THE CHANGING FAMILY

PREMARITAL SEX AND MARRIAGE

• No more lengthy courtships
• Marriage for love
• Dowries less common, not gone (France)
• Mother guarded daughter's chastity before marriage
• Fidelity in middle class, not as strict with males

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PROSTITUTION

• Paris: 155,000 registered, 750,000 suspected
• Middle and upper class most
• My Secret Life
• Married men frequent clients, wives typically objects
• Part-time job, many went on to have families

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KINSHIP TIES

• Newlyweds lived near family
• Coping mechanism with life's troubles
• Poor families had older relatives to help out

GENDER ROLES & EARLY FEMINISM

• Most women married
• Wives became more domestic, husbands mostly earned money
• Women less valued in workplace, law, wages, college
• Middle class feminists at forefront for equality
• 1882: English married women -> full property rights. German Marxist socialists encouraged full workplace revolutions

THE IMPORTANCE OF HOMEMAKING

• Woman spent the day at home cleaning, cooking, mending
• This allowed unpurchasable goods, such as a healthier lifestyle
• Woman had to turn husband's wages into something productive
• Domestic decisions made by wife (school, religion, etc)
• Home seen as a warm shelter

CHILD REARING

• Early infant deaths led to less strong emotional connections
• Wet nurse usage declined
• Fewer abandoned babies, less children born per mother
• Adolescents got jobs early to bargain, sometimes to leave home

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