Summary:
Chapter 3 talks about the history regarding the idea of the family. The chapter discusses exploitation of African Americans, Indians, and Mexicans associated with the concept of a family. The colonial family is mentioned in the chapter; while the husband was distinct and clearly marked in types of occupations worked, the wife was unfortunately overlooked and undistinguished according to occupation. However, there are different dynamics associated with each type of ethnicity regarding family during this time. For example, African American families consisted of the women working just as hard, if not harder, than the men. Regarding Indian household, many outside forces, such as Europe, caused much distress and destruction for these families. The chapter also talks about the role of Industrialization and how the concept of marriage changed more from solely economic gain to love and desire. Immigration, the Great Depression, and even World War II contributed to changing the dynamic of the “family.”
New Material Learned:
With reading this chapter, I learned about the “cult of domesticity;” I was unaware of this term previously.
Questions:
An idea that raised concern and question to me was about immigration and the changing family during the turn of the 20th century. I understand about how much discrimination regarding ethnicity existed at this time, and through much of the historical context in talking about the family. I want to know more about inter-racial couples during this time; what were the conditions like if a man and woman differed in ethnicity, and how did this affect future families (during the 20th century) regarding socioeconomic status and job employment?
-Matthew Sniscak
Hello Matthew,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your question regarding the topic of inter-racial marriage. In this chapter, very little was mentioned about the history of racial prejudices in the early 20th century. I agree that this topic should be looked into, as I am currently in an inter-racial relationship. It would be interesting to see how my actions would be perceived in a different time.
I would also have to agree with you both very little was mentioned about this topic. hopefully its may cover more on this topic in a later chapter. my own thoughts are that its was not socially excepted back in those time but as times changed people realized that that is still a form of discrimination and thats why it socially excepted now days.
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