My Family And Social Stereotypes Of A Family

In our society, we carry an ideological assumption that a “normal” family consists of the man working to provide for the family and the women takes on the role of stay-at-home mom (Dow 1992).

"The Perfect Family" by Alice Hoffman, is an article discussing stereotypes associated with what a perfect family could and could not be. In the beginning, Alice describes the ideal family of the 1950's. In the 50's happy families lived in beautiful houses with well-maintained lawns. They consisted of, a loving father, a stay at home mom and two or three perfect kids. However, the key to having this great family was, you could never ask any questions. You never needed to know what went on behind closed doors. Alice and her family did not fit the mold for the perfect family. Her mother was a divorcé, a full-time employee and had a boyfriend. Some of Alice's friends were not allowed to visit her simply because there was no father in her home.

Stereotypes are present in both episodes whether they are from a gender stand point or a culture point of view. I believe what attracts viewers to these two shows is the family base, The Proud Family and George Lopez each describe their hard challenges they must confront as a family. The tagline for George Lopez states, “Family is forever. Sanity is only temporary,” (Helford, Lopez & Oppenheimer, Bullock, 2002) and for the The Proud Family states, “There’s no place like home, girl!” (Smith, 2001)

Working-class and poor parents often work long hours or hold multiple jobs simply to support

It is a better situation for everyone if the husband earns the money and the wife is at home cooking, cleaning, shopping and caring for the children as she waits for her husband to come home each day. Now that your attention is on this analysis of gender roles and before any blood is spilled, that statement was the expectation of family life until World War II. Men held the sole responsibility for providing the income for a family prior to the war. Men left as soldiers fighting a war and came home to a new world of changes they could not have ever thought possible. Women took jobs normally reserved for men which set the wheels in motion for equality in the workplace. When women found their place in the workforce our society has been changing fast over the years since WWII, male gender roles of the past became outdated and many say are changing for the better. The gender role changes in the way a family was defined created a whole new era for men to search who they were expected to be, but change has not come easy.

Many female stereotypes involve around them working household jobs while the male is the supporter of the household. In addition, when females are not in the household and working for an income, they get less than males. Males are also stereotyped into having the more laborious job as well. Even more, males are the providers and females are subjected into the household with the low income as to discourage females. An example of this stereotype is when the mother says, ¨I just get my back turned and she runs off.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reports that millions of children around the world are imprisoned daily into illegal child labor, depriving them of their childhood. The conditions of the work facilities are often life threating to their health. Instead of getting an education, these suffering children are working. Without an education, they really have no chance of escaping poverty. If you are thinking this only happens in poor countries, you are mistaken. It happens everywhere, including the United States. There are an estimated 50,000 children slaves in the United States. We can all agree this is horrific. In “The Color of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender and Extended Family involvement”, Sociologist Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkistan challenge popular notion that minority families have weaker ties and are more fragmented than white families. They find if we only focus on nuclear families, thus ignoring extended families, it creates a biased portrait of families of color. Furthermore, we are missing much of what minority and families of color do for one another. According to their research, the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households contests stereotypes that Black and Latin families lack strong family’s ties. Most importantly they find social class is more relevant in revealing statistics than ethnicity. Their research also reveals Blacks and Latinos/as typically have less income and education than whites, so they rely more on their family for day-to-day needs: such as childcare, household task or rides. Furth more, Economic deprivation of minorities leads in many ways to higher levels of extended family involvement. The tendency of minorities to live near kin may also reflect their greater need for kin cooperation as well as decreased opportunity’s and pressure to move away, including moving for college. Because Whites tend to have more income than Blacks and Latins, they are more likely to give or receives money to/from family. They find races with the same amount of income have similar involvement with their extended families. Middles class families are more probable to share their private concerns and lend money to relative

Families, as units, are extremely complex and vary drastically from one another. A person might be under the impression that his or her own family is nothing special, especially if they are accustomed to their family’s routines. After analyzing my own family through the sociological lenses of an assortment of scholars, it is now clear that it is not as simple as it seems. Sociologically analyzing my family through the divorces that have occurred in my life makes it clear that divorce can have an impact on a variety of family dynamics, such as my parents and their jobs and domestic duties, the amount of involvement they have with their friends and family, as well as my financial dependence on my parents.

The modern day woman works outside of the home, but then returns and continues to take care of housework and the children. Sociologists refer to this part of the woman’s day as the, “Second shift.” Two studies conducted found that if a man is more economically dependent on his wife, he is less likely to do housework. However, no evidence suggests that becoming economically independent makes marriage any less desirable for a woman. The family is the initial agent of socialization in their child’s life, however, even though the mother of the family may have the job with longer hours and better pay, the parents will still reinforce traditional gender roles in their household (Thompson 301-302.) This behavior can cause a child to embrace the stereotype that the woman’s only role is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Even if a woman is the primary

Some of my family norms are the love of many sports such as Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Golf. America norms are choices that are not demanded by specific cultures. I believe they are choices you can make but will not be reprimanded if you do not choose one. Some of the frequent Cultural foods that were eaten with my family growing up as a child were rice and pinto beans. I believe this comes from the different cultures rooted within my family. My culture experiences many misunderstandings of who we are and what we stand for in society. Some examples of police brutality, racial profiling, style of dress, and the slang used when speaking. Historically, racism existed and continues to exist in today’s

Within and across different cultures, we can find great consistency in standards of anticipated gender roles. In the United States, like many other countries, males are expected to be independent, assertive, and competitive. Females are expected to be more passive, sensitive, and supportive. For example, when a woman gives birth, she is the one that is expected to stay home and take care of her children while the father goes to work and is the breadwinner for the family. In society, it is more acceptable and common to see the women stay home and take care of the house and children while the husband goes to work instead of the other way around. Stay at home dads are not as common as stay at home moms. However, it is up to the individuals on what they decide as a couple. Because of this, gender appropriate behaviors can be seen because of sex segregation and starting at young ages.

I grew up in what society considers the "Stereotypical Asian Family". My parent had high expectations for me from a young age, and they made their expectations quite clear. I had to be one of the smartest (if not the smartest) in my class, well-rounded (although there was more of an emphasis on academics compared to athletics), brag-worthy, and (their definition of) successful. I had to be perfect. Although it wasn't too detailed, they had already planned out my life. I would go to a good university after high school to become a "professional" (e.g. doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer, etc.). I would not choose something in the arts, though piano was considered a pretty important extracurricular, as that wasn't stable and overall just not

With or without the existence of this challenge, women have been gaining a steady foothold in the workplace. In fact, in America it has become a natural cultural trend for there to be dual incomes within the family and many families could not live the lifestyle that they do without the female’s contributing income to the family. This is the new norm in our local society. The new roadblock that we face now is when it comes to a single-income family in which the breadwinner is the female. So now the question becomes, why? Why is this idea so difficult for us to accept? Stay at home dads, aka; Mr. Mom’s, are becoming more and more a trend of today. Some of the factors that go into a decision like this are things like benefits, childcare, and which earner has the

I was married twice before and I am currently married to my third husband. Although, we are married, he has become recently retired and I am still a working member of the family. We have two children that reside in the home with us. Our roles have reversed in some ways. We both worked full-time and maintained the household, but with his retirement he has taken over some of the responsibilities of the house. He will get our youngest child off to school in the mornings, make sure that the oldest is off to his job on time, and he cooks and cleans the house while everyone is away. This reversal is unheard of in many societies in the U.S. or in other countries. Many males would feel inferior in this role. Working class status has demonstrated in the past that men work and provide for their households not the women.

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at