Topic 2 Changes in family lifestyles?

Topic 2 Changes in family lifestyles?

Activity 1: Type: Free Text & Discussion 

Question: Do you believe families have changed over the last decades?

Have people and what they want changed?

Are they together for different reasons?

Explain your reasoning.

Feedback: The family has been through dramatic changes in the past century, in terms of family formation, household structure, work-life balance, and child well-being.

  • Women started building careers
  • The role of mothers and fathers has changed
  • Couples postpone relationships until they have more money and careers
  • Couples don’t always marry nowadays
  • Couples divorce more
  • There are more single-parent families
  • It is not taboo anymore to live together when you are a gay couple

Activity 2: Type: Multiple choice (multiple answers)

Question: Have family roles for men and women changed over the past decades? (add only the question in the platform, the answers below can be in this unit’s Final Quiz)

  • Women have become richer
  • Men also take care of children (correct; feedback: but still not enough)
  • Women do less housekeeping at home
  • Women can plan and decide when they have children (correct)
  • Men are not responsible for women any more (correct; feedback: until the 1950s, women were not allowed to make their own financial decisions)
  • Men are responsible for punishing the children when they misbehave

Feedback: Roles for men and women have indeed changed.

The most dramatic change in gender roles over the past eight decades relates to the growth of women’s rights. More women focus on education and career. More women become stronger and do not have to be subservient to their husbands. This changed the family dynamics. If you would like to learn more about Women’s History, click on this link.

  1. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” posters from 1943. Source: J. Howard Miller – U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (Public Domain)