The Change Of Traditional Family To Modern Family In The Past

Traditional families, also referred to as nuclear families comprises of a man and a woman, who are usually married and have one or more than one biological or adopted child. However, traditional families do not necessarily refer to a group of people who are related by blood anymore, but is a social unit of people who form bonds with each other. Nowadays, even the idea of traditional families comprising of the parents and children has changed. This is because traditional families are based upon culture and may differ in different parts of the world for example, in Western cultures, especially in European American culture, families follow the nuclear family system comprised of the parents and children, whereas in Asian, Hispanic, Indian, African and Middle Eastern cultures, most families follow the extended family system in which the family may include the grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and relatives. 

The development and changes in traditional family units have also has also had a great impact on other types of families and due to the gradual changes in traditions and cultures around the world, which has also changed how common or uncommon these families are today. There are six main types of families which include Nuclear families, which consist of the parents and children, Single parent families, which consist of one parent and one or more children, Extended families, which include the Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and relatives living with the family, Step families, which consist of two different families who joined together to form one, Childless families, which consist of two parents who do not want or cannot have children, Grandparent families, which consist of the grandparents who raise their grandchildren and homosexual families who may or may not have children.

From a global and national point of view, there has been an enormous impact on traditional family units around the world in the last 50 to 100 years. Some great changes in western culture throughout 1965 to 2016 may include the acceptance of gender equality in both workplaces and families which contributes to the increase in homosexual families, there has been an increase in social class differences which led to the introduction of two-tier families, and there has also been a massive increase in divorce rates. Marriages now occur less often in countries with developed economics and in all most all countries, marriages now occur at a later age. Fertility rates have also sharply declined in almost all nations of the world. Nowadays, there is a higher percentage of people being childless and in countries like America, early marriages did not make sense by the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

The median age for marriage has skyrocketed in many parts of the world for example in the early 1970s, it was 21 for women and 23 for men in America. Nowadays, the median age has increased to 26 for women and 28 for men. Divorce rates in the U.S have also increased with the highest from the ethnic groups being that of African American’s with a 4.5% divorce rate with the lowest marriage rate of 29.9%. This means African American’s have the highest percentage of single parent households, in the U.S. Hispanics also have an increase in divorce rates with a 3.5% divorce rate and a low marriage rate of 37.9%. 

Changes in traditional family units took place due to a large number of reasons. Economic and financial problems were a major reason for these changes in traditional families in many parts of the world because during the 1960s and 1970s, it was hard to support a nuclear or extended family on a single wage in America, which led to the delay in marriages so parents could receive a better education to provide for their families. This could have contributed to why people started marrying at an older age all over the world as well as to why more women started to work, which is also a major reason for the changes in traditional family units today.

Development of technology was another vital reason for the changes in traditional family units around the world because inventing mobile phones, touch screen computers, laptops and net books ultimately helped make communication a lot easier and allowed families to be more open minded and move away from their traditional areas without feeling isolated. The development and gradual improvements of transportation, the invention of efficient vehicles as well as the development of communication might have been the reason for more women feeling comfortable to work outside the house.

Another reason may have included lack of education and employment opportunities. About 50 to 100 years ago, families were a lot more dependent on each other. They were usually hunters or farmers and everyone had a job in the house and if you had to work you could leave your child with another family member, however nowadays families are moving to urban settlements to receive better employment and educational opportunities, and so families start to adopt nuclear family systems. This may be the reason for the need of elderly homes as well as day cares even in workplaces.

One of the greatest reasons for the changes in traditional family units were women empowerment. Women had been fighting for their rights to inherit property, vote, education, employment opportunities and divorce for more than 100 years. Some examples of lack of rights for women may include how in china, women were considered to be inferior, women rights activists in Canada fought for their rights to education, health and increased property rights in the 19th and 20th centuries and in Greece women lacked many political rights. However, It was not like this in all countries for example in India, women enjoyed an equal status as men in all aspects of life and in Egypt, women enjoyed the same rights as men under the law but ultimately women in different parts of the world did not receive the same rights as men around the world. 

So ultimately, the effects of this inequality was that women started to fight for their rights which had led to them receiving equal rights to education, employment and divorce. This was why more women starting to work which had definitely effected the amount of extended families as women now had the choice of working or staying at home or looking after the kids and elderly. This was the greatest reason for the need of day cares and elderly homes as the children of the elderly were unable to take care of them after women also started to work and parents could not take care of their children at work which led to the need of daycares, even at workplaces. Divorce rates also increased when women also had the right to decide if they wanted a divorce or not. This had increased the number of single parent families as well.

In conclusion, there were numerous reasons which led to the changes in traditional family units around the world over the last 50 to 100 years. The most important reasons included women empowerment, financial and economic reasons, employment and educational activities and improvement in technology. This had resulted in how common or uncommon other types of families were and are now. Traditions and cultures are changing continuously in different societies and this had a great impact on the traditional family units around the world. Traditional family units, therefore, differ throughout the world.

Some sources I used were very reliable, especially those written by experts in that specific topic or subject. Some of the articles and websites I received some information from were written by teachers and writers with professional experience. Some biased or unreliable information may also be present from blogs or articles not written by professionals. I got a lot of information from the website Markedbyteachers.com which was I feel was reliable as it was a sociology article on changes in families, approved or written by teachers.