Changing Families in a Changing World - Research Paper Example

A Critical Analysis of Divorce as a Social Problem from the Conflict Theory Perspective Changing family is one of the most notable sociological syndromes of modern world. In the age of globalization, the family system has been undergone a lot of transformations in order to adapt itself with the modernity-induced changes such as those in labor-system, the rise of the individualism, increasing interaction between race, sexes etc. increasing role of women in outdoor earning activities, etc. It is remarkable that highly-interactive communication systems such internet, modern transportations etc. have brought people of different familial values close to each other. But at the same time, various factors have contributed to the growth of rift and conflict among various parties involved with a family (Phillips 45). As a result, different family systems are supposed to be a melting pot which seems to produce a new array of changed family systems. These changes on the family-system have both positive and negative impacts. The changes are mostly visible in structural and functional aspects of a family. Increasing divorces rate, single-parent family, changes in parenting and family care, changes, reproduction patterns, postponement of marriage and parenthood, etc are supposed to be some of the effects of changes in the family system. In this paper, we will primarily focus on the phenomenon of divorce as a modernity-induced social problem. Subsequently, we will attempt to prove that raising awareness about the harmful impact of divorce on the children and enhancement of understanding between husband and wife can reduce the rate of divorce in modern society. The social problem of divorce, one of the common syndromes of changing family system in modern world, can effectively be explained according to the social conflict theory. In this regard, Kakepoto comments, “Conflict theory is another important sociological perspective on social change. The theories that put emphasis on conflict have roots in the ideas of Karl Marx, the great German theorist and political activist.” (3) According to this theory, human society is divided and subdivided into different interest groups, communities and clusters of units, which are colliding and conflicting with each other in order to form a newer and more tolerable balance-relation among them. In the context of modernity, the rise of the individual is essentially induced by the increasing role of human being in the field of labor. During the industrial revolution in European continent and America, women increasingly became involved with outdoor earning activities in an industrial environment. Women began to have their says in family affairs and to influence decisions such as taking children, number of children, expenditure issues, divorce and many others. As a result, women began to be in conflict with their male counterparts in families as well as in the society. Social conflict theory essentially assumes that inequality and conflict generate changes in order to create a new balance among the individuals, groups, classes or communities, as Kakepoto says, “According to this view social change is the result of social movements. Society always remains in tension where different parts try to overlap with each other.” (7) If viewed from this perspective of conflict, inequality between male and female and injustice in the patriarchal structure of the institution of family provoked working class women to be more freedom-loving and challenging to the superiority of their male-counterparts. Consequently, though divorce rate in the middle age was comparatively low in various communities and societies of the world, it began to raise high during the industrial revolution and reached the peak especially after the Second World War. Other subsidiary changes also occurred in the basic structure of a family system. For example, childrearing, doing household chores, etc were no more feminine activities, whereas outdoor-earning activities were, no more, something masculine. Some of the positive effects of the industrial revolution on the family system are that women’s subservient position in the family and the society began to change towards a better end, since the gender-distinction and discrimination in household activities began to collapse. But the negative impacts of the industrial revolution on the family-system were that divorce rate, single parenthood, etc increased (Phillips 83). A deep analysis of the role of marriage and family in human life and society will necessarily reveal that divorce is an unwanted evil. Marriage is considered to be the means of preventing the social disorders and anarchy which are supposed to be caused by immoral sexual activities of the members of a society (Phillips 138-149). At the same time, it works as a society-acknowledged way of fulfilling sexual and emotional hunger. It also provides security and support to both husband and wife. Ultimately this society-acknowledged bond between a man and women gives birth to the concept of family. Indeed, though it is the smallest unit of the society, it is the most important institution where a man or a woman starts his or her socialization by learning the morals, rules, and regulations of the existing society (Kreppner and Lerner 36). It is the family in which a child receives the basic behavioral patterns that are further molded by other social institutions such as religion, educational institutions, political systems, etc. (Lerner 26). On the contrary, divorce causes a lot of harms to human being and society. It destroys relationship, peace and harmony. Yet human being needs it. Indeed, in human society, it exists on its own, though no considerate man wants it. The institution of marriage has existed in human society from the beginning of known human civilization. Since in pre-modern societies, women’s loyalty and faithfulness were considered to be the prerequisite for the sustainability of marriage and family, women appeared to be the worst victim of male-monopoly and male-oppression. Ironically enough, the evil of divorce is a man or a woman’s right also. It is often a safe-exit of a woman from the oppression of her husband. Often in a family, women do not have any ‘say’ against the disloyalty of her husband. Often a wife’s betrayal leads to physical punishment and death. Therefore, marriage and family appear to be a tool of oppressing women in the name of sanctity, chastity and loyalty (Phillips 57). Though many societies around the world would not permit a woman to have the right to divorce, in the face of modern feminist movements in the beginning of the 20th century, the women’s right to divorce came into being in Europe and America (Hopper 438). Though both husband’s and wife’s right to divorce brings an equality between the two parties of a marital bond, the alarming increasing rate of divorce all over the world after the 1950s drew the attention of the scholars and the analysts. In this regard, Swanson notes that after the second world war, a steady increase in the rate has appeared as a great threat to modern society, as he says, “Before the 1950s, many couples divorced because of wartime hardships such as…..In the two or three years following World War II, divorce rates reached an all-time high that was not matched again for twenty years” (Swanson 2). After a careful analysis of divorce from a historical perspective, Swanson finds out four basic reasons. They are as following: “modernity-induced change in traditional gender role indoor and outdoor activities”, “liberalization of women’s responsibility to family”, “declination in religious value” and “failure to adjust with each other” (Hopper 438). After the Second World War, due to the heavy loss of male members of the families in the European continent, women had to get involved in outdoor work. Indeed this escalating participation of women in the workplaces during the Industrial Revolution as well as after the war had completely a disturbing effect on the conventional concept of marriage. As a result, wives who were involved in outdoor workplaces growingly came into conflict with the male members regarding their responsibility of maintaining house and hearth, and of rearing their child (Phillips 69). Therefore, in order to get rid of the after-effect of this changed role, women sought divorce during the 1960s. In this regard, Swanson notes, “Attention began being paid to the role of women in divorce, since most divorces were sought by women. This trend was typically linked to the new level of women’s involvement in the workplace, as well as the modernization of women’s roles in general.” (3) Though divorce serves as a means of relief, for the spouses, from conjugal conflict, various studies show that it is endowed with negative effects more than the positive ones. The harmful impacts of divorce on children are devastating, as Fagan and Rector say, “The effects of divorce are immense. The research shows not only that it permanently weakens the relationship between a child and his or her parents, but also that it leads to destructive ways of handling conflict and a poorer self-image” (3). Again these authors claim that experience of divorce has perpetuating effects on children. Children who have experience parental divorce suffer from physiological disorders. Moreover, these children “demonstrate an earlier loss of virginity, more cohabitation, higher expectations of divorce, higher divorce rates later in life, and less desire to have children” (Fagan and Rector 3). When parents get divorced, children have to suffer from traumatic experience. Children of divorced parent increasingly become the victims of disregard and mistreatment. A study, conducted by Professor Robert Sampson, reports that the divorce rate is positively interrelated to the crime-rate in any locality. He also claims that “the lower divorce rate has higher formal and informal social controls on the crime rate” (Sampson 280). Also a British and a US longitudinal research reports claim that children, of divorced parents, who live in their single parents or stepparents’ household are about three times more prone to commit juvenile crimes than the children of non-divorced parents (Farrington 103). Divorce usually reduces the child's economic resource. Divorced parents’ economic resource also gets divided. So, divorce severely minimizes the family members’ prospect to collect wealth. Children of divorced parents are normally plunged into debt and financial crisis, according to Fagan and Rector: “For families that were not poor before the divorce, the drop in income can be as much as 50 percent” (6). In the age of globalization, the social institution of family has undergone a lot of changes. Familial morality, norms and values have changed a lot. Along the passage of time, gender role women also have changed. Women now play more and more roles in outdoor activities. As a result, they come into conflict with their husbands. Though in most cases they grow a relationship of understanding, divorce rate eventually has increased in modern society. The only solution to this social problem of divorce is to grow an equal and egalitarian relationship. In order to prevent conflict between husband and wife, Couples should try to establish a family on egalitarian view, as Swanson says, “Modern couples tend to have strong desires to create an egalitarian home for themselves. However, they are often disheartened to discover how difficult this is, especially when they find they have resorted to traditional methods regardless of their attempts to be equal” (4). In the context of our modern society there is a growing trend to undermine the marital system as a mere social construct that is reminiscent of the patriarchal dominance. It is viewed traditionally marriage-induced “fatherhood” and “motherhood” as the stereotypes of man’s superiority over women inferiority. But because of importance of the role that a family plays in the socialization of children, this traditional family system is pushing forward along the passage of time in modern society. The family created around a marriage is where children are first brought up with a sense of the world’s morality, the rules and laws, by which we live within our polity. This is all explained so cogently by both Plato and Augustine. Family and marriage are central. But when marriage is uprooted and destroyed, there are serious consequences. In modern society divorce is one of the most serious problems we must deal with. It is a phenomenon that drains our economy and threatens to ruin the building blocks of our way of life. Works Cited Fagan, F. Patrick and Robert Rector. The Effects of Divorce on America, Domestic Policy Studies Department. Washington: The Heritage Foundation. 5 June, 2000. 28 October, 2010, Farrington, David. “Implications of Criminal Career Research for the Prevention of Offending.” Journal of Adolescence, Vol. 13 (1990), pp. 93-113. Hopper, Joseph. “The Symbolic Origins of Conflict in Divorce.” Journal of Marriage and the Family. 63: 430, 2001. Kreppner and R.M. Lerner, eds. Family Systems and Life-Span Development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989, pp. 15-27. Kakepoto, Hamadullah. Sociological Impact of Social Change upon Institution of Family with Special Focus on Pakistan. N. d. Web. 6 March, 2013 Lerner, R. Martin, Individual Development and the Family System: A Life-Span Perspective. In: K. Kreppner and R.M. Lerner, eds. Family Systems and Life-Span Development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989, pp. 15-27. Phillips, Roderick. Putting Asunder: A History of Divorce in Western Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Sampson, J. Robert. "Crime in Cities: The Effects of Formal and Informal Social Control," in Michael Tonry and Norval Morris, eds., Crime and Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 271-301. Swanson, Margaret. Marriage and Modern Society: Lagging Evolution toward Egalitarianism. 8 October, 2010. Web. 8 Mar 2013. Read More