chapter nine Flashcards
formals norms governing marriage and families in Canada
- indian act
- chinese head tax
- eugenics policies
- polygamy laws
- restrictions based on age
- arranged & forced marriage
- laws concerning birth control/abortion
- divorce laws
- same-sex marriage
indian act as governing marriage and families
- discriminated against Indigenous women marrying a non-indigenous man
- if they did go through with that marriage they lost their status and their children’s status
chinese head tax governing marriage and families
- had to pay to stay and pay for their families to join them
- idea was that they couldn’t afford to pay for themselves to stay and bring over their wives and children
- resulted in a forced deportation
eugenics policies governing marriage and families
attempt to improve the genetic quality by forcibly sterilizing mainly indigenous peoples, those with mental illness, and most were women
polygamy laws governing marriage and families
you can only be married to one person at a time legally
restrictions based on age governing marriage and families
- must be 16 to consent to sex
- can get married at 16 with parents’ permission
arranged & forced marriages as governing marriage and families
- forced marriage is illegal and is when parents say you are getting married to this person
- arranged marriage is when you are told your family would like you to marry this person, but you have veto power as a bride and groom
laws concerning birth control/abortion as governing marriage and families
until 1969, it was illegal to counsel someone on birth control and abortion or provide them
divorce laws governing marriage and families
divorce laws were resistant until 1968
same-sex as governing marriage and families
legalized in Canada in 2005
monogamy
one spouse
polygamy
more than one spouse at al time which is illegal
polygyny
- males having more than one wife
- wealth impacts the taking of multiple wives
- animosity may exist between the wives
- the second wife elevates the status of the first wife
polyandry
- a female has more than one husband
- usually to keep family assets (land) intact
- reduces offspring as a labour source and lineage
Canadian divorce rates
- very few were divorced before 1968 because you had to prove abandonment, cheating or excessive, extreme cruelty
- 1968 was when no-fault divorce was introduced, which was where you just had to prove you were living separately for 3 years
- law changed again in 1986 because you only had to prove you had been living separately for 1 year, which is still true today
- divorce rate today is roughly 37-40%
informal norms governing marriage and families
- these attitudes tend to be durable and long-lasting:
1. societal attitudes (racism, prejudice/bias, stereotypes)
2. interfaith unions
3. “illegitimate children”, “half-breed” children or “gold-diggers”
4. divorce as a personal failure
singlehood
- Of all (100%) Canadian households:
- 28% are occupied by one person (i.e., single households)
- 27% are couples with children
- 26% are couples without children
- 9% are lone-parent families
the “ideal” family
- patriarchal
- parents married
- heterosexual
- dependent children; nuclear family
- an economically independent unit
family as an institution
- productive, reproductive and distribution processes
women in families
- primary providers of families/children (reproduction)
- limited in education, paid work compared to men (production)
- often rely on spouse/state for financial support (distribution)
structural functionalist perspective - david popenoe
- families as necessary and effective institutions for promoting societal stability through socialization of children, extent of contribution to social stability and providing the next germination of workers
structural functionalist perspective - family in a state of decline
- fertility decline
- women entering the workforce
- increased single hood
- increased divorce rates
conflict theory perspective - welfare programs and the perceived need for reforms
- neoliberalism promotes privatization, deregulation and cuts to social programs
- significant social welfare reforms were introduced in context of neoliberalism; many of these impacted families
- created the belief that we’ve gone from ‘poverty to perversity’; we had created a class of dependents with a welfare state that is to generous
stratified reproduction
- reproduction is stratified along multiple axes of social status and exclusion; race and ethnicity, class, gender, nation, sexuality, and legal status
- how some people’s reproduction is encouraged and rewarded while that of others is stigmatized and punished
formal and informal norms
- anti-miscegenation laws: criminalized interracial marriage and sometimes cohabitation and sex, particularly between white and non-white individuals
- Velma Demerson, a white woman, becomes pregnant with her chinese boyfriends baby and one morning the door was forced open by toronto “morality” police and her father
- she was forcibly removed from her boyfriend, put in jail and ended up giving birth while in jail
“the welfare mom”
a female who purposely produces children for the sole purpose of living off the welfare benefits she will obtain for doing so
perceived need for reforms neoliberal ideology
- individual responsibility
- privatization
- reduced role of the state
- market solutions to replace social programs
neoconservatism
- neoliberals that are socially conservative
- tend to blame liberal policies for society’s problems
- Christian-Right; desire to have laws reflect ‘biblical values’; traditional family values
- belief that social problems result of permissive/liberal culture
- focus on governing the individual vs. focus on governing the family
welfare dependency
- people on social assistance in Canada are portrayed as ‘welfare dependent’
- ‘dependency’ is sympathetic but suggests that something needs to be fixed
- responsibilized the individual (even as it is acknowledged that dependency owing to failed social policy)
discourse on welfare dependency
- lacking morals; cheating system/’unfair taxation’ of middle class; failing to provide better for family
- lacking ambition/industry/connection to work
