By Student Sociologists:

Jen, Brianna, Brian, & Alex

• Social Class can determine the social being of a person.

• According to Lillian Rubin , children from wealthy homes are more confident and have better physical & mental health than those who from poor families.

• Working class women are proven to be more masculine and self dependent than stay-at-home moms.

• A study showed that women from the working class wanted a husband who provided a safe & protective home whereas women from the middle class expected their husband to also provide emotional support.

• Ethnicity & Race are powerful social forces – both influence family life

• Families are diverse and do not conform to single stereotypes based on race or ethnicity

• Many Latinos:– enjoy loyalty & support of extended family– exercise greater control over children’s

courtship– consider marriage an alliance of families, not

just on romantic love

• Gender– Hispanic families encourage machismo –

strength, daring, & sexual prowess among men, while women are honored & closely supervised

• Puerto Ricans maintain strong extended families they knew in PR

• Male authority over women has diminished• Overall social standing remains below

average• They suffer stress of unemployment and

other poverty-related problems• 34% of women-headed households are poor

• Face economic disadvantages

• 3x as likely as nonhispanic whites to be poor

• Familes experience unemployment, underemployment, and sometimes an environment of crime & drug use

• Maintaining stable family ties is difficult

• 25% A-A women in 40’s have never married – so they are often single heads of households

• Single-mother families = higher risk of poverty

• 35% of A-A women-headed households are poor

• 72% of A-A children are born to single women

• 31% of A-A children are growing up poor

• Before 1967, interracial marriage was illegal in 16 states

• Today, African, Asian, & Native Americans = 17% of U.S. population so 17% of marriages are expected to be “mixed”

• The actual % is only 2.9, which shows that race still matters, but the % is rising steadily

• Black-white marriages are most numerous

• In modern everyday living we don’t practice patriarchy as we did in the past.

• It was proven that most husbands & wives with equal responsibilities will have a healthier & more pleasing marriage.

• But even without the normal practices of patriarchy, men still expect women to perform most and/or all of the housework.

• Polls have found that married women under these expectations are mentally weaker, and have more passive attitudes toward life.

• A great factor in having a happier, longer life is the security of the home & the stability of well-organized parental equalities.

• Married men live longer than single men, are mentally better off and are happier than single men.

• Men are more eager to remarry than women.