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Changing Faces Of Families

The profile of American families is rapidly changing. Over the past 15 years, the percentage of children under 18 living in families with three or more children has dropped by more than half. At the same time, the percentage of children living in female-headed households has almost doubled.



 


Three or more children


One child


Living with two parents


Living in

female-headed

household


 


       
   
 
 

1985 86.8 Million

Households:

More ... but Smaller

The U.S. population increased by 17 percent between 1970 and 1985. But the number of households grew more than twice as fast — increasing 37 percent over the 15-year period. The reason: more people are living alone — and in smaller family units. The average number of people per household has dropped from 3.11 in 1970 to 2.75 in 1980 - to 2.69 in 1985.


Number of Households, 1970-1985

Million


Other households (includes people living alone)


Singles: More ..


And Longer



 


A major reason why we have more and smaller households is that there are more unmarried — and more divorced — adults.

And people are marrying later. In 1982, the Census Bureau reports, more than half of all women 20 to 24 years old had never been married. That same year, 23 percent of women aged 25 to 29 had never been married — up from just 11 percent in 1970.



 

25-29 Males
30-34

20-24 years old

Percent Never Married, 1970 -1982


20-24


25-29 Females


30-34



136 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

HUSBAND'S HAZARD

For Middle-Aged Man, A Wife's New Career Upsets Old Balances

Her Outside Preoccupation Can Leave Him Isolated At Time of More Leisure

'Might as Well be Roommate'

BY MARY BRALOVE

11/9/81

H

erbert Gleason's wife tried to warn him, but he was too busy to pay much mind. "I kept thinking nothing was going to change," the Boston attorney recalls. He was dead wrong. From a comfortable life in which Mr. Gleason's career success was balanced neatly by his wife's full-time support as homemaker, the Gleason family abruptly changed course. At age 39, after a 10-year hiatus, Nancy Gleason resumed her career as a psychiatric coun­selor. Quite unexpectedly, the emotional sands beneath the marriage shifted.

"I really didn't anticipate how it would affect our attitudes toward each other." Herb Gleason says of his wife's return to her career eight years ago. "I thought she'd always be there just like before — supportive, adjusting to my needs."

For middle-aged men like Mr. Gleason, trying to accommo­date to a wife's new career can be a confusing, bruising experience. These men are of a generation in which marriage was typically a one-provider, one-homemaker effort, not a professional joint venture. They are of an age when change tends to come gradually and predictably, not suddenly. And although the problems of younger two-career couples have been well-chronicled, these men of a different generation are left to flounder on their own.




THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN 137


5. continued

"Difficult Transition"

"People talk about women's problems all the time, but the adaptive stress men undergo when their wives take on a career has been virtually lost sight of," says Preston Munter, a psychiatric consultant to Itek Corp. "Even if you could postulate an ideal man and an ideal marriage, this would be a difficult transition to make."

Although it may be cold comfort, an increasing number of men are attempting to negotiate such transitions. Today 24.5 million wives, or roughly 50% of the nation's married women, are working or looking for work. Some 6.2 million of them are between 35 and 44 years old, and a large portion of these are housewives who have only recently started new careers or revived old ones.

As these homemakers seek out their professional fortunes, their husbands are left behind to struggle with a welter of conflicting emotions. They are proud of their wives' work accomplishments, yet are impatient with the demands of their wives' new jobs. They are grateful that their wives are financially self-sufficient, yet they resent their newfound independence.

"I was the sole breadwinner, and then all of a sudden she could take care of herself," recalls Al Graubard, whose wife embarked on an airline career at age 46. "I felt deflated," he says. "She could get along without me. But in a way it was a relief. After all, I had been the only one bringing in the outside world."

Expressing Pain

Just how successfully an older man adjusts to his wife's pursuit of a career depends on such variables as the underlying strength of the marriage, each spouse's personality and the nature of the two careers. Yet the metamorphosis of homemaker into breadwinner sends tremors through every relationship.

 

"The marriage for the man provided his one big outlet for expressing dependency, emotion and vulnerability," says Elizabeth Douvan, the director of the University of Michigan's Family and Sex Roles Program. "The wife, however, isn't as available for him." Mrs Douvan, who has conducted national surveys on Americans' attitudes and concerns, adds: "What we're seeing is men expressing a lot more unhappiness and pain."


138 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

5. continued

While men may vent their feelings to a pollster, they are far more reticent when pressed to explain the sources of their discontent. Most agree it has little to do with sharing house­hold chores. Tentatively, they speak instead of a newfound sense of isolation: of an emotional separation from a pre­occupied wife who now seems to be more involved with the world than with husband, home and children.

... Many men are ill-equipped to grapple with the emotional ambiguities of an evolving relationship.

"Men find it incredibly difficult to talk about feelings," says Marjorie Shaevitz, the co-director of the Institute for Family and Work Relationships in La Jolla, Calif. "They live lives of quiet desperation and isolation."

Indeed, their silence on the subject is sometimes heart-breakingly eloquent. Asked about the adjustment he under­went when his wife returned to work, a New York oil executive begs off with the excuse of a heavy workload. Finally, after a long, still moment, he says quietly: "Look, I'll be honest with you. It's just too painful for me to talk about it."


"Honey, Pm home!"


"Honey, Pm home!"


part C Exercises


1. Scanning

Second Thoughts on Having It All

Other people's assessments of Rebecca Murray's life are obviously not identical with her own.

Find arguments in the text which support the notion of "Having it all," on the one hand, and "What is missing," on the other.

Comprehension

The Choices That Brought Me Here

Which way of completing each of the following sentences agrees with the original text? Some sentences may be completed in more than one

way.

1. Frances Farley, a woman running for
Congress in the state of Utah,

a) impressed the Mormons.

b) gave an all-female dinner-party in
Washington.

c) had a hard time fighting for equal rights
for women in Utah.

2. A 35-year-old successful female television
reporter

a) does not think of getting married.

b) would like to get married.

c) is somewhat frustrated because she has
not yet managed to find a man she could
marry.

3. Quite a number of women born in the 1940s
and early 1950s discovered that they could
find a meaningful life

a) only outside marriage.

b) only in marriage.

c) also in a career.

4. According to Amanda Spake, this group of
feminists

a) considered the traditional female roles of
wife and mother to be too emotional.

b) fought for new female values that were
traditionally associated with men.

c) were determined to be mothers and
wives, on the one hand, and successful
career women, on the other.


5. Today this group of women finds that

a) they can build up more solid relationships
between men and women.

b) men still seem to prefer the traditional
"feminine" values in women.

c) society still does not accept women as
equal partners of men.

Comprehension

How to Have a Successful Christian Family

Number the paragraphs following Falwell's assumption that "the greatest heritage Christian parents leave their children is the love and training they receive in a Christian home" and match each statement below with the paragraph it summarizes.

a) Anti-authoritarian education leads to the
decay of the American family.

b) God made the family the basic unit of
society.

c) Great families have traditionally been the
source of American greatness.

d) The high percentage of working mothers
leads to a perverted image of motherhood.

e) Love and shelter in families produce happy
people.

f) The playboy cult destroys the American
family.

g) The feminist movement, which regards self-
fulfillment higher than a family, destroys the
traditional family.

h) Conflict and undeclared war destroy the

traditional family, i) The importance of the family has been

undermined in recent years, j) The greatest concern for the author and his

wife is the love of their children.


140 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP


4. Functional Analysis

It is the author's aim to convince the reader of the importance of his initial assumption. The paragraphs of the text either

• support the assumption

• indicate how the assumption has been
endangered lately

• give reasons for that danger.

Determine which paragraph serves which function.

5. Reading Statistics

Families

Which of the following statements are true and which are false? Correct the false ones.

1. There were about twice as many American
families with three or more children in 1985
as there had been in 1970.

2. In 1985 almost twice as many children lived
in female-headed households as

in 1970.

3. Between 1970 and 1985 the number of
children living with two parents decreased.

4. Within those 15 years the number of
American households grew in proportion to
the increase in population.

5. One reason for more households is the
decrease in family size.

6. Another reason for more households lies in
the tendency of people to marry at a later age.

7. In 1982 fewer women than men were married
between the age of 20 and 24.

8. The increase of households other than
families is at least partly due to the fact that
men and women marry later.


6. Discussion

I I

I Ë li ii

W-Xyesrs 27-36years 37-Kyms 47-56years 57 years arm over

j!g| It is more important for a wife to help her ' husband's career than to have one herself

It is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever '""' outside the home and the woman takes care of home and family

Ø A working mother can establish just as warm and secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work

Source: Surveys by NORC-GSS, 1985 and 1986 combined

Reprinted with permission of American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

• How do you account for the divergent
answers to the opinion polls among different
age groups?

• How does the role of women in your country
relate to the roles described in the texts of
this unit?

• How do you think the role of women should
be defined?


Comprehension

For Middle-Aged Man, A Wife's New Career Upsets Old Balances

1. How are the traditional roles of husband and
wife described in the text?

2. To what extent does the situation in 1981
correspond with these traditional role
patterns?

3. What is the impact of a wife's new career on
her husband's life?

4. Does, from a husband's point of view, a
wife's new career also include positive
aspects?

5. Why is it particularly difficult for a middle-
aged husband to cope with the changing role
of his wife?


THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN 141

 

 


9 The Political System

part A Background Information


FORM OF GOVERNMENT

LIMITED GOVERNMENT

FEDERALISM

SEPARATION OF POWERS

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH


The United States is a representative democracy. All government power rests ultimately with the people, who direct policies by voting for government representatives. The nation's constitution defines the powers of national and state governments, the functions and framework of each branch of government, and the rights of individual citizens. All public officials of the national as well as state governments must swear to abide by the Constitution, which was created to protect the democratic interests of the people and government.

The principle of limited government is basic to the Constitution. When the Constitution was first written about two hundred years ago, many Americans feared that government power could become concentrated in the hands of a few. Several features were created to guard against this possibility: 1) the federal organization of government; 2) the separation of powers among dif­ferent branches of government; and 3) a system of checks and balances to restrict the powers of each branch.

Under federalism, the principle of limited government was achieved by dividing authority between the central government and the individual states. The federal (national) government has powers over areas of wide concern. For example, it has the power to control communications among states, borrow money, provide for the national defense, and declare war.

The states possess those powers which are not given to the national govern­ment. For example, each state establishes its own criminal justice system, public schools, and marriage and divorce laws.

There are certain powers, called concurrent powers, which both the federal and state government share. Examples include the power to tax, set up courts, and charter banks.

Besides the division of power between state and national governments, power is also limited by the separation of power among three branches — legislative, executive, and judicial. In the United States, each branch has a separate function.

The function of the legislative branch is to make laws. The legislative branch is made up of representatives elected to Congress. Congress is comprised of two groups, called houses: the House of Representatives (the House) and the Senate.

Lawmakers from all of the states are elected to serve in the House of


THE POLITICAL SYSTEM 143

DIVISION OF POWERS


POWERS OF THE

NATIONAL

GOVERNMENT


CONCURRENT POWERS



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