D. Nicole Farris - International Handbook on the Demography of Marriage and the Family

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One might think that defining a family is an easy task. The family is so significant to society that it is universal. It is one of the most important foundations and agents of socialization and is the first place where we learn culture, norms, values, and gender roles. Families exist in all societies throughout the world; but the constitution of families vastly differs among countries. For example, the Western world has traditionally regarded a family as consisting of a husband, wife, and children.

However, we are seeing increasing numbers of one-parent families, gay and lesbian families, blended families, and childless families. The future family in Western and non-Western societies will not look exactly like families in these societies in the past and the present. Traditional notions of what constitutes a family have long been changing.

Today, many consider the traditional family to consist of a male working outside the home, a woman staying at home taking care of children, and two or more children in the home. This is the kind of idealized family that represented much of America in the 1950s and may be revisited in the reruns of such television programs asThe Adventures of Ozzie and HarrietandLeave It to Beaver. But this family form is not and was not the traditional family.

The contemporary family has changed tremendously in the past seven or so decades. For instance, whereas 65 years ago almost all children in the USA lived in two-parent Ozzie and Harriet-type families, these days only about two-thirds of children live in such families. And this varies tremendously by race and ethnicity, with the percentages lower for black and Latino children.

The family is a topic of special interest to demography. In most times and places, the family is the responsible unit for the production of the next generation. In other words, fertility, i.e., the production of children, usually occurs in the family. Fertility almost always operates within the family setting. But these days, there are many alternative family forms, including gay and lesbian partners, cohabiting heterosexual couples, couples with one or two transgender persons, and so forth. These alternative forms allow us to question whether indeed a family must have culturally recognized ties that are based on biology and/or marriage.

What about the so-called traditional marriage? In the earliest times up to around the seventeenth century, marriages in most societies were not necessarily about love, sex, child-rearing, and affection. Although these may have figured into the marriages, the principal objective of marriage was to gain in-laws who would bring legitimacy. Rulers justified their authority on the basis of ancestry. The best way to bolster ones ancestral legitimacy was to marry someone who also had an august line of ancestors (Coontz 2005: 53). Marriage was also used to establish military and commercial ties. Whereas today rulers and heads of states ratify treaties between countries with their signatures, in the past, they would seal their deals with a marriage ceremony (Coontz 2005: 54). And marriages worked in a similar way with similar benefits for the common people. Children who were married off had virtually no say regarding their new partners; their parents and grandparents and the other male relatives made the decisions.

Farris and BourquesInternational Handbook on the Demography of Marriage and the Familyis the ninth handbook in the series International Handbooks of Population.