barriomulas.com - Traditional Family and "National Crisis"

I am taking an online course during the summer at Alabama's Troy University and am pleased to see that many of the assignments are based around forming an opinion and defending it on a number of weekly subjects. Today's question is: "Is the decline of the traditional family a national crises?"

And my answer:

The traditional model of a nuclear family - that of a single breadwinner and a housewife - has in recent decades declining in face of high divorce rates, re-marriage, double income households, and the integration of women into the workforce. Though this phenomena - like any other social change - has a number of effects that I could be consider negative (a higher dependence on the state for education and the replacement of direct parenthood with "outsourced" daycare, for example) I would not consider this to be a national crisis.

This is not considered a national crisis because these newer models represent changes sought by the populace. If society wishes to maintain its current way of living then such a model is quite appropriate.

The previous model was just as applicable to the economic model of that era as much as the current model is for today's economy.

The rise of the "breadwinner marriage" model, according to Stephanie Coontz occurred during the early years of the new cash economy. Most families still needed someone to specialize in household production, responsibilities often carried out by the wife. "A full-time housewife's work at home," states Coontz, "could usually save a family more than she could earn in wages." But as household production lost ground to the wage economy, the traditional housewife's activities were no longer viewed as economic activities. At the time, four out of five women wished to be married by the age of 22 and to give birth to four children.

The passing of the traditional family simply represents changes in our standard of living and our economic model. In a world where production and consumption are the primary measuring units of economic development, wage labor is much more required of our current economy. One can now earn a wage and still assure that all "household responsibilities" are tended to. Washing machines, dish washers, dryers, affordable daycare, and a full school day can now be readily obtained without the need to grow dependent or marry a partner.

Shifts in our economy have made it so that the traditional family model is no longer necessary to assure social security. Thus, I would not consider the current model as a national crisis, but as an evolution of our the family from a crucial economic institution to a form of recreation. And though many may argue whether or not such a change is for the better or the worst, the majority can acknowledge that it is voluntary and well-accepted by the masses.