Discuss the origins of the nuclear family — When and why did it supersede the extended family? What problems are faced by nuclear families as opposed to extended families? What does it mean to say the nuclear family is "gendered"? Whose "sphere" is it?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

During the nineteenth century, with industrialization and modernization it became customary for children to move far from their parents to go to school or look for work. With no parents around, they had to be responsible for their own spouse selection and for their own home away from their parents, even if they were staying in the same town. When they had children of their own, they were solely responsible for child rearing; the grandparents had only small and informal roles to play. Without the support of extended family in the household the parents had to reinvent childrearing. The nuclear family is "gendered" in that roles and activities are allocated increasingly along gender lines. The wife was increasingly restricted to the home, with her primary role envisioned as child care and household maintenance (though within the home she had greater autonomy). She became a "housewife." Because the home was seen as the "women's sphere," middle-class women's activities outside the home began to shrink. The husband became the "breadwinner," the only one in the family who was supposed to go to work and provide economic support for the household (although in families with less money the wives worked also outside of the home).