Over the last three hundred years, and especially during the last forty years, the family system has adopted to tremendous changes. We can see that the early 18th century emphasized the functional family, a well ordered, patriarchal, hierarchal system. In the mid 19th century the idea of the companionate family emerged with an emphasis on the emotional relationship between members. During this time, comfort and happiness became a focus of family life. By the mid 19th century, the victorian family emerged with rigid gender roles, an emphasis on personal privacy, and an idea of comforting and nurturing. After World War Two, the modern family of the mid 20th century was an extension of the Victorian model. Then along with other social, economic, and political changes, the Victorian model resulted in the more flexible family structure we see today. In addition to the traditional nuclear family which consists of a husband, who is the breadwinner of the family, and a wife who is the head of raising children at home, and doing all the domestic work. There are many "other" kinds of families which include single parent families, common law families, gay / lesbian families, divorced families, step families, adopted families, foster families, grand parents raising grand children, multiracial families, interfaith families and multi generational families (i.e three or more generations living together in a single household.) Many argue that the traditional nuclear family is universal or nearly universal as the basic living unit. Although marriage and family forms vary widely throughout the world, the nuclear family has been the most prevalent living arrangement in industrialized countries. As we walk along the evolutionary path of the family, we see that there has been a tremendous change in the division of labor in the household from the traditional nuclear family to the "other" families. In my essay I will be discussing how the traditional family marginalizes other family forms and reinforces class, race and gender inequalities.
