The Micro-Level Of Partner Roles: The Evolution Of A Family

The evolution of a family has drastically changed from the early 1900’s to present day. Families range from the traditional husband and wife bond to more modern views such as homosexual partnerships. Families and marriages can be further examined within those parameters and look at the micro-level of partner roles. Examining family structure, roles, education, and religion can help provide an improved perspective on how families function in society.

Institution of Marriage

Overall, the institution of marriage has morphed into a different standard than what it was 100 years ago. The basic definition hasn’t changed but the ideas of marriage before, during, and after has changed a lot. Cohabitation has doubled since 1995 and has become more of

These changes are results from women rights, fight for civil rights in the 1960’s and the more recently LBGT move-ment. Each movement had a long-term impact of families.

The increase of women rights such as voting and employment, empowered women at the home (Eisenberg & Ruthsdotter, 1998). Witt explains that Patriarchy is that the eldest male wields the greatest power (Witt, 2015, p. 159). This was the norm for families in the early 1900’s in which the husband went to work and the wife stayed at home and followed the direction of the husband. Now that women became more accepting in the workforce, wives have become employed and roles have changed from a patriarchy to an egalitarian type of family.

Another change that has changed the diversity of a family is the unity of interracial mar-riages. The civil rights act provided more rights for African Americans such as voting, employ-ment, and ownership (History.com, 2016). Race tolerance eventually increased and each became more accepting of the other. Interracial marriages have undecupled since 1960 (Witt, 2015, p.

The introduction of an improved education system has allowed students to socialize, understand foreign cultures, and the teacher-expectancy effect (Witt, 2015, p. 185). These factors can expand a child’s outlook on others beyond what a family might provide.

Many cultures and families worldwide, have a deep affiliation with their religion. All religions have beliefs and rituals but they can differ from each other. There is roughly 16% of the world that isn’t affiliated to a religion (Witt, 2015, p. 197).

Conclusion

Overall, the structure and institution of marriages and families have changed overtime. However, I believe the basic concept of what a family is has expanded and improved. I consider a family to be a group of people who love and care for each other no matter the difficulties. These individuals can be have any race, gender, religion, and education level. From a functionalist per-spective, a family can still fulfil needs no matter of those characteristics previously listed. A func-tional family can provide care, socialization, protection, affection, and companionship (Witt, 2015, p.