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A '''nuclear family''' is a [[family]] comprising father, mother and children, but no other relatives or borders.
During the past four decades, historians and demographers have argued that historical Northwest Europe and North America had a unique family system characterized by neolocal marriage and nuclear family structure. Marriages were usually arranged by parents before the 19th century, when [[romantic]] notions allowed the couples to choose their mates.
==African American families==
Nuclear family structures are much less common among African-Americans, who have typically have family ties that are matriarchal (controlled by the mothers and grandmothers), with a passive role for the often-absent father. Among all Americans, African-Americans are the least likely to marry, when they marry, they do so later and spend less time married than other Americans, and they are the least likely to stay married. Causal factors include structural factors such as the disparity in sex ratios between African American males and females and employment instability among African American males. Cultural factors include changing cultural trends such as marriage not being a perquisite for sex, the independence of women, the shift from familism to individualism, cohabitation as an increasing option, and the promotion of the values of materialism and patriarchy through popular culture. Individual factors stem from an internalization of cultural values that affects people’s perceptions of marriage and their expectations of potential mates, their willingness to commit to a relationship that can lead to marriage, and, once they marry, their willingness to sustain the marriage through the challenges it will face. Added to this is the fact that, until recent federal funding in 2006, there was little or no education to help couples sustain relationships to marriage or sustain the marriage after they are married.<ref> Patricia Dixon, "Marriage Among African Americans: What Does the Research Reveal?" ''Journal of African American Studies,'' (March 2009), Vol. 13 Issue 1, pp 29-46, </ref>
==Popular culture==
''[[Leave It To Beaver]]'' was a popular situation comedy on American television, 1957-63. [[File:Beaver2.jpg|thumb|220px]]
It has become an icon of stable suburban family life and moral decision-making in a world of small human foibles and no great issues. Commentators note the happy era it depicted is long gone.
The plot revolved around the life of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, a pre-adolescent boy living in an upscale, middle-class neighborhood in the innocent years of the 1950s.
In its "Golden Age," television served as a kind of social training film; sitcoms like ''Leave It to Beaver,'' ''Ozzie and Harriet,'' ''The Donna Reed Show'' and ''Father Knows Best'' were all prime-time staples that taught Americans newly arrived in the suburbs from city tenements how to act middle-class.
Central to each ''Beaver'' episode was the interplay between big brother Wally and little Theodore. Their boyish attempts to navigate the social currents of school, girls, and adolescence were often tinged with frustration and loneliness. In one early episode, when Beaver is worried that his teacher will hit him over a minor mess-up, Wally corrects him: "Only the coach can hit you."
June Cleaver, a typical housewife and mother, remained calm amid household tumult, providing crucial guidance to her sons while shielding them from nefarious outside influences with a matronly force of will. Her protection was frequently needed against the pernicious intrigues of Eddie Haskell. He engaged in impulsive, selfish, disruptive, and malevolent schemes, almost evil personified. For crafty Eddie, each day was one more step toward the twilight of the adults, which would herald his ascension to neighborhood ruler.
The father Ward Cleaver was a Solomon-like figure of quiet dignity who dispensed parental justice tempered with understanding. Perceptive viewers knew his furrowed brow and clenched jaw were hints of serious inner turmoil, reminiscent of the anger toward society and unfulfilled economic dreams that tormented Willie Loman in "Death of a Salesman," the classic 1949 play about dysfunctional families.
A comparison of how children interact with their brothers and sisters on such 1950's situation comedy television programs as 'Leave It To Beaver' and 'Father Knows Best' with those on such 1980s programs as 'The Cosby Show' and 'Family Ties' found that children interacted more positively in the early period but were important and central - if more conflictual - to the main story action in the 1980s.<ref> Mary Strom Larson, "Sibling Interactions in 1950s Versus 1980s Sitcoms: A Comparison," ''Journalism Quarterly'' 1991 68(3): 381-387
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==Feminism==
Some radical feminists have attacked and ridiculed the nuclear family claiming it creates sharply bounded roles for women that are too narrow and powerless. The line of attack caused a backlash, and is heard less often since the failure of the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] in the 1980s.
Feminist [[Alison Jagger]] calls the nuclear family “a cornerstone of women’s oppression: it enforces women’s dependence on men, it enforces heterosexuality and it imposes the prevailing masculine and feminine character structures on the next generation.”<ref> (”Feminist Politics and Human Nature,” 198 - cited in [http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/feminism-has-communist-roots/ ‘Feminism’ Has Communist Roots]</ref>
==Further reading==
* Sussman, Marvin B. "The Isolated Nuclear Family: Fact or Fiction," ''Social Problems'', Vol. 6, No. 4 (Spring, 1959), pp. 333-340 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/799367 in JSTOR]
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[[Category:Family]]
[[Category:Family]]
[[Category:Feminism]]
[[Category:1950s]]