The Myth Of The Traditional Family Analysis

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The Changing Nature of the “Traditional” Family
It is hard to imagine a more instrumental social institution than that of the family. A great number of social issues can be traced back to familial disturbances, including gun violence, poor academic performance, health issues, and crime (Gans 1971). In her article, “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth of the “Traditional” Family,” author Stephanie Coontz argues the importance of the institution of families and uses the changing structure of the “traditional” family throughout history to convey that our concept of the traditional nuclear family is not only inaccurate, but also harmful as it ignores other social institutions such as race and class that have great impact on the family as well.
Coontz begins her exanimation of the American family in the colonial era, and argues that one’s race and culture largely impacted the diversity of families that existed in this time period. For example, the nuclear family was rare in this era due to the large “network of marital alliances and kin obligations” influenced by the Native American culture. Contrastingly, wealthy European settlers had the means to establish independent households by capitalizing …show more content…
He argues that the “traditional” family is nonexistent both today and in America’s past, and that family is the result of not only racial and class issues but political problems as well. The institution of the family is influenced by “racial tension, gender discrimination and gay bashing” that can often be glossed over by politicians painting a picture of the “golden days” (Maillard 2012). Maillard argues that it is necessary for politicians to embrace the notion of our evolving culture rather than clinging to a “retro ideal,” and that this in turn will help to dismantle the preconceived notion of the “traditional American family in

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