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.
When it came to relationships it could be anything from marrying someone of the same sex to not marrying at all. There were new, more lenient guidelines to having a relationship in the 21st century, and they continued to evolve. Individuals were now aiming “for personal growth and deeper intimacy through more open communication and mutually shared disclosures about feelings with their partners” (428). The social norms of family life were becoming less apparent, and marriage in itself was growing to be less common. Marriage had transformed from the mid-20th century to the 21st century in monumental ways.
According to his article, Popenoe it is the retreat from marriage presented in the paragraphs above that is largely to blame in the sharp increases we have seen in residential independence and non-marital cohabitation. He links individuals leaving their homes at an early age as a major factor in the tremendous increase in non-family households and non-family living. He also points out that the number of non-marital couples living together (cohabitation) is steadily increasing. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that those who choose cohabitation before marriage will be much more prone to
At this time people wanted to spend their money instead of save it for hard times. Society’s hourly pay rate nearly double and tripled during this era. War factories transitioned from making war materials to making civilian supplies, which lead to the boost in our economy at the time. Today, effects of the Baby Boom have many factors that come into play that affect our economy. According to National Academy of Social Insurance “social security faces a financial challenge from the impending retirement of the largest generation in American history, the 76 million persons born in the “baby boom” years, from 1946 through 1964.
These changes in fertility shows that more women are remaining childless than in the past and women are postponing having children, older women may be less fertile and have fewer fertile years remaining, so they produce fewer children. Sociologist have identified many reason for the decline in birth rate since 1900, these reasons involve a range of social, economic, cultural, legal, political and technological factors. Changes in the position of women also plays a role in the decline of birth rate, this is because there was a major change in the position of women during the 20th century. The change in position of women include legal equality with men, including the right to vote, increased educational opportunity this enabled girls to do better at school than boy. More women in paid employment, plus laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination.
` In the article, Generation Debt by Anya Kamenetz, it talks about how the recent twenty years, the cost of college has risen dramatically. A lot of the young Americans are stuck with small jobs with low wages, high student loans, and taxes. Most of these young Americans have large debts because of this. People started trying to find new jobs hoping it would work out better for them. Since these young adults have no money they put off getting married and starting families.
In fact, 30 U.S. states today have nursing shortages. And by 2020, the government projects, 44 states plus the District of Columbia will have shortfalls. Many people don’t want to do this job anymore because it’s demanding work and can be dangerous. Diana Mason, editor in chief of the American Journal of Nursing says, “we will never have enough nurses unless we fix the work environment.” In order to address this problem, some facilities have tried out some different solutions, for example, more than 1,000 nurses from the Philippines were hired in the U.S. in the last five years. Other facilities are increasing salaries, and providing better hours and working conditions.
This period is referred to as the "baby boom" era. Many children were conceived, and those children are now our elderly population. After the baby boom era, fertility rates have been steadily declining. The working class are taxed for FICA (federal insurance contribution act), which funds social security. The problem is that there are less working class then there is the elderly population.
Without a change, all women would still be living life as a housewife like Lucy from “I Love Lucy” (Lamb) Divorce rates have increased since the 1950’s and the couples are getting divorced under different circumstances. Parenting styles and household structures have also changes since the 1950’s (Elliot). During the 1950s, divorce was not widely accepted, so marriages we stronger during this time. Marriage rates in the 1950’s were at their highest in this time period compared to the years prior (Elliot). In the 1950’s, interracial marriages were not accepted or legal in some states.
One-third of young US girls, about 820,000, become pregnant before they turn 20 (80% are unmarried) and 4 million American teens contract an STD each year. (Teen Sex- Do Abstinence Only Programs Discourage Teen Sex? Web) With these statistics, it is apparent that teens are not making wise decisions regarding their own health and well-being. Nothing is more serious and personal than your health, and teens don’t seem to be able to grasp the gravity of the situation. Teens are bombarded with sex education, and yet have the highest STD rates in the country.