Women and the Family: Waning relevance of The Family
In the book The Family (1953) by Burgess and Locke, a family was defined as such – ‘The family is a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption; constituting a single household, interacting and intercommunicating with each other in their respective social roles of husband and wife, mother and father, brother and sister, creating a common culture’. This definition primarily emphasises that a group interacting together does not necessarily need to be blood related as long as they have a prescribed role amongst them to be called a family.
Three of the many main roles a family has been expected to play through the ages have to be protection, the spread of culture continuation of the economy. Firstly, the family is relied upon as a source of protection. A family can have members who are unable to fend for themselves. They frequently are the infants, the elderly and the sick. These members turn to their able bodied counterparts in their family for protection, be it from hunger or physical or emotional harm, as a mean of survival. Secondly, the family is expected to inculcate culture into its occupants. Rules, values and beliefs are expected to be taught by parent to their children so that they can assimilate into the society at large without much hindrance or friction. Also, it helps to ensure the heritage that the family derives from is not lost and will be carried on for generations to come. Thirdly, the family is expected to be a mean of production and consumption to ensure the economy survives. Members in a family come together to produce supplies to meet the demand for their goods and buy supplies needed for their daily life. This ensures a constant exchange in wealth and helps to maintain a healthy economy.
But changes in society in general have blurred the level of involvement a family has in fulfilling these two roles today. Initially, majority of the world’s population were living in agrarian societies. Here, the family, as a collective body, played an important role in production. A family had to be large so that there can be as many hands as possible mending the fields to obtain maximum yield. To ensure this, families in these societies were ‘extended’. Brothers and sisters often lived under one roof with their parent, husbands, wives and children. The family also looked after each other as everyone was interdependent and an illness or accident could affect the whole family. When men were out working on the field, women usually tended to the needs of the young and elderly back at home. Culture was also passed down the generation so that the modus operandi continued, ensuring the survival of the family.
But in today’s post industrialized society, the situation seems to be starkly different. For once, the family is no longer a production utility. Farms have been replaced with factories as a place to work in. Therefore, a family is not relied upon for the productions of a good. Factories where many people from different families come together to work have taken the agrarian family’s role as a producer. There is no need for families to be extended so they have split to live with only their immediate relations. With the increase in the spread of democracy, elected governments in many countries have set up policies that look after the welfare of their voters. For example, the PAP in Singapore has set up the Medisave, Medishield and Central Provident Fund (CPF) policies to ensure that Singaporean would not be left helpless once they retire or are unable to work. These policies also reduce the dependence family members would have on their peers if they were ever to experience either situation. With the increase of educational opportunities, not only started at an earlier age, the average school leaving age is also increasing. Children these days are learning more about how to behave and react to authority and specific situations from nursery schools and kindergartens. Some families with career minded working parents often hire nannies to look after their children during a large portion of their childhood. These nannies are the primary actors interacting with the children and teach them right from wrong. This just shows that values and norms today can and are increasingly being learnt outside of the family.
Looking at these issues and changes, one would be able to derive at a grim conclusion that the word ‘family’ is losing its meaning. With more services available, the traditional roles of a family are being performed by unrelated people and social institutes. I think this is a worrying trend that is catching on, especially when great importance is placed on financial and professional success in our society today. I think it is necessary to start establishing the importance of a family as, even if the non-family bodies are able to perform the roles, they will last together as a family would. Teachers will go away upon graduation, nannies will not be needed after a certain age and government policies can change with a change in regime but only the members of a family will remain members of a family till the end.
