COURSE OUTLINE (updated 10/04/06)

Part I.  Confronting the Family

Introduction (August 31)

Is it possible to imagine conflict-free families; or, is conflict endemic within marriages and families?  Why take a family sociology course?  Why do family studies scholars cringe when “the family” is mentioned in the public press?  What will the course cover?  What are the requirements?  What can you expect to gain? 

Contemporary (Postmodern) Families (September 5 – 21)

Three distinct images must be considered simultaneously when we discuss American families.  Otherwise, no one will understand when the ‘family’ is the focus rather than families or the FAMILY.  The latter is the social institution.  The former, the ‘family,’ is the interactive and/or idealized image you internalize and project when you think “families.”  Families are what we observe.  They are the “we” people recognize as their family.  Considering the two social forms – families v. the FAMILY, how much have the two changed since Colonial America?  Is the history of the FAMILY more continuous than discontinuous?  And, has the evolution of family life away from public control and toward privately negotiated relationships resulted in better family health? 

Sep 5:         Putting families into perspective
                       Popenoe, “American family decline, 1960-1990: A review and appraisal” (ER)
                       Stacey, “Good riddance to “The Family”: A response to David Popenoe” (ER)
                       Cowan, “The sky is falling, but Popenoe’s analysis won’t help us do anything about it” (ER)
                       Skolnick, Chapter 6, Embattled paradise (ER)

Sep 7:         Recognizing differences
                       Gerson, “Children of the gender revolution” (ER)
                       Bengtson, “Beyond the nuclear family: The increasing importance of multigenerational bonds”
                       (ER)
                       Pattillo-McCoy, “Black picket fences” (ER)

Reflection Exercise – Your ‘family’: More like the one you live in or the hegemonic standard in our culture?

Sep 12:        From fortified households (his) to a market economy (his & hers)
                       Coontz, Introduction and Chapters 1-5 (Pp. 1-121)

Sep 14:        From a market economy (his & hers) toward a partnership (theirs)
                       Coontz, Chapters 6-8, 11 and Epilogue (Pp. 122-206, 255-288)

Reflection Exercise – Is the private troubles - public issues argument Coontz makes new information? disturbing?

Sep 19:        Debate 1 – Family Values & Family Responsibilities: The importance of traditional
                    families?

                       S. 604, “Responsible Fatherhood Act of 2003”
                           http://www.hslda.org/Legislation/National/2003/S604/default.asp
                       Summary of S. 604:   http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s108-604 
                           http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=s108-604
                       Coontz, Chapter 9 (Pp. 207-231)
                       Cowen & Cowen, “Strengthening couples to improve children’s well-being”
                           http://www.jcpr.org/newsletters/vol6_no3/articles.html#story_7
                       Sawhill, “Is the lack of marriage the real problem”
                           http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/7/sawhill-i.html

Part II.  Families in Society

Social, Cultural & Economic Capital (September 21 – October 3)

Class privileges are those advantages and options available to many middle and upper class families, yet not all.   Why?  How does class position structure family experiences?  Does one’s socioeconomic status at birth yield different aspirations and ideas about love and marriage? 

Sep 21:        Social capital
                       Lareau, Appendix B (Pp. 275-278)
                       Furstenberg, “Banking on families: How families generate and distribute social capital” (ER)
                       Edin, "Few good men: Why poor mothers stay single" (ER)
                       Lareau, Appendix A and Chapters 1 and 2 (Pp. 259-274, 1-32)

Sep 26:        Accomplishment of natural growth: The life of working class and poor children
                       Lareau, Chapters 4, 5, and 7 (Pp. 66-103, 134-160)
                       Edin & Lein, Chapter 8, Making ends meet (ER)

Sep 28:        Concerted cultivation: The (over?) scheduled life of a middle class child
                       Lareau, Chapters 3 and 6 (Pp. 38-65, 108-133)

Reflection Exercise – Your childhood: Concerted cultivation or accomplishment of natural growth?

Oct 3:         How much does social class matter?
                       Lareau, Chapters 8, 10, and 12 (Pp. 163-181, 198-220, 233-257)
                       Rapp, “Family and class in contemporary America: Notes toward an understanding of ideology”
                       (recommended, ER)

Part III.  The Architecture of Family Life

Love & Sex, Intimacy, and Married Life (October 5-17)

Marriage emerged as a social institution to identify men’s sexual property and rightful heirs.  Has the love revolution stripped men and kinship systems of their unconditional authority?  Have the various sexual revolutions eroded church and societal authority to regulate sexuality?  How is power implicated in sexuality?  Is married life equally benefiting women and men?

Oct 5:         Sexuality norms
                       Pipher, Chapter 12, Reviving Ophelia (ER)
                       Bailey, “Sexual revolution(s),” Chapter 8 in The Sixties: From Memory to History. (ER)
                       Ericksen, with Steffen, “Premarital sex before the sexual revolution” (ER)
                       Laner & Ventrone, “Dating scripts revisited” (ER)

Reflection Exercise – Dating rules: Has there been a decline in dating and a rise in “hooking up?”  What are the rules?

Columbus Break  (October 10)

Oct 12:       Erotic ties & intimacy
                       Risman & Schwartz, “After the sexual revolution: Gender politics in teen dating” (ER)
                       Lambert et al., “Pluralistic ignorance and hooking up” (ER)
                       Christopher & Sprecher, “Sexuality in marriage, dating and other relationships” (ER)
                       Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, & Kolata, Chapter 13, Sex in America (recommended, ER)

Oct 17:       His marriage, her marriage, and married life
                       Hochschild, “The emotional geography of work and family life” (ER)
                       Deutsch, Francine.  “Halving it all: The mother and Mr. Mom” (ER)

Midterm Exam (October 19)

Parenthood & Parenting (October 24-November 9)

Aside from good housekeeping promotions and the sale of SUVs to families, does corporate America pay attention to families and family life?  What is the so-called “good provider” role and is it still the domain of men?  How pervasive is the mommy track?  Can you imagine a situation wherein you would be willing to forfeit a “peer marriage” and select as its substitute an asymmetrical, traditional marriage.  Has raising children become a social problem?  Does parenting remain an irrevocable role, or is it one of choice?  Why are the normal stresses associated with parenthood and the ordinary family troubles that emerge between generations being perceived as warning signals of societal problems?  What is “good parenting”?  Should parenthood require a license?

Oct 24:       The package deal: Men in marriages and families  
                       Coltrane & Adams, “Men, women, and housework” (ER)
                       Townsend, Chapters 1-2 (Pp. 1-49)

Oct 26:       Gendered parenting and the importance of providing
                       Townsend, Chapters 3-6 (Pp. 50-163)

Reflection Exercise – Your father(s) and grandfather(s): How involved were they and do you think they were “typical” for their cohort?

Oct 31        Men’s intergenerational connections
                       Townsend, Chapters 7 and 8 (Pp. 164-204)

Reflection Exercise – Thinking about your future: Does the “Package Deal” script still “fit” in 2006 and beyond?

Nov 2:        Motherhood
                       Lewin “Lesbian mothers: This wonderful decision” (ER)
                       Hays, Chapter 1, The cultural contradictions of motherhood (ER)
                       Crittenden, Introduction and Chapters 1-4 (Pp 1-86)        

Reflection Exercise – Your mother(s) and grandmother(s): How “typical” were their marriage, childbearing and employment pattern

Nov 7:        Paid work and unpaid caregiving
                       Bianchi, “Maternal employment and time with children” (ER)
                       Crittendon, Chapters 5-8 (Pp. 87-161)

Nov 9:        Debate 2 – What’s the solution: Children first?
                       Crittendon, Chapters 10-13 and Conclusion (Pp. 186-274)
                       Stacey & Biblarz, “(How) does the sexual orientation of parents matter?” (ER)
                       Hertz, “A typology of approaches to child care” (ER)
                       Gallagher, “Day careless” http://www.nationalreview.com/26jan98/gallagher012698.html
                       Urban Institute, http://www.urban.org/toolkit/issues/workingfamilies.cfm

Part IV.  Conflicted Family Relations

Family Violence (November 14-16)

Conflict inside families is normal.  Sometimes the way conflict is managed is through interaction that is psychologically & physically abusive.  Statistically, experience violence is more likely to occur inside than outside families.  In our culture many forms of family violence are perceived as acceptable – sometimes even deemed necessary and justified.  Why?  Why do family members have the perceived authority to hit?  What distinguishes emotional abuse from physical abuse?

Nov 14:      Staying or getting out
                       Goetting, Getting out: Life stories of women who left abusive men

Nov 16:      Emotional abuse, physical violence, and sexual assault
                       Gelles, “Through a sociological lens: Family violence” (ER)
                       Johnson & Ferraro, “Research on domestic violence in the 1990s” (ER)
                       Bunch, “Violence against women & girls: Intolerable status quo” (recommended, ER)

Nov 21:      Gerontology Society of America meetings, no class

Thanksgiving Break (November 23)

Nov 28:      Debate 3 – Corporal Punishment: The future of children
                       Poliakoff, Deputy Secretary for Postsecondary and Higher Education, Commonwealth of
                       Pennsylvania, letter to Jordan Riak
                       Riak, “Plain talk about spanking“
                       Straus, Chapter 10, Beating the devil out of them (ER)

Reflection Exercise – Spanking:  Were you spanked?  Do you see it as physical violence?

Nov 30:      Marital separation and divorce
                       Vaughn, Chapter 10, Uncoupling (ER)

Dec 4:         Remarriage & stepfamilies
                       Hopper, “The symbolic origins of conflict in divorce” (ER)
                       Amato, “The consequences of divorce for adults and children” (ER)
                       Mason & Mauldon, “The new stepfamily requires new policy” (ER)