Families, Labour and Love

by Baker, Maureen

• ISBN13: 9780774808484
• ISBN10: 0774808489
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Author Biography

Maureen Baker is Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	x
Preface	xi
The Personal and Social Worlds of Families	1	(25)
Why focus on families in Australia, New Zealand and Canada	3	(2)
The origins of family studies	5	(1)
The meaning of family	6	(7)
Academic definitions	7	(2)
The myth of the monolithic family	9	(2)
Government definitions of family	11	(1)
Family diversity	12	(1)
Why do governments collect and analyse family statistics	13	(1)
Family trends in Australia, New Zealand and Canada	14	(9)
Rising life expectancies	14	(2)
More cohabitation	16	(1)
Declining legal marriage rates	17	(1)
Declining fertility	18	(1)
Lower adoption rates	19	(2)
Rising rates of marriage breakdown and lone-parent families	21	(1)
Rising rates of remarriage	22	(1)
More women and mothers in the paid work force	22	(1)
Interpreting family trends	23	(2)
Discussion questions	25	(1)
Cultural Variations in Families	26	(24)
Variations in family structure	27	(2)
Patterns of authority	29	(3)
Marriage patterns	32	(2)
Monogamy versus polygamy	32	(1)
Arranged versus free-choice marriage	33	(1)
Indigenous people in the three countries	34	(8)
Aboriginal families within Australia	34	(4)
New Zealand Maori and conceptions of whanau	38	(2)
Canada's First Nations	40	(2)
Recent immigrants to New Zealand and Australia	42	(7)
Pacific Island immigrants to New Zealand	42	(4)
New Asian immigrants to Australia	46	(3)
Conclusion	49	(1)
Discussion questions	49	(1)
Early Family Life in Settler Societies	50	(19)
Early European contact	51	(1)
Early settlement	52	(2)
Reasons for migration	54	(1)
Colonial family life and work	55	(3)
Children's rights to protection and social services	58	(2)
Education and early child care	60	(5)
Gendered labor and the family wage	65	(2)
Conclusion	67	(1)
Discussion questions	68	(1)
Conceptualising Families	69	(21)
Political economy approach	70	(2)
Structural functionalism	72	(2)
Systems theory	74	(1)
Psychoanalytic theories	75	(1)
Social construction approach	76	(2)
Social exchange theory	78	(1)
Developmental theories	79	(1)
Feminist theories	80	(2)
Postmodern theories	82	(2)
New directions in family theorising	84	(3)
The emerging emphasis on fatherhood	84	(2)
Re-theorising family intimacy and dependency	86	(1)
Conclusion	87	(2)
Discussion questions	89	(1)
Intimacy, Cohabitation and the Quality of Marriage	90	(29)
The influence of modernisation on marital relationships	90	(3)
Social changes from World War II	92	(1)
Changing dating practices	93	(3)
Changes in sexual attitudes and behaviour	96	(4)
Mate selection	100	(5)
Mate selection for arranged marriages	100	(2)
Mate selection within free-choice marriage	102	(1)
Theories of mate selection in free-choice marriage	103	(2)
Cohabitation	105	(1)
The quality of marriage	106	(3)
Violence in intimate relationships	109	(4)
Remaining unmarried	113	(3)
Conclusion	116	(1)
Discussion questions	117	(2)
Childhood, Reproduction and Child Care	119	(28)
Changing images of children and childhood	119	(2)
Parenthood, reflection and choice	121	(4)
Social pressures to reproduce	122	(1)
The costs and benefits of children	122	(2)
Why have children	124	(1)
Becoming a parent	125	(1)
Delayed parenting and declining fertility	126	(1)
Pregnancy and childbirth	127	(2)
Infertility reproductive technologies and surrogacy	129	(6)
After childbirth: The changing division of labor	135	(2)
Child-care concerns	137	(3)
Child abuse	140	(2)
Choosing no children	142	(2)
The future of parenting	144	(1)
Discussion questions	145	(2)
Families and Paid/Unpaid Work	147	(29)
Labor market trends	148	(4)
Access to earnings and control of family money	152	(3)
Changing labour markets and employment proverty	155	(1)
Welfare-to-work programs: Assumptions and effectiveness	156	(1)
Low-paid employment: Cross-national variations	157	(7)
Unemployment	158	(3)
Low wages	161	(1)
Time outside the labour force	162	(2)
Combining paid work and child-rearing	164	(1)
Structural barriers to entering the full-time labour force	165	(2)
Unpaid domestic work	167	(6)
Australian time-use surveys	168	(1)
New Zealand surveys	169	(1)
Canadian Studies on unpaid work	170	(2)
Explaining patterns in house work	172	(1)
Conclusion	173	(1)
Discussion questions	174	(2)
Separation, Divorce and Remarriage	176	(32)
Measuring separation and divorce	176	(1)
Marriage and divorce trends	177	(3)
Comparing divorce rates	180	(1)
A historical view of marriage and divorce laws	181	(5)
Early ideas and laws concerning marriage	181	(2)
Early divorce laws	183	(1)
Divorce reform in the twentieth century	184	(2)
Spousal maintanance and the division of family assets	186	(7)
Guardianship, custody and access to children	193	(2)
Child support	195	(3)
Continuing controversies in divorce and support	198	(2)
Divorce, lone parenthood and children	200	(4)
Lone parenthood and remarriage	204	(1)
Conclusion	205	(1)
Discussion questions	206	(2)
State Regulation of Family Life	208	(20)
Government intervention in family life	209	(1)
Categorising welfare states	210	(3)
Models of family implicit in social policy	213	(2)
The male breadwinner/female caregiver family	213	(1)
The egalitarian model of family	214	(1)
The development of family policies	215	(11)
Before the 1950s	215	(3)
From the 1950s to the 1970s	218	(2)
After the 1980s: The retrenchment of the welfare state	220	(6)
Family policies in restructured liberal welfare states	226	(1)
Discussion questions	227	(1)
The Future of Family Life	228	(18)
Future trends in families	229	(14)
Intimate relationships outside marriage	229	(3)
The future of marriage	232	(1)
Future gender relations	233	(2)
The future of parenting	235	(2)
Midlife in the future	237	(3)
The future of family life among seniors	240	(3)
Conclusion	243	(2)
Discussion questions	245	(1)
Glossary	246	(12)
References	258	(41)
Index	299