Families are a part of systems to determine who does various tasks and who has the power in groups, and they are a part of how society is organized. The meaning of a family changes over time and between cultures, and it includes things like how ancestral lines worth, inheritance, and the meaning and definition of marriage. In the USA today, there isn't really one kind of family which is normal, but people still think of a “middle-class, white, married, heterosexual couple with children” (Lee and Shaw 355,) showing how we think of whiteness, middle-class status, and heterosexuality as invisible norms. I would also note the able-bodied, neurotypical norms that people assume without realizing- even a text noting many "invisible" assumptions often misses able-bodied and neurotypical norms. Marriage and procreation are also typically assumed in ways lining up with religious ideals of no sex outside marriage and “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (English Standard Version, Gen 1:28.) The definition of the family has changed over time, and it continues to do so- prior to industrialization households contained larger groups who may or may not be related, today there are far more mixed-race and same-gender relationships than there used to be (Lee and Shaw 356.) The family at one point had men and women both working in things related to the farm, then young women would work in mills, then men were the breadwinners, and now we see some men being househusbands, with or without children (Boulding.) This reflects a change in exactly how the primarily economic agreement of marriage (Goldman 372) works, no longer necessarily the woman being condemned to the lifelong dependency and uselessness Goldman writes of, though the arrangement can still be argued to be largely economic. In Boulding's case, the woman is the one earning the wage, and the man is the one staying at home and mending, though the voluntary nature of both partner's choices makes it different from the hopeless nature of the arrangement Goldman describes. Miya-Jervis, too, describes changes in how marriage works, with women now able to refuse sex, able to maintain their own property, to (at least theoretically) make their own health care decisions. Sexism and heterosexism intersect in the idea of family and marriage in that women were (and in many cases still are) expected not to engage their sexuality until a man takes her as a wife (Goldman 373,) and it was rebelled against within some feminist circles as evidenced by the shock that a feminist was married to a man (Miya-Jervis 374.) However, there are still major effects from heterosexism affecting how the family is put together, including same-gender couples having difficulty adopting due to their oft-inability to marry (Gomes 381-2.) Two of the recent Supreme Court rulings affect these issues, with the federal government now required to recognize any marriage which the state recognizes.
Economic issues, such as those caused when women are not allowed to work outside the home and marriage becoming an economic arrangement (Goldman) help reinforce these norms, as do social legal barriers that prevent same-gender relationships from being legally recognized. Legal and economic issues are major players in reinforcing these norms, and they are so for many groups. (People with disabilities are largely affected by economic issues, as many states only allow one person in a marriage to be receiving disability services from the state.)
Boulding, Finn. "Yes, I'm a Homemaker." Slate Magazine. The Slate Group, 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 June 2013.
The English Standard Version Bible. 2001. Web.Goldman, Emma. "Marriage and Love." 1910. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. By Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011. 372-374. Print.
Gomes, Charlene. "Partners as Parents." 2003. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. By Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011. 380-385. Print.
Miyera-Jervis, Lisa. "Who Wants to Marry a Feminist?" 2000. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. By Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011.374-376. Print.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. "Family Systems, Family Lives" Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011. 354-371. Print.
I get into disability intersections less than usual this week... because I'm busy at a disability conference. #irony.