The Role Of Families In The 1950's

The definition of a family had different interpretations depending on the time frame. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the meaning of family consisted of a “larger kinship group from which they derived their claims to privilege and property” (Coontz, 36). Interesting enough, European writers in the seventeenth century described man’s family as his offspring only with his wife playing a separate role. In the 1820’s, the rise of the market economy contributed to the division of work and home. As a consequence, this created complications with the previous family structural system as families could no longer rely on the food that they grew. With the creation of machines, it was no longer necessary to use manual labor; however families still had other sources of income to meet their needs. For example, the act of specialization took place with both men and unmarried …show more content…
Although there was a significant amount of economic expansion during the 1950’s, the idea of marriage played a strong role in the allocation of funds to prevent women from being completely independent. Politicians, for instance, rewrote the “tax code to favor male breadwinner families over dual earner families...[and] to discourage wives from working” (49). While the perception was that the 1950’s offered a great variety of opportunities, problems arose with families as “battering, alcoholism, and incest were swept under the rug” (50). During this time, there was also a wide spread of discrimination against minorities including but not limited to: gay/lesbian individuals, religious minorities, and the handicapped. As a consequence, economic expansion provided a pathway for individuals to move up the ladder; however it didn’t address the tensions between families as those social problems were ignored in favor of strengthening the status