Comparing Families of the 1950's to Those of Today

566 Words3 Pages
Kolby Blaine Williams Ellafaye Jones Family and Marriage June 8, 2014 Family Life of Today vs. Family Life of the 50’s The average family of the 50’s is now considered the model family. Typically the father provided the income while the mother stayed home with the many children. Family life of today has greatly changed in almost every aspect over the last 64 years. The sanity of marriage and family has greatly decreased since the fifties. The role of the mother in the family household has been immensely altered. Divorce rates have more than doubled. It seems all the morals highly valued by families of the 1950’s have lost their meaning in today’s society. One of the most major changes between today’s family life and the life of families in the fifties is the role of the mother. In the 1950’s it was very uncommon for a mother to work outside the home. Today, however, it’s commonplace for a mother to make her own career path and spend much of her time outside of the family household. This would have been deeply frowned upon in the 1950’s, yet today it is embraced. The role of the mother is the most important role in the household. With a mother who chooses to spend much of her time outside the confines of a family home for whatever reason you can expect to see many changes. Another reason mothers have become less dependent on their husbands is because the divorce rate has more than doubled in the last 60 years. It is still agreed that a happy marriage is something to strive for and it is all around better for the family, though the divorce rate is almost at its peek. The woman’s job in the 50’s was to make the family happy and to steer it away from divorce at all possible, and since the woman’s role has changed so has the rate of divorce. Adultery, abuse, and unhappiness are not any less common now than it was 60 years ago, but it is now less tolerated. There
Open Document