Science/Technology on the Modern Era Family Structures

¶ … Science/Technology on the Modern Era

Family structures and social relationships in North America have undergone significant changes in the modern era, largely because of scientific/technological advancements. Such advancements have propelled the Women's Movement, caused a transformation of youth culture, and altered dating habits. This paper explores the positive and negative impacts of scientific/technological advancements in North America, how such advancements influenced the Women's Movement, and how the Women's Movement has impacted family structures.

Positives and Negatives

In the field of information and communication technology (ICT) alone, vast advancements are seen to have had positive and negative effects on North America.

The positive effects range from time saving devices that allow users to transmit information to anywhere from anywhere with an efficiency heretofore unthinkable. "Compared to sending letters, email is cheaper and faster" (Thunder02, 2009), while information sharing has essentially effected borderless communication. Advancements in ICT have also allowed for the possibility of a paperless society, which is viewed in a very positive light by environmentalists.

However, the negative effects of ICT advancements may outweigh the positive. Many of the negative effects of ICT have to do with social relationships. For example, Instant Messaging on the Internet has displaced one-on-one conversations in real-life. Online communication is "safer" and "easier," but it also redefines the meaning of social interaction -- in effect by limiting one's social life to a chair, a desk and a desktop computer. Eye strain, back strain and stress have also been associated with excessive computer use. Fraud, identity theft, and the virtually unlimited access to pornography are also negative effects of ICT advancements (Thunder02, 2009).

Science and the Women's Movement

Scientific advancements have also helped fuel the Women's Movement. For example, advancements in birth control helped popularize contraception, which was one of the issues promoted by leading Feminist Betty Friedan. Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique in the 1960s effected tremendous sway on North Americans, from housewives to lawmakers. Concerns about reproduction and health safety, spurred the scientific community to approach abortion as an alternative for pregnant women. Within the decade of abortion's legalization, cells of tissue from an aborted fetus were being used in scientific experiments such as those of Dr. Basu at Notre Dame University in the 1970s. Science was everywhere, altering everything. And women were feeling the effect (Jones, 2009).

Because the idea of Femininity was changing, and also the sexual mores, women were seen as freer to do what they wanted. They could go to college to finish an education, they could have sex "without consequence," and -- important to Friedan -- they could leave the kitchen. Women's equality built on the shoulders of women's suffrage, and soon women were competing with men for jobs in the market place.

According to Katherine Bennhold (2009), "Last year, three women received Nobel prizes in the sciences, a record for any year. Women now earn 42% of the science degrees in the 30 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; in the life sciences, such as biology and medicine, more than 6 out of 10 graduates are women." If science has helped alter the course of women's lives, women are now helping to alter the course of science.

However, the Women's Movement has been more than just about science -- it has also been about numerous social issues.

Social welfare legislation has been advocated since the 1970s by women's rights groups. Such legislation has allowed for women to take maternity leave from jobs, and ensured them the possibility of maintaining their position in the workforce despite having children (Giele).

But how has the Women's Movement affected family structure?

The Women's Movement and the Family

Steven Mintz (2011) laments the women's movement because he sees it as a destroyer of the family unit, which was the basis of the social fabric that held America together. To give examples of the destruction, he cites the doubled divorce rate, an increase in "female-headed homes," and the quadrupling of cohabitation outside the bonds of marriage. Mintz points to the sexual revolution of the 1960s as the fountainhead for these changes. He also gives the Women's Movement its due:

Militant feminist activists like Ti-Grace Atkinson denounced marriage as "slavery" and "legalized rape." The larger mainstream of the women's movement articulated a powerful critique of the idea that child care and housework were the apex of a woman's accomplishments or her sole means of fulfillment.

Mintz then cites a study that says two-thirds of pre-school-age children spend more time outside the home now than they did forty years ago. The home, according to Mintz, has virtually disappeared: no fathers, no mothers, and no children.

During the 1970s a pro-family movement tried to curb the destruction it saw coming from the Women's Movement, by restricting pornography, limiting teens' access to contraception, and barring abortions. While the pro-family movement may have had some success, it appears to be an uphill battle, according to Mintz.

Giele, however, is less alarmed. She notes that while "changing attitudes about the roles of women and men have affected the way people conduct their everyday lives," these affects are not necessarily to be construed as damaging. For example, she cites the fact that "many men now take a more active role in parenting. More husbands now join their wives in natural childbirth classes, [and] some men have taken parental leave from work or chosen to work part-time when they become new fathers."

Conclusion

If women played the role of wives and mothers in the 1950s, the twenty-first century is seeing something different: women are now scientists, "bread-winners," and social activists. Feminists such as Friedan helped modify women's roles, and in doing so, they modified the family structure -- and even the laws of North America concerning contraception and abortion. The sexual revolution of the 1960s, Mintz notes, was linked to the Women's Movement of the 1970s, and families have not been the same since.