Gender and Family Structure Essay

Introduction

The bar graph shows how the family structure greatly influences the educational background of individuals within such structure in different households in the United States. The family structure has changed drastically over the past few years and major changes are actually being experienced in the United States (Hartman, 1981).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Some of these changes are attributed to change the demographic patterns in terms of occupation, marriage patterns and even the fertility issue and educational advancement.modernisation has also greatly contributed towards some of the family structure and gender perception, for instance the women are gaining voice and even becoming dominant as opposed to the presumed societal role of women such as bearing of children (Mc Lanahan, 1985). Family structure is basically, the way family is instituted composing the father, mother, children and sometimes relatives; however, this conventional structure seems to be having a new look.

a) Numerical comparison of the different categories of households by their educational achievement.

Female households with related age under 18

Under The female households with children related under 18 , those households that are not high school graduates are the highest number in the US and tend to experience the highest level of poverty at the rate of approximately 56%.those that are high school, graduates are second households with a population and rated 35% due to their poverty level, again the female households who have gone to various colleges but there is no degree holder in the household, and this scales their poverty level at 30%.those with associate degree are fewer in number and representing a poverty level of 25% of the household population, and finally the population that has a degree is the least in number and with a relatively low poverty level of 12%.

Married couples with related children under 18

The married couple with related children under 18 is also further categorized into five. Firstly, those that are not high school graduates have the highest population under this category and represent about 25% of poverty level in the US.secondly, those that are high school graduate are the second largest in number at this category and have a scale of 9% poverty level.

Followed by those that are have gone to college and no degree type, they are relatively smaller in number and represented by a poverty level of approximately 5%.the second last category in population number, is the type of household that is of associate degree, this category is relatively better off and experience a lesser level of poverty at 3%.and the division of this type of household is that which is bachelor's degree higher, in this particular category, the number of the population is the lowest and having the least level of poverty rated at only 2% therefore fore it seems to be better as compared to the other four(4).

All households

The last surveyed type of the household represented in the bar graph illustration is that referred to as the All Households categories. Not a high school graduate category seems to be having number of the population but relatively lower as compared to the same group of the other household types, and represent a poverty level of 26%.the category of high school graduates is second in number with poverty level of 12%.the type of some with college and no degree tends to be relatively privileged due to it lower scale of 9% and finally the bachelor's degree higher type seems to have a moderately better life with poverty level scaling of 4%.

From the analysis, it seems that the level of poverty has a more significant influence on someone educational background. Those that are experiencing higher poverty level may not afford their desired level of education and most of the individual drop out to either look for jobs to support their survival and on the other hand those who are not poor get the desired education level since the can afford to pay for it.that is, the level of education is dependent on the level of poverty of a specific household.

b) The relationships between family structure, educational achievement, and percentage in poverty.

The gender factor tends to attribute to one's role in the family structure based on the different culture of people in the United States and turn impacting on the education level. There have been quite setbacks in the family structure as far as the gender factor is concerned in the society. The gender disparities within the culture have contributed the risk of poverty, increasing in a number of the children without either one of the parents. The family structure has defined various roles for the individual within the structure of the family, for instance, women seen to be having the responsibility to give birth and stay at home and take care of the children. Women were supposed to be submissive and do what the man asks of her. Such disparities in gender have caused social distress and economic deterioration thus a high degree of poverty in most households within the United States.

Women tend to give more birth to many children that are in cooperated within the family structure yet the family may not have the capacity to take care of the children hence resulting in various challenges. For instance the, high level of poverty results into poor education, the female households tend to be experiencing a high level of illiteracy as a more significant population not being even a high school graduate shooting the level of poverty to be high at around 56%.

Furthermore, the gender disparities can decrease the capacity and stability of the family resulting in poor education. The control of women's domestic roles, sexuality and contraception traditionally were viewed as the domain of the male partner. Such historically local realism make women feel like lesser sex within the family structure since they cannot have their economic activity to generate income for them and thus have to be entirely dependent on the men as the sole providers of the family and may provide for the desired education for her children, for instance the female household seems to have the highest number of uneducated individuals who have not even graduated in high school while the coupled households are relatively stable and can afford better education with the degree type having as low as 2%poverty level. However, due to the traditional kind of family structure women tend to be having a low level of education and their offspring are specifically sensitive to the familial instability.

c) Terms and concepts from a textbook on education, social stratification and poverty

The gender and family structure tend to take on a different meaning in the modern world due several factors like the modernization and women's role within the family structure seems to have taken a different direction with most women as the family sole providers and some men even babysitting the children at home(Jacobsen 1998). This is majorly common in the western culture like the US and has also extended to the developing countries too. Some factors have contributed to the dramatic change in the modern gender and family structure, and these factors include: the presence of a high number of divorce thus leaving only one of the parents with the responsibility as a single parent. However,some researchers feel that the absence of one of the parents either due to the separation or the divorce of the parents has a lot of effects to the children and lack of father figure may render the single motherhood more emotional especially when the separation is due to conflict and constant disputes(Gerson,2003).

Conclusion

Trends in gender and family structure have led to more diversity in the definition of the family structure and how it is mainly instituted and the changing phenomenon of the family as a result of fertility rate, decline in marriages and a lot of people remaining single thus continually changing values of family aspects(Thomson et al.1992). There has also been a significant change concerning marriage such as emergence of gay marriage and single parenthood thus variation in the living arrangement patterns throughout the United States, and the level of education is affected depending on specific family structure.

References

Garson, K. (2003). Changing the structure and culture of work: Work-family conflict, work flexibility, and gender equity in the modern workplace. In Family in Transition. Allyn & Bacon.

Hartmann, H. I. (1981). The family as the locus of gender, class, and political struggle: The example of housework. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 6(3), 366-394.

Jacobsen, J. P. (1998). The economics of gender (Vol. 631207279). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Thomson, E., McLanahan, S. S., & Curtin, R. B. (1992). Family structure, gender, and parental socialization. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 368-378