CHSS-UAEU

Chapter Eight: Variations in family life (USA)

© Dr Aqil Kazim
Spring 2024
Sociology of the Family
 By the end of this chapter 8 and the next chapter 9, the
student will be able to satisfy the following outcomes:
CLO2-Compare the different characteristics of the family
structure in different cultures

CLO3-Determine how the family shapes social life at both

individual and structural levels
 Learning Objectives of Chapters 8 and 9
1. Describe the influence of historical and cultural changes on
family structure
2. Compare and contrast family life, and women’s role as they
have evolved over time
3. Explain trends in marriage, divorce and birth rates over time
4. Explain the differences and similarities present within different
social classes
5. Describe the influence of social class on parenting
6. Identify the challenges of life changes experienced by families
today
7. Describe the diversity that exist within racial and ethnic groups
8. Compare families in the USA with families in the UAE
 Variations in Family life

Families differ in terms of the following factors or sources:

1. Time
2. Social class
3. Race
4. Ethnicity
 Variations in Family Life
• Historical development of the • Historical development of the
kinds of families that prevail in kinds of families that prevail in
the United States today. the United Arab Emirates today.
• To understand: • To understand:
1. Where the families come from 1. Where the families come from
2. How different family life has 2. How different family life has
been across generation in the been across generation in the UAE
USA
 Variations in Family Life

The United States The United Arab Emirates

• Historical development of • Historical development of
the kinds of families that the kinds of families that
prevail in the United States
today. prevail in the United Arab
• To understand: Emirates today.
1. Where the families come • To understand:
from
1. Where the families come from
2. How different family life has
been across generation in the 2. How different family life has
USA been across generation in the UAE
 American Families Across Time: The Colonial Era (1607-1776)
• History allows us to make connections between changes in society and
changes in families. 300 years of change that make up the history of American
family life from the colonial period on into the 21st century:
The Colonial Era (1607-1776)
1. Native American families (2 millions and more than 240 social groups)
Patrilineal - Matrilineal –Small family size- Marriage age F. 12-15, M. 15-20-
Arranged marriages-To choose partner, Monogamous, Polygamous two wives
2. White Colonial settler’s families (patriarchy-Family centered production, self-
sufficient – Multifunctional: family served as social, religious and economic
institutions)- Parents selected their children’s mates- wives submitted to their
husbands. Wife was economically dependent on her husband, but she did all of
the family chores.
Afro-American: Marriage was prohibited- Children were separated from the
family because of a sale-they preferred extended family and strong emotional tie
 Marriages and families in the 19th century: Industrial
Marriages and families in the 19th century: Industrial period
• More egalitarian less patriarchal
• Industrialization transformed families from self-sufficient to wage earners,
goods bought-from production unit to consumer and service-oriented
unit, new division of labor, Man as a breadwinner, Woman as unpaid
domestic worker and emotional supporter, children went to school,
• Sociologist Andrew Cherlin details the changes during 19th century (2014)
growth of wage labor profoundly affected family life. Husband and wife
were separated, relation between parents and children were transformed.
• Mate selection changed and gender roles also changed, identities, decline
in fertility more than 50% from 10 in 1800 to 3 in 1900 because women’s
child rearing became important and not childbearing
• Childhood and Youth: to be protected from the evils of the world, were
separated
Afro-American Family in Slavery and Freedom periods
• 2500 black were free before the civil war of 1861
• The slave families lost their African heritage
• Under the slavery, the Afro-American family lacked two key factors :
1. Slave marriages were not recognized as legal
2. Final authority rested with the slave owner (master). The separation of family
members was common among the slave families. Families worked for their
masters not for themselves (no providers) and children suffered, by the age of
18, the young person was separated from his or her family
• Family relayed on the extended kinship networks as a mechanism for survival
After freedom: in 1865 slavery was outlawed, they were able to marry, started to
look for their relatives. Until 1880s, remained poor, tied to the land and
segregated, extended kinship continues to be important
 Immigration: The Great Transformation
• Between 1820-1920, 38 millions people immigrated to America
• Old immigrants: 1830-1890, from Western and Northern Europe
and China
• New immigrants: 1890-1914, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and
Japan
• 1848 Mexican war: after the war, the US expanded (1,300,000 sq.
km)
• Immigrants Experience: ethnic neighborhoods, spoke their own
languages, their own religions, their customary foods, provided
cheap labor, kinship groups, family economy, low industrial wages,
mother worked, children also worked…
 Immigration: The Great Transformation
• Why people immigrate
• Leaving behind their relatives
• Most people came to America were without skills, from small villages
• Families helped the immigrants to overcome hardship, most of them
lived in ethnic neighborhoods
• Kinship groups were important, money was sent home to their
relatives
• The family economy was based on cooperation among family
members, all the family members worked
 Marriages and Families in the 20th Century
Middle class families changed from the past:
1. Lost many of their traditional economic, educational, welfare
functions
2. Food and goods were produced outside the family, children were
educated outside the family in public schools
3. The poor, aged and sick were increasingly cared by outside the
family such as the government public agencies, centers for elder
people and by private hospitals
4. The primary focus of families was meeting the emotional needs of
their members
5. Shift from self-sacrificing familism to self-centered individualism
 The 20 th Century Family
•In the past the family was the basis for selecting one’s
spouse that had changed.
•In the past the family was based on male authority that
had changed to companionate marriage:
1. Husband and wife share decision making and tasks
2. Fulfillment of emotional growth
3. Children were no longer needed to be protected
 The Family in 20th Century
The Great Depression 1929 and the two World Wars 1914-1918 and 1939-1945:
Affected the family roles and relationships (unemployment raised from 3.2% to
23.6% (from 3 to 12 millions), and income declined by 40% to cope with this:
1. Women and many young children were included as wage earners
2. People turned to kinship ties for economic support
3. Development of social welfare by the government to replace family
(responsibility)
4. Most mothers who entered labor force had to depend on grandparents and
neighbors for childcare
5. During the Depression men lost their status as providers
6. 16 million men entered the military service (Gender) WW II
7. During the two wars women abandon their gender roles, became employed
The Great Depression of the 30s
 Women’s
Work
During
WWII
1939-1945
1950s
 The American Families in the Late 20th Century
1. Dual income earners household
2. Married later (1960: M. 22.8, F. 20.3, -2000: M. 26.8, F. 25.1, - 2017: M 29.6, F.
27.7, ) later in 2024
3. Postponed children
4. Low fertility (1960: 3.7, -2000: 2.7, - 2017: 1.7) less in 2024
5. No fault divorce (0.3 divorces for every 1,000 Americans between 1867 and
1879), (1960 9.2 divorces per 1000 marriages, - 2000: 19.8, - 2019: 14.9 divorces
per 1000 marriages and 2022: 14.5 divorces per 1000 marriages )
6. Join custody of children
7. Single parent family % of children living with one parent(1970:12%-2000:
26.7-2017: 25% - 2022: 30%)
 Families in America Today
Very diverse in structure
1. The traditional breadwinner-homemaker with children
2. Dad family with children
3. Two earner couples with children
4. Single parent household with children
5. Marriages without children
80% are expected to marry, declined among lower income 50% rate of marriage.
• Out of divorced people 50% of them remarry, 20% of them are women, 21% of
currently married were divorced and have been married at least twice
• Increase in number of unmarried adults 100 million, 48% of the adults’
population. Of that 62% had never married, 14% were widowed and 24% were
divorced and who live alone
Images of American families in the early 21 century
End
 CHSS-UAEU

Chapter Nine: Variations in family life (UAE)

Dr Aqil Kazim
Spring 2024
Sociology of the Family
 Development of Family life in the UAE: Continuity and
Discontinuity
•Pre-Islamic period: the tribalism
•Islamic period 630-1500: the Islamic laws (Alshariea)
•Transformation period 1500-1820: the economic decline
•The colonial period 1820-1971: the pearl economy
•The independent, the construction of the UAE 1971-
2024: the socio-economic development
 The Traditional Emirati Society
• The traditional Emirati society was divided into several
regions:
1. Rural areas which consisted of several regions such:
a. Al Badia
b. Mountain regions
c. Agriculture regions
2. Urban areas
a. Mainly the cities on the costal regions
 The Traditional Emirati Families (Bedouin - Rural Areas)
The traditional Emirati society was divided into rural and urban life:
• The rural consisted of Badu or Bedouin or agricultural cultivator or
pastoral (rural areas) tribally organized pattern of living in badia.
• Certain institutions and forms of organizations were developed in rural
areas for the purpose of defense and for the distributions of scarce
resources.
1. The life in the badia was harsh and necessitated al-qabila a tribal
social organization which was regulated by norms of solidarity. Different
types of Bedouin existed:
a. Raising camels in the deserts
b. Raising sheep and cattle in the villages
c. Pastoralism and a land cultivator in the oases and agricultural regions
 The traditional Emirati Families (Bedouin - Rural Areas)

2. The basic unites of Bedouin social organization may be seen as

follow:
a. Several types of family existed such as “al-usra” (nuclear family)
and “al-aila” (extended family) and “alqaraba” (kinship)
b. “al-fakhdh” or “al-ashira” (clan or kin) “al-ashira” consists of several
extended families tracing themselves to one patrilineal father,
going back five generations.
c. “al-qabila” “al-qabila” consists of a small number of al-ashira,
usually, four to six tracing themselves to a certain nasab or a tribal
leader or powerful sheikh advised by a tribal council. Certain
confederation “al-ta’alaf” “al-qabali” may emerge out of a unity
among several tribes or “al-qabaal”
 The Traditional Emirati Families (Bedouin - Rural Areas)

3. Class differences were less developed among Bedouin or rural areas.

• Only a few relatively wealthy family within each tribe emerged but
the tribal ties and communal ownership considered to be more
important than wealth.
• The main production and consumption in this economy was herding
and each family-owned herds (Camels, Sheep, Goats).
 The Traditional Emirati Families (Cultivators - Rural Areas)
• The agriculture cultivators derived their identity from the land and the village
life. Their relationship to the land was inseparable from their intimate and
interdependent kinship relationships. The village may be described as:
1. Community of extended families (kinship)
2. Securing their livelihood through agricultural and other related activities
3. The village social organization is a sophisticated net of interrelationships
(such as patriarchal relations, and endogamous marriage)
4. The basic kinship unit among the villages was the extended family
5. The division of labor was based on gender and age (less gendered
division of labor than urban regions)
6. Class structure based on land ownership
 Traditional Emirati families (Urban Regions - alhadar)
• The population size distinguished the cities from rural areas (tribal
and village areas). The city functions included serving as the center
of economic, political, and cultural activities. Cities in Emirati regions
characterized as:
1. People in the cities lived in communities or neighborhood (Furjan)
2. The class, ethnicity, status and gender differences exited in the city
3. The variations in the family structure exited in relation to class,
ethnicity and affiliations
4. Family constituted an economic and social unit and all the family
members cooperated
 Traditional Emirati families (Urban Regions - alhadar)

5. Family provided security, support and interdependency (father’s

role as provider, had the authority and responsibility, mother as a
housewife, children as dependents to support their parents and a
male child to take father’s name as a patrilineal decent)
6. City's role was complementary in relation to villages and al-Badia
(such as trade relationships, and to provide labor assistance)
 The Traditional Emirati families
1. Diversity existed: extended, nuclear, small, large, ..
2. Gender: father-mother-children’s roles
3. Functions: reproduction, emotional, socialization, and economic
production and consumption
4. Marriage: as a social affair more than individual affair - arranged-
decision made by the family, endogamy, polygamy, age of marriage
Female 14 years and Male 18 years, mahr (dowry)
5. Divorce: as a social pattern was as significant as a marriage in
affecting the status of women but remarriage was common
 Contemporary Emirati family
• Diversity:
• Dual earner family
• Change in family functions: reproduction, emotional, (socialization
shared with school), and family economy based on consumption
• Marriage: is still a social affair more than individual- arranged-decision,
endogamy, age of marriage (Female) from 14 years in the past to more
than 24 years today, (Male) from 18 years in the past to more than 27
years today, the mahr (dowry) fertility from 5.2 in 1980 to 2.3 in 2010
to 1.8 in 2019 to less than 1.8 in 2024
• Divorce rate: per 1000 marriages: 3.76 in 2016 , 2.44 in 2019, less than
1.99 per 1000 marriages in 2024
End