Where does the Nuclear Family Come From?

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The holidays are here! And that means its time, food, gifts and lots and lots of family. It’s also that time of year, when you start to take a good hard look at your family and begin to wonder “Is my family weird?” Well, regardless of how you may feel about your out of town cousins, if your family is in the traditional nuclear family formation (2 parents + kids living in a single home) then you’re in a pretty common formation. But if you’ve got your family ISN’T a traditional nuclear family, then you’re in a pretty common formation. So why does America elevate the nuclear family above other family forms? Watch the episode to find out!

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Written and Hosted By: Danielle Bainbridge
Graphics By: Noelle Smith
Directed By: Andrew Kornhaber
Produced By: Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Works Cited

Marriage Traditions:

https://www.livescience.com/37777-history-of-marriage.html
http://thefeministwire.com/2012/05/beyond-the-access-narrative-marriage-politics-austerity-surveillance/
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/when-taking-multiple-husbands-makes-sense/272726/
Loving vs. Virginia
http://www.npr.org/2017/06/12/532123349/illicit-cohabitation-listen-to-6-stunning-moments-from-loving-v-virginia
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/loving-v-virginia-marks-its-fiftieth-anniversary/529929/

Nuclear Family:
http://family.lovetoknow.com/about-family-values/types-family-structures
http://worldfamilymap.ifstudies.org/2015/articles/world-family-indicators/family-structure
Hugh Cunningham Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500
Census Information
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/demo/p20-570.html
https://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2010.html
Stephanie Coontz (scholar on marriage and family structure)
Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
The Way we never were: American families and the Nostalgia trap
Michael Warner The Trouble with Normal
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/why-women-had-better-sex-under-socialism.html?_r=1
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/fifties/resources/dinner-with-nuclear-family-1950
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd7RqwgDUDg
https://bebusinessed.com/history/history-nuclear-families/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3740453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4649868/
https://online.csp.edu/blog/family-science/the-evolution-of-american-family-structure
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-reiss-sleep-alone-20170324-story.html
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/08/ideal-size-of-the-american-family/
http://www.history.com/topics/1950s
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1061&context=orpc

Marriage and Legal/Tax benefits:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/06/27/the-case-for-cutting-the-link-between-taxes-and-marriage/?utm_term=.48e3f7511fdf
https://www.theknot.com/content/benefits-of-marriage

Sources on Representations of Midwives for Episode “Why Do Women Give Birth Lying Down?”

“The Business of Being Born” https://youtu.be/lr6F7aljxxI
Info on Georgia’s “granny midwives” https://www.colorlines.com/articles/tbt-granny-midwives-south
“All my Babies” Georgia dept of health PSA)
https://youtu.be/28kp021OuiY
https://youtu.be/4qjzGG6ya9M
https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/witches-midwives-nurses-second-edition
Catching Babies: The Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870-1920 Charlotte G. Borst

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