Week 8- Extended Kin Ties

Anthony Egger
Family & Work Blog
Week 8- Extended Kin Ties

Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian, “The Color of Family Ties”

In this article, Gerstel and Sarkisian attempt to examine the often overlooked extended kinship ties that are a part of many minority families. Through this examination, it can dispute the claim that these families are more “disorganized” than white families. They are arguing that just because members of a family don’t live together, that it doesn’t mean they aren’t just as willing to be supportive in their role. There are racial differences though, as white women are more likely to give and receive emotional support, while minority women are more likely to help their extended family members with more practical work like household duties and raising children. This is because in many minority families, the mother has to have a full time job to support the family, so she relies on others to help with many of the day to day intricacies. With this in mind, it is important not to only consider the nuclear family because it creates an unfair bias for families of color.
They make a good point, that either for the better or worse, family behaviors are often described and explained in terms of their cultural heritage. However, contrary to this myth, their research found that it was actually social class, not culture that best explained their differences in behaviors. They break it down even further to say that given the same amount of income and education, whites, blacks, and latinos all have similar patterns of involvement with extended families, with those on the lower end of the former, exhibiting greater use of the latter. Regardless of race, economic hardships bring forth the increased utilization of other extended family resources simply to get by. One of the most interesting points they made was how this reliance on kin selection actually could be a viable reason for the lower marital rates in disadvantaged families, because marriage actually diminishes ties to kin. The same level of help is not available to a married woman as it is to a single woman, most likely because people believe that the married women should have her husband to turn to for help.
They are sure to emphasize that while social class is an important variable, it is not sole causal factor. Many other aspects of life influence the amount of kin interactions. It is not just a simple “fix” of their alleged skewed family values. Instead a societal change must be undertaken to provide more sufficient support for poorer families so they are not so reliant on kin. Family connections are important, but they can not be the substitution for a flawed system. Family dynamics are shaped more than anything by economics and this is where the change needs to begin.

Micaela Di Leonardo, “The Female World of Cards and Holidays”

In recent history, there has been a reinterpretation of women’s work and family domain. The first reason for this is the rise in publicity of housework, child care, and other nonmarket activities that are construed as labor. The second is that women are the creators and maintainers of the kin network for families. Di Leonardo, believes that both the domestic network and the labor perspective need to be fused together in a new concept. From her research she found that women are involved in three tpes of work; domestic work, market work, and kinship work (which she describes as the organizing and executing family gatherings and connections via calls, letters, etc. Though I had never thought of this before, this is a very true sentiment, and that I know in my family, it is my mom who organizes all of our family vacations and kin interactions. So it makes sense that the sustaining of kin relationships relies on women. There is also a sense of guilt that women feel if these kin relationships falter. This added burden not fits on top of their work as a homemaker and in many cases a woman in the work force. It is definitely true in my experience that men do not work in this kinship realm any more than they do in the domestic sphere, however, there is not a movement for it either.
Examining this issue is especially interesting because it is not one defined by race or ethnicity, or even defined to certain social classes. Across all of those realms, kin work is still very gendered toward the feminine sphere. And while, rich women can get out of house or market work with their wealth, they are not able to avoid doing kin work. After the Industrial Revolution, when more families began to spread out, it was initially more difficult to maintain kinship ties, however with technology today it is very easy to have daily and even visual connections with family members all over the globe.
I thought this was a very well written article, about a topic that I had never really considered before, though it can be seen in my own life. I am always grateful to my mother for all she does in the domestic sphere taking care of us, but now I realize that I need to also thank her for maintaining the great relationships I have with my extended family as well.

Natalia Sarkisian & Naomi Gerstel, “Explaining the Gender Gap in Help to Parents”

It is a pretty commonly accepted idea that adult female children spend more time helping their parents than do their sons, but the mechanism for why this occurs has never really been examined. In this paper, Sarkisian and Gerstel attempt to figure out the reasoning behind this phenomenon. They specifically were examining if it could be explained by structural variation, i.e. the types of job men and women have. The belief is that because men are more likely to be employed and in higher positions, that their pull is more toward work than familial responsibilities. It holds than that when women and men are in the same employment conditions that the amount of help they give is also the same, a theory they also investigate.
In their literature review, they examine the work on the relationship between paid employment and gender gaps in family work. They specifically look at the issue of domestic work and on the research around helping kin. Previous research has shown a negative relationship between hours worked in an employed capacity and hours spent on housework. This is especially true for women; however this can not fully explain the gender gap. The next major issue they review is on whether the conditions of work play a factor in determining the gender gap. From their review, they found much disagreement and inconsistent finding on the link between working conditions and help to parents. This was due to non-uniform operational definitions, different analysis methods, and different populations and types of samples examined among all the studies.
One important characteristic found however is race, with African Americans much more likely than whites to help their parents. Also, in a logical conclusion, married women help their parents less than unmarried women. This is because married women have to of course focus on their own families, a daunting task on its own.
Their hypotheses were that employment status reduces the gander gap in help given to parents, however that those in jobs with typically male characteristics, have less time to help their parents. The final hypothesis is that employment status and characteristics are more strongly tied to parental assistance for women than men. They tested these hypotheses by analyzing data from the National Survey of Families and Households.
Their first major result was that there is in fact a gender gap between men and women in the amount of time they help their parents. They also found that having any type of job does reduce the gender gap. Their findings also illustrate that all things being equal, that employed men and employed women give equal amounts of help to parents and in-laws. All of these results support the idea of a structural model because the employment conditions operate in a similar fashion for both sexes. I agree with their claims that their findings have both theoretical and practical implications. With laws passed to make more reliance on family, it will further the family-work divide and especially place a problem on lower income families to not only support themselves, but also their own parents.

Lynet Uttal, “Using Kin for Child Care:Embedment of Socioeconomic Networks”

This article offers a new explanation for the reason minority mothers are more likely than white mothers to use kin to help raise their children. She proposes that the decision is not based solely on the needs of the individual family, but also in consideration of the economic needs of the members of their extended family.
She begins her article by highlighting that there is a noticeable decline in the use of relatives as the most common source of family care lately. Interestingly, the only type of relative care that has not decreased is care by fathers, possibly because it was never that high or important to begin with. Yet even though it is declining, parents still would prefer their children cared for by relatives, a belief I can understand and support. Another issue she illustrates is that the rate of relative care is higher for minority families than for white families. This is a fact that can contribute to racism, because as she points out the independent nuclear family is seen as the ideal.
There is a wide array of forces, both cultural and structural, which play a part in the decision on childcare arrangements. She gives a good example that many Latina mothers used childcare because they have a cultural belief in kin based care, and also a structural reason in having more family in close proximity. This runs contrary to the belief held by many Anglo American mothers who view kin-based child care as inappropriate and problematic. I think that this relates back to the idea that in many of these white communities, it might be seen as a sign of weakness if a woman can’t manage everything on her own. They also feel it is their responsibility and do not want to impose on their relatives, often vehemently opposing it unless it is truly the one and only last resort. This emphasizes one of her major points, that the race and ethnic differences are not in the actual use of kin based childcare, but rather in the idea and acceptance of doing it.