Chapter 8: A New Woman

This chapter talks about how there was a decline in fertility and death rates in the West. The reason for the low birth rates was because the ideas of marriage were changing rapidly; women were getting married later as opposed to the ideas that women were to marry at a young age to start their lives, women were not marrying at all and women had discovered means of birth control. Also, during this time was a change in women's work- more women were getting jobs because of the economic revolution.

It's interesting to think how the topics of marriage and women in work have changed today. The sociological definitions of marriage have changed drastically; while during the nineteenth century many families were defined as "two children, a husband who worked and a wife who did the house work" now in the 21st century there are many definitions of what a family is: single parents, same sex parents, biracial families, etc. Also within that spectrum, women have changed their views in the industrial society and are both working and working at home, however there are now also men who stay home and care for the children and home.

On a completely different topic- the chapter mentioned that a reason for a decline in birth rates was because families wanted to raise their social statuses and income, and large families deterred that dream. For some gosh awful reason, all the hype in today's popular culture, there is an interest in the rise of large families (i.e. Jon and Kate plus 8 and the Duggers). It's almost a reverse ideal in this instance; families of the nineteenth century wanted to save their income by having a small family, but these families of the twenty-first century are making large amounts of money by exploiting their very large families....I hate reality T.V. and how so many people care for them..hah, just a side note.