Ideal Family Defining the Ideal Family Throughout...

The ideal American family was transformed in the 19th century in large part due to the great changes taking place in the American society. Many family groups fit this changing mold while some did not. In this essay I will show how this concept of the ideal American family changed. I will also try to explain which groups of Americans followed this concept and why. The end of the 18th century was a turbulent time in American history. The country had just won its independence from Great Britain and was attempting to find an identity for itself. Up to this point families in America were similar to British families. The father was the head of the household, but lived in harmony with his wife. The children were seen as part of the†¦show more content†¦Working class families also tended to have more children than middle class families because their labor was often needed to supplement that of their parents. These traits applied mostly to Protestant Caucasians of British descent, but some immigrants were also affected by these economic changes. The changes that shaped this domestic family were not only economic ones. Ideological transformations always accompany drastic economic changes. One such ideological change was the emergence of the Republican Mother. While women were discriminated against in politics as well as other forms of self-expression, they were still needed by the state. Because of the influence that women had in their families especially in the raising of the children the state had to convince women to be virtuous and to bring up good intelligent voters. This ideal was most likely applied only to middle class women as they were more virtuous and did not work outside of the home. Unlike the women of the colonial period, these women were responsible for their children and were blamed when the children were bad. The idea that the children were born as blank slates was also a product of the new ideology of the 19th century. Religious ideals changed in the early part of the century through Enlightenment. Children were, for the first time, being seen as innocent. In colonial time it was seen as the father’s fault if the children were bad because theirShow MoreRelatedEwens Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars Essay1013 Words   |  5 Pages Throughout history, the concept of Americanization has been studied in order to better understand the effects of a mass culture on immigrants. On one side stands the view of an immigrant engulfed in American ideology who leaves behind his past. He conforms to this new individualism and now is able to move upward on the economic ladder. 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