Looking Ahead: Helping Families Flourish

15 Looking Ahead: Helping Families Flourish Special Topic: Conservative, Liberal, and Feminist Perspectives on Families

Family Resilience As discussed in Chapter 15, family resilience is the capacity to bounce back after adversity, misfortune, trauma, or crisis, and be strengthened and more resourceful as a result.

Components of Resilience • Individual-level protective factors • Family protective and recovery factors • Community factors • Family policies

Family Policy is Often Politicized • Governments in all countries regulate aspects of family life. These policies reflect historical, cultural, and social factors and become highly politicized. (e.g., in Saudi Arabia women cannot drive; the U.S. has no paid maternity leave; China has a one-child policy)

Selective vs. Universal • The U.S. leans towards a selective approach to family policies and services. • Some countries lean towards a universal approach to family policies and services.

“Demise” of Family • Programs and policies become politicized because some people believe that they cause the demise of families. (e.g., teen pregnancy, drug use, divorce, domestic violence, poverty, single-parent households) • Others disagree.

Family Change • What are the causes and consequences of family change? Perspectives differ: • Conservative • Liberal • Feminist

Conservative Perspective… • The conservative perspective focuses on selfishness and moral decline: • A) Religious influence declines. As we become more secular, our norms and morality weaken. (e.g., people have sex without marriage, women have babies without fathers)

Which Leads To…. • B) This leads to a breakdown in the two-parent family. (e.g., one of the most important causes of this breakdown is government welfare programs, which make fatherless families a viable option; breakdown encourages weak commitments to marriage and less stigma towards divorce or having children outside of marriage)

Which Leads To… • C) This leads to a variety of negative consequences for children. (e.g., parents do not supervise their children as in the past and the father’s influence is increasingly absent, so kids get into trouble; poverty is more likely)

Conservative Solution • The conservative solution is to revitalize the institution of marriage. (e.g., the government should encourage marriage, minimize welfare)

Liberal Perspective • The liberal perspective believes that the serious problems confronting our children and families are due to our changing economic structure. • A) Loss of relatively high-paying manufacturing jobs and growth in low-paying service sector jobs.

Which Leads To… • B) Economic changes lead to changing family norms. (e.g., both men and women now work outside the home; new programs such as daycare centers are needed to help care for children; women may be less likely to marry men with fewer good economic prospects)

Which Leads To… • C) This leads to the development of an underclass because some people do not have the money or social support to weather these changes. (e.g., they may not have health insurance, sick leave, or sufficient incomes)

Liberal Solution • A liberal perspective essentially believes in a market economy, but asks for adequate social supports to help families in the bottom tier. (e.g., welfare benefits, job training programs, Head Start, EITC, childcare, Medicaid)

Feminist Perspective • The feminist perspectiveblends some features of the conservative and liberal perspectives, e.g., a high respect for the caregiving function of families (conservative), and a belief that changing economic conditions hurt families, particularly vulnerable ones (liberal).

Feminist Perspective • A) We should not simply focus on work, but on the decline of a collective responsibility for children: community, family, and work. (e.g., a sense of “individualism” vs. “collectivity” permeates American society, and American families are left to fend for themselves)

This Leads To… • B) Individualism results in families feeling routinely stressed and overburdened. (e.g., feeling rushed, wishing they could spend more time with their children or relaxing)

This Leads to… • C) This stress and burden results in some children lacking sufficient care and attention from their parents. (e.g., lack of supervision, family isolation, social and behavioral challenges)

Feminist Solution • The feminist perspective evaluates the U.S. economic system and asks for alternative policies and programs that place a higher value on strengthening family relationships and supporting caregiving. (e.g., paid maternity leaves, after-school supports, quality childcare assistance, programs that integrate neighborhoods, work, and family)

Conclusion • Which perspective—conservative, liberal, or feminist—is most popular in our society, and why? • Do you think that a preference for one perspective over another varies across social groups, such as by age, race, ethnicity, education, social class, or sex? • Which perspective makes the most sense to you, and why?

References Geil, J.Z. 1996. “Decline of the family: Conservative, Liberal, and Feminist Views. In Promise to Keep: Decline and Renewal of Marriage in America, ed. By D. Popenoe, J.B. Elshtain, and D. Blankenhorn. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Seccombe, K. 2012. Families and Their Social Worlds. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Looking Ahead: Helping Families Flourish