Breaking down the nuclear family

photo by sophie confer

In post World War II America, cities were unstable and suffering. Minority populations grew, and with the increase of car ownership, so did traffic. Many white families decided to get away by moving to the suburbs. More and more families left cities in favor of a more relaxed life. Suburbia became the dream.

The term “nuclear family” was created by anthropologist George P. Murdock, in his 1949 book, Social Structure, in which he studied kinship in more than 200 preliterate societies. There are many different definitions, but the stereotypical view in the mid-1900s was a white family with a working dad, a stay-at-home mom, and kids. This “perfect” family was a lot more common than it is now because diversity was basically illegal; segregation wasn’t banned until 1964, interacial marriage wasn’t legal in all states until 1967, and same-sex marriage wasn’t legal throughout the country until 2015. 

“In 1960, married-couple families made up 75 percent of all U.S. households, and 44 percent of these families had children,” reports the Population Reference Bureau. During marriage at this time men typically worked and women stayed at home. According to the 1960 U.S Census—when the idea of a nuclear family was peaking—50 percent of women were working at age 19, and this declined steadily with age, due to women taking responsibilities at home rather than pursuing careers. Data also shows that once children were older and less dependent, women returned to work. However, for men, almost all of them had jobs. In men ages 30 to 39, 96 percent of them were working. 

In short, the nuclear family was a big part of twentieth century America and the pursuit of the American Dream. The data provided shows that the compartmentalized view of the nuclear family did exist. Further, it took up a large percentage of America’s demographics. As time went on, laws were passed, and diversity increased, leading to fewer “nuclear families,” and a society more diverse than it was before.