmothers. Canadian-educated Italians, who are
typically second- and subsequent-generation Italians, are more likely to be single (never married)
and to have lower fertility rates than foreign-educated Italians, who tend to be first-generation
immigrants.
Evidence now suggests that as immigration has slowed and Italian Canadians have rejected large
families, the Italian-Canadian community has begun shrinking relative to the rest of Canada’s
population which has been increased by new arrivals. Ethnic exogamy (marrying a spouse of a
different ethnic origin) amongst Italian Canadians is also contributing to assimilation. Ethnic
exogamy amongst Italian-Canadian men has increased from 19 percent in 1921 to 33 percent in
the 1990s. However, the percentage of ethnic exogamy amongst second and subsequent
generations of Italian immigrants is even more telling—approximately 70 percent of Canadian-
born Italians are married to a non-Italian spouse, compared to 20 percent for foreign-born Italian
Canadians. Often, these changes have created intergenerational conflict, as many first-generation
Italian immigrants do not understand how their children and grandchildren can abandon the most

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cherished values of their culture. When first-generation immigrants were asked what they were
most troubled about, they tended to speak “of their worries about their children’s (and
grandchildren’s) marital prospects and adherence to Italian religion, language and culture.” For
the most part, Italian parents hoped that their children would marry other Italians from good
families or, at the very least, marry Catholics from good families. As two students explain it,
“My brother made my parents very happy because he married a ‘good’ Italian girl
whereas my sister myself and my younger brother have been disappointments
here.... Mind you we are all engaged or going out with persons of a better social
class than us and this would make other parents happy but not mine.... My parents
don’t even notice that my brother’s marriage is rather shaky....”
“My parents are second-generation Canadian and it was impossible for them to
marry a person that was not Italian and my mother therefore did not marry the
man she loved. But us three kids will marry as we wish even though I am fortunate
enough to have met a nice and kind Italian fellow who on top of it all is a real
hunk and my parents are happy with whoever we bring home provided they come
from good families. But there are limits and even though I didn’t mind, when my
brother brought a girl from Jamaica home, this didn’t go over well....”
Despite the many ways that Italian immigrants have assimilated into Canadian culture, they have
also preserved important aspects of Italian culture and the primacy of family. The daily activities of
churches and community centres within Italian communities have been pivotal in keeping
individuals of Italian descent connected and in sustaining various cultural practices. Large Italian
weddings also provide a means of ethnic solidarity. “Guest lists of four hundred to six hundred
people, generous gifts to the bridal couple, elaborate meals and drinks, and entertainment at the
reception have all become cultural expressions of Italian spirit in Canada” (Howell et al., 2001:138).
The Italian-Canadian community remains a vibrant and cohesive ethnic group built around the
family and a strong sense of culture and heritage.
HELP WITH ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS (Located at the end of Chapter 2 in the textbook).
The analytical questions for this chapter 2 are fairly straightforward and involve several options.
SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION, PROJECTS, PAPERS
1. Write a paper on other minority-group families in Canada with the help of the Internet/
newspapers/magazines.
2. Analyze the contents of newscasts or newspapers pertaining to non-white families. What facts
are reported? How can these facts be explained (i.e., theories related to social inequalities, social
construction, social capital)? What conclusions could these facts lead to? What facts are not
reported?

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Changing Families : Relationships In Context, Third Canadian Edition Lecture Notes

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