Changes in Family and Sex Roles in Twentieth Century America Part 1. The Family and the Welfare State Part 2. New Definitions of Family and Sex Roles

The Family and the Welfare State

Who takes care of people when they are “dependent” -- that is unable to take care of themselves because of age (children or the elderly), sick, disabled, unable to find work (unemployed)? For most of human history, families were the primary agencies for welfare, supplemented by charity, religious institutions, and the state.

Traditional Concepts of “Relief” Indoor or Outdoor: –Indoor Relief: Institutions, e.g., almshouses, workhouses, hospitals, orphanages –Outdoor Relief: Donations of food, clothing, cash or other resources for people to take ‘home’ Deserving vs. Undeserving Poor –The deserving poor can expect “relief” –The undeserving poor need to be forced back to work

Status and Security In ancient and pre modern societies, one’s guarantee of “security” was defined by social and family status, as lord, free person, slave, serf, etc., or family member. In modern societies based upon individualism and “free enterprise,” the claim for “freedom” and “liberty” also attenuates claims for “security.”

Old and New Types of Crises Old crises: war, famine, disease, natural disasters Industrial Capitalism adds a new type of economic crisis: the panic, stock market crash, recession, depression, when the economy collapses temporarily.

Capitalist Economic Crises Occurred roughly every 20 years, with increasing intensity: –1819 –1837 –1857 – – –1907 –

The Great Depression,

Impact of the Great Depression Quarter of the Labor Force Unemployed by 1933, and remained at 10-15% til % decline in prices and GDP by Housing Market collapsed. Vast Amount of Liquid Wealth Destroyed in Market Crash 1932: Repudiation of the government of Herbert Hoover, and election of Franklin Roosevelt who promised a “New Deal”

Relevance for Family and Sex Roles Recognition that families, local government, and private charity could not provide “welfare” in time of crisis A new “radical” change? The national government took on the responsibility. Or a “conservative” legislative agenda to assure “traditional” economic, family and property relationships. ….Or both….

The Cornerstone of the New System: Social Security Act of 1935 Providing Benefits to the “Deserving:” –BOASI: Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance –Unemployment Insurance –Aid to the Blind, Deaf, and Disabled –Aid to Families of Dependent Children (Mothers’ Pensions)

The Elements of the New System: Social Security Act of 1935 BOASI: Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance –Federally run –Tax on employers and employees to pay for old age pensions –“Survivors,” children and spouses, can draw benefits from worker’s account –No benefits unless one has worked a sufficient number of “quarters –Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for indigent elderly

The Elements of the New System: Social Security Act of 1935 Unemployment Insurance –State administered program with federal support –Tax on employer (and sometimes employees) to support program –Time limited benefit while employee is laid off and/or searching for a new job

The Elements of the New System: Social Security Act of 1935 Aid to the Blind, Deaf, and Disabled –Federally run program to provide benefits to disabled –Uses the BOASI model –A small program

The Elements of the New System: Social Security Act of 1935 Aid to Families of Dependent Children (Mothers’ Pensions) –Locally administered program to provide benefits to women with children but without husbands –Benefits vary greatly by locale and are very small

Additional Provisions of the Welfare State, 1930s and 1940s Work Relief Programs: e.g., Works Progress Administration, Public Works Administration (ended during World War II) Support for Housing Industry, Homeowners and Renters: –Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration mortgage guarantees; –Public Housing (begun in 1930s and 1940s) Tax policy: –Withholding extended to wage earning population during World War II –Income tax deductions for dependents –Mortgage interest deductions

Remaining Issues… Health Care and Insurance? Support for Job Training and Higher Education? Food Security?

Additional Provisions Food Stamps: 1964 –Locally administered program providing means tested support –Also supported by farming interests Medicare and Medicaid: 1965 –National Health Insurance for Elderly –Health Insurance for the indigent administered locally. Higher Education Aid: –GI Bill of Rights, post World War II, subsidized education for veterans –National Defense Education Act (1950 and 1960s) began grant and loan programs for higher education.

Has the Welfare State Accomplished its Goals? Should it Continue? Debate begins in the 1970s: –The Welfare State has guaranteed Americans the highest living standards in the world…. –Or… –The Welfare State has outlived its usefulness, taxes are too high, and once again families and the private sector should shoulder the burden of care.

Examples of the New Understanding 1994: The Clinton Administration’s proposals for national health insurance collapsed, and Americans elected a Republican Congress for the first time in 60 years. 1996: Congress repealed Aid to Families with Dependent Children, one of the original provisions of the 1935 Social Security Act. –PRWORA: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act Bush administration proposed privatizing the BOASI system.

Contemporary Issues in Family and Sex Roles What’s next….?

Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and its Legacy “Playboy” culture for men and…. Birth control pill for reliable contraception for women Lead to new possibilities for and debates about gender relations….

Second Wave Feminism Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) signals a new challenges to the limitations on women’s roles New organizations appear: –National Organization for Women (NOW) (1966) –Women’s liberation and consciousness raising groups – late 1960s and later

Civil Rights and Second Wave Feminism: Legislative Changes First the courts: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) desegregated public schools. –Repudiated the theory of “separate but equal” Equal Pay Act of 1963: –Men and women must be paid the same for the same jobs. Civil Rights Act of 1964 –Nondiscrimination in public accommodations –Title VII: Nondiscrimination in the labor market Voting Rights Act of 1965 Housing Act of 1968 –non discrimination required in housing markets Title IX of education amendments of 1972 requires gender equity in education. –most notable impact was in athletics.

Later Developments Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), provided constitutional protection for birth control and articulated a right to privacy –Struck down CT law making contraception illegal for married couples. Roe v. Wade (1973): Legalized abortion –Defended by “pro choice movement” to define the right to “choose” –Attacked by “pro life movement” on the grounds that abortion takes the life of a fetus. Sexual Harassment defined as illegal form of discrimination by courts in late 1970s.

Challenges to Patriarchal Social Relations Equal Rights Amendment: But it fails in late 1970s Gender Gap in voting since 1980 –Women and men vote differently Changes in family structure: –dual earner family –single parent family –same sex marriage

Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and its Legacy: Gay Rights

Same Sex Relations We have examined the history of sexuality primarily in the context of the history of the family. Western religious traditions conceptualize same sex sexual relations as deviant and/or sinful, and classify same sex physical relations with other forms of deviant, sinful, or prohibited sexuality (e.g., fornication, adultery, bestiality, masturbation). The logic behind such a conception is that the purpose of sexuality is procreation, and such behavior is not potentially procreative.

Movements for Sexual Liberation Come from a variety of interests, e.g.,…. –Heterosexual Men and Women –Science and Medicine –Gays and Lesbians

Science and Medicine... Challenge the authority of law and religious authorities to define the “normal” and the “deviant” in sexuality. –Psychologists: Freud –Sociologists Alfred Kinsey –Physiologists Masters and Johnson

Sociologists......begin to survey sexual practices. The Kinsey Reports of the 1940s and 1950s demonstrate the discrepancy between morality and practice For example, 1/3rd of men acknowledge a sexual relationship to orgasm with another male

Physiologists... Masters and Johnson conduct ‘experiments’ to study human sexuality by putting people in a laboratory, wiring them up and recording physiological responses. When: 1950s and 1960s

Gays and Lesbians…. And the the right to sexual autonomy. In the US, cities develop gay and lesbian subcultures (turn of the 20th century), including bars and restaurants, and networks of jobs and relationships of support. These communities are periodically harassed and prosecuted under local vice laws. 3. In 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, bar in Greenwich Village, NY, the patrons fought back when the police attempted to raid the bar and arrest patrons. A street riot broke out and led to an open movement for the rights of gays and lesbians, patterned on the civil rights and women’s liberation movements.

Gay Rights Organizations 1924 The Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes the country's earliest known gay rights organization The Mattachine Society, the first national gay rights organization, is formed by Harry Hay, considered by many to be the founder of the gay rights movement The Daughters of Bilitis, a pioneering national lesbian organization, is founded.

Gays and Lesbians... In 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village, NY, the patrons fought back when the police attempted to raid the bar and arrest patrons. A street riot broke out and led to an open movement for the rights of gays and lesbians, patterned on the civil rights and women’s liberation movements.Stonewall Innfought back

Changes The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 1980s AIDS Epidemic 1993 The “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy is instituted for the U.S. military, permitting gays to serve in the military but banning homosexual activity. President Clinton's original intention to revoke the prohibition against gays in the military was met with stiff opposition; this compromise, which has led to the discharge of thousands of men and women in the armed forces, was the result In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These protections... constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.”

Changes Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples. The law states that these “couples would be entitled to the same benefits, privileges, and responsibilities as spouses.” It stops short of referring to same-sex unions as marriage, which the state defines as heterosexual The U.S. Supreme Court rules in that sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate conduct.” In November, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that barring gays and lesbians from marrying violates the state constitution. The Massachusetts Chief Justice concluded that to “deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage” to gay couples was unconstitutional because it denied “the dignity and equality of all individuals” and made them “second-class citizens.” Strong opposition followed the ruling On May 17, same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts Civil unions become legal in Connecticut in Oct

Wisconsin in 2006 Should the State Constitution ban same sex marriage? The November BallotBallot Pro And Con