Sociology of the Family
(SOC 175)
Fall 2005
Professor Deborah Merrill Office Hours:
407 Jefferson Wednesday 9:00-11:00
Ext. 7284 or by appointment
Course Requirements
Exam 1(25%)
Exam 2(25%)
Paper 1(15%)
Paper 2(15%)
Class Participation(20%)
Class attendance is strongly encouraged. You are expected to miss no more than 3 classes throughout the semester. Missing more than 3 classes will affect your grade.
You are also expected to participate in class, particularly during the discussion sections. Students who do not participate will receive a substantially lower grade.
You are expected to take exams during the scheduled times. Extensions for the exams and the paper will be granted only if you have a note from a doctor and only if you notify the professor prior to class.
Textbooks:
Maya Angelou. 1997. The Heart of a Woman. Bantam Books.
Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep. University of
California Press.
Karen Hansen. 2005. Not So Nuclear Families. Rutgers University Press.
Arlie Hochschild. 2001. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home. Owl Books.
Annette Lareau. 2003. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life.
University of California Press.
Arlene Skolnick and Jerome Skolnick. 2004. Family in Transition (13th ed.).
Pearson Allyn & Bacon.
Nicholas Townsend. 2002. The Package Deal: Marriage, Work, and Fatherhood in
Men’s Lives. Temple University Press.
Diane Vaughan. 1990. Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relationships. NY:
Vintage Books.
Anzia Yezierska. 2003. Bread Givers. Persea Books.
Course Outline
Aug. 29 Introduction Devault (Packet)
Goode (Skolnick & Skolnick)
I. The "New Family"
Sept. 1 The Decline of the Selection from In the Name Of the Family
Family: Is it by Stacey (Ch. 1 and 2) (Packet)
Myth? Giele (Skolnick & Skolnick)
______
Sept. 5 ** Labor Day **
Sept. 8 (Continued) Coontz (Skolnick & Skolnick)
Rosen (Packet)
______
II. Challenges to the "New Family"
Sept. 12 Marriage and Divorce Cuber & Harroff (Packet)
Wallerstein and Blakeslee (Packet)
Waite and Gallagher (Packet)
Sept. 15 Weitzman & Dixon (Packet)
Waite et al., (Does Divorce Make People
Happy?) (Packet)
______
Sept. 19 Kelly & Emery (Skolnick & Skolnick)
Mason(Skolnick & Skolnick)
Cherlin, COSSA Transcript (Packet)
Sept. 22 Uncoupling (Group A)
______
Sept. 26 Uncoupling (Group B)
Sept. 29 Disabled Children No Reading
______
Oct. 3 EXAM 1
Oct. 6 The Division of Labor Hochschild (Skol & Skol)
in the Home Hochschild Ch. 2,4,5 (Packet)
______
Oct. 10 ** Midterm Break **
Oct. 13 The Time Bind (Group A)
______
Oct. 17 The Time Bind (Group B)
Oct. 20 Not So Nuclear Families pp.
______
Oct. 24 Film: “Why Can’t We Be a Family Again?”
PAPER 1 DUE !!
Oct. 27 Domestic Violence Speaker
______
Oct. 31 Same Sex Marriages The Goodridge Decision (
Nov. 3 Parenting Clawson and Gerstel (Skolnick & Skolnick)
Mintz (Skolnick & Skolnick)
The Package Deal: Marriage, Work and
Fatherhood in Men’s Lives pp. 1-80, 117-
137, 193-204
______
Nov. 7 Williams (Unbending Gender: Why Family and
Work Conflict) (Packet)
Nov. 10 Single Motherhood Promises I Can Keep pp.
______
III. Race and Class Differences
Nov. 14 The African American Taylor (Skolnick and Skolnick)
Family
Nov. 17 ** CLASS CANCELLED **
______
Nov. 21 The Heart of a Woman (Group A)
Nov. 24 ** Thanksgiving **
______
Nov. 28 The Heart of a Woman (Group B)
Dec. 1 Working Class Families Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and
Family Life pp. 1-81, 107-160, 182-197
______
Dec. 5 Film: “Take it from Me: Life After Welfare”
PAPER 2 DUE !!
Dec. 8 Bread Givers