Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from March 1997

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from March 1997

Definition is the problem.(of family)
March 1, 1997... In 1980, then U.S. President Jimmy Carter called a conference to deal with the problems of the family. Before the conference got underway there was a major brouhaha over definition. The alternative lifestyles lobby refused to have the Family."...

Till death do us part.(extramarital sex believed to be evolutionary strategy for men but not women)
March 1, 1997... The idea that many species of birds pair up for life has been an enduring metaphor for the pair-bonding of humans. The image of "lovebirds" is used to reinforce the notion of monogamy. But now scientists using DNA fingerprinting are throwing...

The ties that bind: families are present in all societies. And, they've been present in all ages.
March 1, 1997... Some experts who study early humans believe prehistoric families resembled ours. They say our ancestors lived in what's called nuclear families; one woman, a bunch of kids, and, usually, a man who was husband to the woman and father of the...

The market decides.(history professor Christopher Lasch believes the capitalist market tries to turn all institutions, including the family, into a business)
March 1, 1997... Christopher Lasch is a history professor at the University of Rochester, New York. He says the world of capitalism finds it hard to coexist with institutions such as government, cultural pursuits, and the family. He believes that, sooner or...

Love conquers all.(romantic love is evolutionary strategy for successfully raising children)
March 1, 1997... Until recently, "romantic love" was thought by many anthropologists to be an unnatural invention of Western culture. Mangaians of the South Pacific were said to be "puzzled" by references to affection between marriage partners. But, the...

Variations on a theme.(marriage in different societies)
March 1, 1997... The most common form of marriage in almost all societies is monogamy -- the union of one man and one woman. But, in our society, marriages often come apart, leading to remarriage in what's called serial monogamy. Every society forbids...

Transition not crisis.(marriage rate in Canada is same as in 1922)
March 1, 1997... Canadians are actually marrying today at the same rate as they did 75 years ago. Many of those marriages are remarriages, which indicates that when it comes to wedlock and family, we don't give up easily. Yes, the family in Canada is...

The post-marital society.(US teenagers place less importance on marriage and child-bearing)
March 1, 1997... In 1994, The New York Times and CBS polled teenagers in the United States. They came up with some startling findings about the popularity of traditional families among young people. Only 57% of teenage females thought it very likely that they...

822 Sycamore Road, Hillsdale.(stereotype of traditional middle-class family came from 1950s TV series such as 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet')
March 1, 1997... For 14 years, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson lived in their Sycamore Road house deep in the heart of Televisionland. For 435 episodes, North Americans watched as the Nelson's raised their two lovable sons, David and Ricky, to adulthood. During the...

Decline and fall: growing numbers of people believe that strengthening the traditional foundations of family life is a good first step toward curing our social ills.
March 1, 1997... For people who support traditional family values, there's plenty of evidence that our society is in trouble: * Frequent use of abortion as a means of birth control; * Widening acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships; * Decline...

Marx and the family.(Karl Marx saw the family as an obstruction to communist goals)
March 1, 1997... Karl Marx was the revolutionary thinker whose ideas gave rise to communism. In common with many revolutionaries he saw the destruction of the family as the first step in the achievement of his goals. Why? Because the family is key to passing...

When making up is hard to do.(divorce and the family)
March 1, 1997... You hear about people celebrating divorce. They're relieved to be through with a painful, frustrating relationship that wasn't working and had no hope for revival. Their dream is to build a new life for themselves, although it's impossible to...

Giving it a whirl.(couples who live together before marriage have higher rate of divorce)
March 1, 1997... It's logical to think, with so much divorce, that it might make sense to try before you buy., that living together before tying the knot will boost the chances of succeeding at marriage. But living with someone isn't quite the same as being...

After the fall.(child-custody disputes)
March 1, 1997... A decade ago, women almost always won custody of the children and fathers got visitation rights. While that has changed somewhat, most children still stay with their mothers after a divorce. In 1989, women received sole custody of 75% of the...

Dividing the spoils.(Canadian law on divorce settlement)
March 1, 1997... Generally, when partners split up, the value of all assets must be divided 50-50. It was in the 1970s that the Supreme Court of Canada made a series of judgements that stressed the need to recognize the sacrifices made by wives while...

Move and you lose.(custodial parents)
March 1, 1997... A custodial parent who wants to move runs the risk of losing custody if the move could seriously disrupt the child's life, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1996. The court said: "The child's best interests are not merely paramount, they...

Listen to the kids.(pressures of modern living felt by parents takes psychological toll on children)
March 1, 1997... As a society, says a senior psychiatrist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, we are not making the necessary commitment, or devoting the necessary time and energy to raising our children. One result is more aggressive kids. In a...

Gambling more than money.(children neglected while parents gamble in Japan and Ontario)
March 1, 1997... In Japan, about 30 child fatalities, dubbed "pachinko" deaths," have been attributed to parents neglecting their youngsters while they had a session with this pinball-like game. One in four Japanese plays pachinko regularly and about a third...

On the bright side.(Canadian children are faring well, but cuts in public services could cause problems)
March 1, 1997... The vast majority of Canadian children are growing up happy and healthy, according to a study released in 1996. However, that result is attributed largely to nurturing institutions now under pressure from government cuts. The Progress of...

All work and no play.(two-income families find life stressful)
March 1, 1997... Despite, or perhaps because of, jet travel, personal computers, cell phones, microwaves, drive-through restaurants, home shopping networks, and the World Wide Web, the pace of life has been cranked up to a level that's making us ill and taking...

Unequal sharing.(women do most of the housework and child-rearing, even in two-career families)
March 1, 1997... If many women are feeling more stressed out than men, there is good reason. In 1989, U.S. sociologist Arlie Hochschild concluded that in normal, modern, American two-career marriages, most men, even those who talk equality, do not really do...

Going over the edge.(family violence)
March 1, 1997... Family violence is a serious social and criminal problem. It can involve killing, physical, and sexual assault. It also involves other forms of harmful behaviour, such as emotional abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect. Family violence...

Behind the times: families have reinvented themselves during the last three decades, but many of the government programs aimed at supporting families have not.
March 1, 1997... Take the case of Alicia Gonzales. She runs her own business. Her company employs six other people. Ms. Gonzales deducts Employment insurance (EI) premiums from her staff's wages and adds her company's contribution before sending it to Ottawa...

Governments and the job market.(Canada)
March 1, 1997... According to Ottawa's Caledon institute of Social Policy, the chancy nature of Canada's job market is the main cause of increasing poverty among the country's families. Statistics Canada says that while 99,000 new jobs were created in 1995,...

The nanny state. (family support programs in Europe)
March 1, 1997... Many family support programs are being hacked to pieces in Canada in the name of deficit reduction. Meanwhile, most Europeans enjoy family policies that Canadians could only dream about even in the good times when governments had money to...