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Jose Luis Ayala Iniguez

Professor Huerta

English 1S

7 November, 2017

Today’s families face many realities that are caused due to the government's false family

values. These family values were created in the 1950’s and have since then evolved, even so

many politicians and social commentators believe that these family values are still present and

try to apply them in today’s modern families. Today’s US families face the realities of gender

roles, extended family involvement and being separated. These realities reflect the true average

family in america which many politicians and social commentators are blind to see and

understand but are manipulated with the old ideologies from the model family of the 1950’s.

The creation of the model family in the 1950’s created gender roles in families that were

carried on in today’s modern families. One of the main influences that contributed to those

gender roles were the creation of the nuclear families, which consists of a couple (heterosexual)

and their dependent children. These nuclear families came to be due to the postwar ideology that

many American veterans came back home with, to form a family and bare children. This caused

women to become housewives and men to become the only family member to bring an income to

the household. Men soon became a high authority in the household, creating the term

“Breadwinner”. Stephanie Coontz, a award-winning writer provides more information about this

topic in her article What We Really Miss About The 1950’s, she informs and explains the

outcome of these changes that were happening to families after the war. “At the same time, again

for the first time in 100 years, the educational gap between young middle class women and men
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increased, while job segregation for working men and women seems to have peaked. These

demographics changes increased dependence of women on marriages, in contrast to gradual

trends in the opposite directions since the early twentieth century. The result was that family life

and gender roles became much more predictable, orderly and settled in the 1950’s than they were

either twenty-years earlier or would be twenty-years later. (Coontz 29)” Women were fired from

their jobs and forced into becoming housewives after the war. An increase of job segregation

came to be. It's what we call now the “Glass Ceiling”, which is metaphor to represent a barrier

for women to advance in professions that men can easily obtain. All this connects back to how

women were perceived back in the 1950’s, only a housewife which were only meant to clean and

take care of children. In today’s society women don’t reflect this image and are far more

independent and have higher social status in society, breaking those gender roles of the 1950’s.

Women don't need to depend on men to survive in today's society but still struggle to move up

social class ladder due to those gender roles.

Men after the war became the breadwinners of their households and easily obtain high

social status in home and society. Due to the government's involvement and investment into the

nuclear families, it made it easy for men to find good paying jobs. “Nearly 60 percent of kids- an

all time high - were born into male breadwinner - female homemaker family; only a minority of

the rest had mothers who worked in the paid labor force.( Coontz 29)” For the majority of

families in the 1950’s, men would portray a higher authority demonstrating a masculine image

to their children who would unfortunately carry on those gender roles. Since then those old

ideologies of men being the only higher authority are everyday decreasing From this developed

idea of having equality between gender roles both my parents share the same authority when it

comes down to decision making in our household.

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Today’s families don't live the luxurious lifestyle of the 1950’s, many have to depend on

their extended families in order to be economically stable. People of color (POC) are

stereotypically seen to be more affiliated with their extended families than White

Americans;They are seen to be more disorganized and have weaker family ties. In article The

Color Of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender And Extended Family Involvement by Naomi Gerstel

and Natalia Sarkisian, provides information from the National Survey Of Family and Households

which compare and provide stats about involvement of extended family between POC and White

Americans. “Blacks and Latino/as, both women and men, are much more likely than whites to

share a home with extended kin: 42 percent of blacks and 37 percent of latino/as, but only 20

percent of Whites, live with relatives. Similar patterns exist for living near relatives: 54 percent

of Blacks and 37 percent of Latino/as, but only 37 percent of Whites, live with relatives.(Gerstel

Sarkisian 45)” All this information demonstrates that POC are often more likely to live or live

near their extended kin. This is due to the fact that many families of color need that financial or

emotional support from their extended family; which White household families can easily obtain

from their immediate family. Many families of color do not uphold the traditional “model

family” but rather can portray a non-marriage or single-parent household..Through having these

stereotypes created for POC they typically don’t fit in the image of the nuclear family but are

still able to survive and be economically stable due to the support from their extended families.

Unfortunately their family values often clash with the outdated values of the government’s.

Many social commentators often don't take into consideration extended families and

social class inequalities in making policies that are suppose to help families live that settled

lifestyle of the 1950’s. Policy makers often make policies with the mindset of the family values

of nuclear families. This creates problems for model families that don't meet the criteria, making
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it hard for today's families to help those important to them. In the article by Gerstel and Sarkisian

tell us the proper way social policies should be made. “Extended family obligations should be be

recognized and accommodated where possible. But they should not be counted on as a substitute

for antipoverty measures, nor should marriage promotion be used in this way. Policymakers must

recognize that support from family- whether extended or nuclear- cannot fully compensate for

the disadvantages of being poor, or minority, or both. (Gerstel Sarkisian 52)” Today’s social

policies don't accommodate the needs of modern families. Today’s families are more connected

with their extended kin compared to the 1950’s, meaning many households consist more than

just their immediate families. Also many families have ethnic differences that are not taken into

consideration in making policies like medical paid leave from jobs to attend family members.

These policies only extend to one’s immediate family but not extended families. Nuclear families

are less present in today's society, but unfortunately these social policies are only being made for

them.

Today’s families face being separated by the government and live in fear of being

deported due to being in a mixed-household status. Mixed-status households are when there is

one or more undocumented member living in a US documented home. These households are

always at risk of having member being deported. Also creates harsh obstacles for parents who

are undocumented that have to bring a income to sustain their family. In the article Mass

Deportations Would Impoverish US Families and Create Immense Social Cost by Robert

Kerwin, he provides statistics on mixed-status households and the outcomes of a mass

deportations.“Mixed-status households are emphasized primarily because the possibility of

deportation and its attendant social and economic disruptions can generate immense hardship for

millions of US citizen residents who are entitled to a level of security and opportunity consistent
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with their rights as citizens.”(Kerwin 3) This tells us that these families in mixed-status

household Have the fear of being deported at any second, which could affect the jobs many

parents have and the future choices you have to make for your family. I personally have lived in

this fear of being separated from my family, that harsh reality can influence the way I go through

school and my daily routines. As an individual I feared on allowing my voice be heard due to

running into trouble with officials.. These mixed-status households are a reality in today’s

society and contribute to the family values in this new generation. It's important to understand

that these families lack the security and economic stability that many nuclear families had in the

1950’s.

Today’s families don’t face the same realities that families faced in the 1950’s. Modern

families face the realities of gender roles, extended families and being separated from their

families. It's important for politicians to understand and help modern families evolve and adapt

from the image of the model family. It's important for families to break those families value from

the 1950’s and pave new ones for future generations.