"Domestic Revolutions"

Childhood, 1950s and More

Although people have been worrying about the demise of the family for centuries, the authors point out how in many ways these forces for change have been a positive influence on the American family. One major change has occurred in childhood. Three of every ten children in New England died in infancy or as toddlers. Children of both the elite and the poor were fostered out for long periods of time in order to attend school, learn a trade, or to work as servants. Today's children live longer and have more of a childhood than their early American counterparts.

It was discovered in 1899 that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. State legislatures decided to fix the problem by making it harder to get a divorce. At one time, South Carolina actually prohibited divorce. Despite these efforts, by 1924, one out of seven marriages in America ended in divorce.

The chapter on families during the 1950s is fascinating reading. They quote Adlai Stevenson saying in 1955, that women's role in life was to "influence us, man and boy, to restore valid, meaningful purpose to life in your home, and to keep their husbands truly purpiseful." Unmarried women were depicted in the media as "neurotic, unhappy, and dissatisfied."

Some statistics they offer:

The average age of marriage for men was 22, and for women, 20.

"Women bore more children, spaced them closer together, and had them earlier than their mothers."

Nearly 1/3 of women had their first child before they were 20 year old.

The fertility rate rose 50%.

"The rate of divorce increase was lower than in any other decade of this century."

"Seventy percent of all women were married by the age of twenty-four."

"Nearly two million married men and women lived apart from their spouses in the 1950s."

"Public opinion polls indicated that approximately one-fifth of all couples considered themselves unhappy in marriage, and another fifth reported only medium happiness.

The authors discuss the changing family status of Blacks, Native Americans, and other ethnic relationships within the diversity of America. They also take a historical look at the Depression era, the 1960s, and 1980s. The term that Mintz and Kellogg give to the emerging, changing family is "companionate family" which is how they view American families today.

Bottom line: this is an easy to read and understand historical overview of the American family.