Please write your name and SID on the top right corner of the first page. Put your word count in the top left corner of the first page.   The essays will be submitted as hard copies and electronically; therefore, please cite all sources correctly and please do not plagiarize.

References& Resources for this assignment:

1.Coontz’s Why Working Mothers Are Here to Stay in The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing Families

http://books.google.com/books?id=t7W0uWZJjecC&pg=PA52&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

2. Stephanie Coontz, Historical Perspectives on American Families

3.Stephanie Coontz, What We Miss About the 1950s

4.Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift, Introduction to the Penguin Edition &chs. 1-3

5. Arlie Hochschild The Second Shift, chs. 4, 5, 6, 8

6.ArleHochschild The Second Shift, chs. 10, 12 €“ 15

7. Arlie Hochschild, So How’s the Family

8. Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, excerpt from Family, Socialization and Interaction
Process (1955)

Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales predicted that the typical family arrangements of the 1950 would characterize modern families in industrial societies for decades to come.  Yet, as seen in the census data below, married couples with children (the nuclear family) fell from 40% of all households in 1970 to 20% of all households in 2012.  More significantly, among the 20% of nuclear-family households, only 1 out of 4 were comprised of bread-winning fathers and stay-at-home mothers.  This means that about 5 percent of all American households followed the gender divisions typical of families in the 1950s, while 15 percent of all American households are nuclear in form, but both parents are employed. (Less than 1% of American households have breadwinning mothers and stay-at-home fathers.)

There are many economic, demographic, and cultural reasons why nuclear familieshave declined as a household form across industrialized societies.   Even though less than 5 per cent of American households include a stay-at-home mother supported by a bread-winning father, elements of this ideal modern family, however, still influence people’s expectations of home life, creating tensions between the normative ideals and lived realities of many American families.

Based on information provided by Coontz and Hoschchild, how would you explain the decline of the male-breadwinner family? How do family and gender norms based on the male-breadwinner family still affect American families? In other words, what are the lived consequences of this tension between older family and gender ideologies and the economic realities that have drawn many mothers into the labor market?

Part of writing a good essay exam is to figure out the components you need to include in order to demonstrate evidence of learning.  It would be a good idea to explain what we mean by the male-breadwinner family and why Parsons and Bales thought this way of organizing family life would become the family norm. You do not need to write a comprehensive summary of Parsons and Bales (this in itself could fill your word limit), but you do need to clarify their explanation of whatever factors you choose to use as the central issue(s) of your argument.While you need to think critically about Parsons and Bales, it could be helpful to consider what useful insights are foundin Parsons and Bales’ study of the family.
You should also consider the economic (and to some extent, cultural) changes in American society that made the extreme gender role separation described by Parsons and Bales less feasible for American families.  Coontz’s Why Working Mothers Are Here to Stay and the early chapters of The Second Shift would be relevant to this section.
Finally, you need to consider the extent to which the family/gender ideals of the 1950s still affect contemporary family life?  What are the consequences of these older family/gender norms on contemporary family dynamics?  The case studies from The Second Shift (as well as ideas from Coontz) would be particularly relevant to this section.
This content will be most easily organized if you frame it as part of a larger argument (maybe as a critique of Parsons’ and Bales’ approach to studying family life, maybe as a critique of patriarchal social norms that hide the burdens placed on mothers, maybe as a critique of our individualist society that refuses to recognize the public issues that lie behind many personal troubles.  You can use your own sociological imagination when framing an overarching argument.

Grading Criteria
In terms of grading, the readers and I will generally be looking forpresentation of argument and evidence that you have learned course material.  Essays are very much an exam in that we are specifically looking for references to ideas and facts from the class readings and lectures.

An A’ paper is often very close to a B paper in terms of evidence of learning and organization, but an A’ paper has a strong, clearly recognizable argument that reflects your creative voice as a writer and thinker. To the extent that you can organize your information so that it supports a broader argument, the better your grade is likely to be.

By presentation of argument, we are looking for such things as
a)    a clear thesis statement in your introduction
b)    use of evidence to support sub-themes that are related to your main thesis in the body of your essay
c)    use of transitions and development of links so we can see how your argument holds together
d)    a conclusion that gives us a deeper understanding of the initial argument presented in your introduction
By evidence of learning, we are looking for such things as
a)    concise summaries that accurately reflect the scholars’ perspectives;
b)    substantiation of claims with references to specific works and/or direct quotes from the readings;
c)    proper in-text citation of key ideas and quotes.

When evaluating creative voice, the readers and I are not expecting you to present a profoundly original perspective in this essay, but we would like to see that you have given the topic enough thought to make the material your own.