Industrialization and the Family

Child Rearing n n Increased affection for children n n Women became better mothers n n Breast-fed infants n n Increased survival rate of infants n n Specialized books on child rearing and infant hygiene – –Droz n n Urged fathers to become more involved

Child Rearing n n France – –Fewer illegitimate babies were abandoned after 1850 n n Birthrate was declining – –Lower child: parent ratio – –To place more care on the children already present – –Reason for reduction in family size n n Parents’ desire to improve economic and social position n n By having fewer children, parents could give the children more advantages

Child Rearing n n However, many parents became too concerned with their children – –Children felt trapped

Child-Rearing: Influence of Biological and Psychological Theories n Theories held parents directly responsible for children’s defects –Father's "sexual excess" in youth could be passed to his offspring –Parents' health & emotional conditions at conception could affect their child –A child’s poor mental state or attitude was an indication of failure in parenting. –This led to harsh consequences for children of over worked families.

Child-Rearing: Influence of Biological and Psychological Theories n Parents repressed sexual behavior of their children –masturbation was considered unclean, immoral, and defiant –restraining devices and surgical operations used to prevent –boys wore pants with shallow, widely- spaced pockets –girls were discouraged from bicycling and horseback-riding

Child-Rearing: Influence of Biological and Psychological Theories n Parent-child relations –Mother at home in domestic sphere, gave unconditional affection –Father left home to earn wages, was less familiar with children, loved them conditionally based on achievements n Fyodor Dostoevski's The Brothers Karamazov (1881) –extreme example of destructive father-son relationship, son on trial for murder claims to speak for mankind, "Who doesn't wish his father dead?"

Child-Rearing: Influence of Biological and Psychological Theories n Sigmund Freud ( ), Viennese physician, founded psychoanalysis –traced mental illness to bitter repression of strong feelings in childhood –said father-son Oedipal conflict due to competition for mother's affection –emotional needs, kept subconscious by defense mechanisms, drive behavior –sexual energy controlled by rational thinking and morality

Child-Rearing: Influence of Biological and Psychological Theories n Effects of industrialization on children –allowed greater emotional ties within the family to develop –some youths felt repressed by greater parental concern –middle-class children were dependent on parents until educated or married –working-class could become self-supporting boarders as adolescents, or use their wages to bargain for greater independence within the family

Sex Roles & Family Life n n After 1850 men’s and women’s work become distinctly different, men are wage earners and women run domestic life. – –Women who continue to work are unmarried and receive less money for the same work as men – –Women are kept from getting better paying jobs

Sex Roles & Family Life n n Women are a political non-entity – –European women lack the right to vote everywhere and rarely can own property – –Woman seek power through mass movements n n middle class women mostly formed clubs to protest their non existent rights, holding rallies and fundraising money n n lower class women seek power by joining the socialist and communist parties, believing that gender equality will only come when the lower class comes to power.

Sex Roles & Family Life n n While women are politically weaker they tend to have complete control of domestic life including house finances n n Romantic love is seen as necessary to a strong family