20th Century American Family Trends

The 20th century observed extraordinary changes in the structure and dynamics of American families.

The remarkable shift began with the Progressive Era, which spearheaded the emerging concept of marital happiness, an idea that marriage should be composed of emotional ties between the husband and wife. The Industrial Revolution further reinforced these rising ideals with economic and technological transformations that encouraged people to choose partners based on emotional attraction than financial stability.In the 1960s, compassionate marriages gave way to individualized marriages – the formerly rigid familial roles that entrenched the father as the breadwinner and the mother as the caregiver evolved to more flexible and negotiable roles within a marriage. Throughout the majority of the 20th century, my own family’s changing dynamics and structures reflect the trends of U. S.

families across the decades. Taiwan’s industrial revolution in the early 20th century and my parent’s immigration to America contributed to my family’s evolution from husband-headed households of many children and established domestic roles to my current family now.However, while my family’s transitions mirrored many mainstream patterns of American families, there are also very distinct traits within each generation that contrast greatly with the American model. Beginning in the late 1930s in Taiwan, both my grandparents’ families were similar to American families in their structure and size – they were large, husband-headed households with responsibilities divided among family members. Taiwanese families reflected the historical Chinese family structure – a patriarchal structure where families were hierarchically organized, with the prime authority being vested in the senior-most male.

My grandmother describes her father as someone whose decisions and opinions were indisputable, and insubordination not tolerated. As the head of the family, my great-grandfather managed most of the financial responsibilities as well as making major decisions for his wife and children. Familial roles in both my grandparents’ families were tightly maintained and controlled, and responsibilities distributed based on gender and age. My great-grandfather worked in a nearby factory while my great-grandmother cooked and cleaned.

My grandmother, who has nine siblings, remembers that her and her sisters worked at nearby laundries as soon as they reached a certain age, while her older brothers worked with her father in the factory. The strict division of labor within my grandmother’s household reflects the rigid structure of American families in the early 1900s, where families depended on each other’s skills and contributions to survive. However, an aspect of my family in this generation that differed from the American household was the role of parent-in-laws within a family.In a Chinese family, when a woman is married, she is adopted and affiliated to her husband’s family, where her parent-in-laws usually hold the most authority on extended-family matters. Unlike American families in the early 20th century, where extended family living between a husband’s parents and his family were rare, a Chinese husband’s parents not only lived with their son’s family, they also commanded the highest respect and obedience from their daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

Both my grandparents lived with their fathers’ parents.My grandmother admits that on the rare occasion her father was not home to delegate chores, her grandmother always had more than enough tasks for her to complete. In the years following World War II, Taiwan was transformed by the impact of industrialization, urbanization, and increased education. These transformations and modifications in the social and economic environment created changes in the Taiwanese family structure. As a result of Taiwan’s extended contact with Western societies, trends that emerged in my parents’ generation are more closely aligned with American family patterns.

Similar to the feminist movement in the United States, women in Taiwan also entered the workforce by great numbers. Both my grandmothers held jobs - my grandmother on my dad’s side helped my grandfather at his factory while my grandmother on my mother’s side worked as a nurse in a local hospital. Education, which had long been a source of social mobility and respect in Taiwan, but previously only limited to the wealthy, became more attainable as Taiwan was industrialized. As a result, both my parents are well-educated and received college degrees in Taiwan before immigrating to the United States to pursue their Masters degree.

Another similarity was the postponement of marriage and childbearing for couples during the late 20th century. My parents married in their late twenties and had me in their early thirties, which is far later in comparison to both my grandmothers, who had their firstborn before the age of twenty-one. While late 20th century Americans pursued their individual satisfaction at the cost of a more fragile relationship with their family, the Chinese family in my parents’ generation continued to be a crucial center of authority despite the changes in Taiwan’s social and economic environment.Loyalty to the family chain is a unique Chinese characteristic that drives individual men and women to value their linkages to their parents and children even when they have the luxury to pursue personal satisfactions. Unlike American culture, whereas attaining individual expression comes at a cost to existing relationships, Chinese culture opposes the sacrifice of family involvement for personal enlightenment. This unique trend can be seen through the extensive support my parents continue to provide to their own parents.

My grandmother lives with our family for half a year and lives the other half with my uncle’s family. This trend also manifests in the investment that Chinese parents make to the futures of their children; my grandparents paid for my father’s education throughout graduate school as well as the first down payment for our house now. This trend demonstrates that while my parents’ generation was undeniably influenced by American trends, they also adhered to many traditional Chinese ideals.The combination of my Chinese family system in the past and my parent’s eventual immigration to the United States resulted in my current family today – a family whose structure and dynamics continue to coincide with the American model while maintaining a distinct Chinese character. Living in a society of new social and economic exigencies, my parents were often forced to make adjustments to the traditional Chinese family system they grew up with. The fluctuating economy forced my parents to adopt fluid boundaries in roles of breadwinning and caretaking.

When my dad lost his job and decided to change his career, my mother’s steady full time work as an accountant allowed our family to maintain our lifestyle. My parents’ efforts to let go of rigid, fixed gender roles reflect the American pattern of providing emotional and financial support through flexible forms. In this era of less stable careers and gender conflicts, my family has embraced the American model of fluctuating between family pathways to adapt to changing contingencies. Nonetheless, an aspect of my generation that differs from the American model is the lack of divorce in my family and extended family.Although my parents certainly have had to face serious issues within their marriage and have contemplated a separation before, divorce has never been an option for them. This differing trend may be accredited to the loyalty and connection a Chinese individual feels to his/her family and extended family.

My mother said that a divorce would not only severe the connection between her and my father, it would also destroy the relationships she has built with her parent-in-laws and sibling-in-laws.In a generation where young adults are presented with lifestyle options that their parents never had and that their grandparents could barely imagine, they are also faced with problems associated with these vast changes. Surveys in both Andrew Cherlin’s Marriage-Go-Round and Kathleen Gerson’s The Unfinished Revolution conclude that while young adults maintain a high hope for a long-lasting marriage, they also prepare for the alternative. This belief is emphasized by the fact that divorce rates continue to rise in the United States throughout the latter part of the 20th century.Although women’s in the workforce initiated in 1960s, Gerson’s The Unfinished Revolution suggests that women have remained pessimistic on achieving and maintaining a work-family balance. The survey goes on to show that if the egalitarian relationship proves to be too costly or ineffective, three-fourths of women would pursue self-reliance over their marriage.

The majority of men, on the other hand, would revert to the traditional roles of a marriage so they can continue to place a high priority on work.Beneath this gender divide lies a shared value: men and women will continue to pursue their work even when confronted with obstacles in their marriage. The future of successful marriages seems bleak unless men and women’s views realign – whether it is women forgoing their personal autonomy to preserve their marriage or men becoming more willing to adopt the caregiver role or a combination of both. Despite Americans’ romantic sentiment for marriage, these idealized notions are not strong enough to counter the persistence of work-family conflicts that permeate modern relationships.