1. Individuals and Families: Diverse Perspectives
Families Through Time
From Hunter-Gatherers
To the Contemporary Family
Families did not always exist as we know them today, and even today families differ greatly from each other. This resource will summarize the information found in the Individuals and Families: Diverse Perspectives textbook Chapter 1 pages Some of the topics explored will include the role expectations for family members and the basic structure of the family at different moments throughout history.
Begin by examining the role you play in your current family of origin.
Consider what tasks are expected from you to be a contributing member of your family.
Individuals and Families: Diverse Perspectives
Unit 1- Chapter 1

2. Hunter-Gatherers Hordes Loose groupings of males, females, and their
children
To survive—taboos (unwritten rules) around
sexual activity and violence gradually developed
to ensure peace and survival
Social organization begins to develop based on
kinship (genealogical ties—biological or cultural)
Informal pairing
Equal status

3. Hunter-Gatherers
Why would individuals have to depend on each other equally?
Why might women be as important to the survival of group as men?
What types of behaviour would ensure the health and safety of the whole group?
Be sure to explore the following questions:
1. What might be some survival rules?

4. Hunter-Gatherers Role of Men and Women
Gathered nuts, plants, and small prey
Had babies and cared for them
Supplied most of the food
MEN
Were hunters and tool makers
Remember that families, at this time, consisted of a group of parents providing for themselves and their offspring. Life expectancy during this time was not high and many families may not have known a large extended family.
Women were highly regarded and considered essential to the survival of the group

5. Agricultural Families
Approximately years ago
farming developed in the Fertile
Crescent area (modern day Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon)
Families become sedentary—no longer
nomadic
Explore the qualities of farming that allow families to settle in one area instead of constantly being on the move.

6. Agricultural Families Impact of Farming on Families
Enormous change in family structure
Able to generate more food and raise animals
Need for larger families to work land and tend animals
Owning land became important
Each member of the family was an economic asset
Impact of Farming on Families
Examine why the structure of the family would have to change.

7. Agricultural Families
How did the structure of the family change from that of the hunter-gatherer families?

8. Agricultural Families
Role of All Family Members
WOMEN
Cared for children
Provided domestic support–cooked, cleaned, kept a small garden, and tended small animals
MEN
Worked the land and tended the animals
Were the decision makers
CHILDREN
Cared by mother while young
Learned to help with chores by age 3 or 4
Were assigned gender specific chores
Explore the changes of a women’s role in relationship to tasks and location. List the different ways that children now play a vital role in the family’s survival.
Families become more organized along kinship and bloodlines

9. Agricultural Families
How has the significance of
children in a family changed?
Explore the changes of a women’s role in relationship to tasks and location. List the different ways that children now play a vital role in the family’s survival.

10. Agricultural Families
The Patriarchal Family
Patriarchal
Men were the authority and decisions makers
Monogamy
Having only one marital partner became preferred
Polygamy
Successful farmers could support more than one wife
Arranged Marriage
Not based on love but economic necessity
Extended Families
Married children stayed with parents to decrease unusable land
Why would monogamous marriages be more difficult during this time in history?

11. Pre-Industrial Families
As farming communities evolved, commerce evolved
Extra food was sold in exchange for goods
Merchants and artisans began to work from their homes so wives and children could help
Tools/fabrics/general store
Cottage Industries

12. Pre-Industrial Families
How did families provide for their own needs prior to exchanging their goods?

13. Pre-Industrial Families
Role of Family Members
MEN
Made all the important decisions–the head of the family
Worked with spouse on land or in commercial settings
WOMEN
Were assigned gender specific chores
Worked with spouse
CHILDREN
Continued to be an economic necessity

14. Pre-Industrial Families
How has the structure of the family changed?
What instigated these changes?
Notice the changes in the family structure with respect to hierarchy? Who makes all the decisions and who has become subordinate? Why might families have taken this turn?

15. Pre-Industrial Families
Fewer children were needed
Marriages are based on economic necessity
Children worked in jobs based on gender by age 7
Wealthy families and families without children had women as domestic servants and male apprentices
Structure
of the
Family
Less children are needed in the family, because there is less work to be done. Farming requires lots of help from as many family members as possible, but working in shops requires considerably fewer hands. Marriages in the pre-industrial life is still one born of necessity, men need women to continue lineage and family name as well as extra help.

16. Pre-Industrial Families
Harsh Treatment
Women were considered property
Women had very limited legal rights to property or children
Resulted in the harsh treatment of both women and their children
Remember that even though men treated women harshly they still understood their value and the need to keep them around. This could be why divorce was rare and under extreme circumstances, and often it was initiated by the husband for reasons of infertility. As women began to work along side their husbands in positions of more authority, some women began to enjoy higher status.

17. Urban-Industrial Families Impact of the Industrial Revolution
Change from agrarian economy to industrial economy
Families became consumers instead of producers
Poor families left rural areas and started working in factories
Laws began prohibiting child labour
Income completely unrelated to home or family life
Impact of the Industrial Revolution

18. Urban-Industrial Families
How does life change in a
consumer society?
2. What would children be needed for now?

19. Urban-Industrial Families
Father was the breadwinner
Mother cared for children
Home was the place for love and emotional support
Beginning of industrial nuclear family
Structure
of the
Family
Remember that while the above is an ideal structure in this time frame not all families had these characteristics. Some of the poorer families could not be supported by only the father’s income and the mother had to continue to contribute to the family’s income.

20. Urban-Industrial Families
Late 1800s
Many working class women and children worked with fathers in factories
Early 1900s
Smaller family sizes
Delayed marriages
Women continued to be homemakers
Political (wars), economic (depression—post WWII prosperity) and social (women’s vote) influences start to impact the family. Suggest some ways that war would impact family structure. How did the women’s vote impact the role women would play in their families? In 2010 the US and Canada witnessed a recession, what impact did it have on families in North America?

21. Urban-Industrial Families
Role of Family Members
FATHER
Continues to be head of the household
Earns an income and provides for the family
MOTHER
Nurtures children
Works in the home
Motherhood becomes a sacred role
CHILDREN
No longer an economic necessity
Attend school–compulsory by mid 1880s
Are protected and enjoy the innocence of childhood
Note while education in Ontario was compulsory by the mid 1880s, it was not in some rural provinces.

22. Modern Consumer Families
The characteristics of women made them more suited to the emotional nurturing of children
The characteristics of men made them more suited to the workplace
Children were disciplined but protected from hard work
Adolescence emerged as a distinct age
Nuclear Family emerged with clear gender roles and became the stereotypical modern family

23. Modern Consumer Families
What impact did keeping children in school longer have on the economy?
List some possible characteristic attributes that were given to men and women in the 1940s and 1950s.
What jobs might be linked to these attributes?
Remember the reason adolescence emerged as a distinct age was because schooling was extended into the teenage years.
With more money came the opportunity for larger families. What was the cohort that developed between 1946 and 1967?

24. Modern Consumer Families
Between 1946 – 1968 the birth rate rose again
Cohort known as baby boom was born.
Early television shows depicted the industrial nuclear family as the ideal
At times cohorts, if large enough, can impact the economic structure and social organization of a society. Explain how the Baby Boomers may be affecting our current social policy.

25. Contemporary Families Influences on Contemporary Families
Women began working outside the home
Divorce Act 1968
Birth control pill
Immigration shifts
New multicultural influences
Influences on Contemporary Families
Women and men share an equal role in the workforce. Jobs are no longer gendered and many people explore new career options. Divorce is legal and can be achieved on the grounds of unhappiness within a marriage. Birth control helped reduce the birthrate and helped couples plan their children according to their personal needs. Immigration shifts play a major role in the cultural influences seen in many communities.

26. Contemporary Families
Transitional Family
Mother leaves workforce to care for young children
Dual-Income Family
Both spouses work full–time
Blended Family
Divorced partners with children remarry
Couples begin having children for emotional reasons and for fulfillment. Different family structures begin to emerge.