Impacts on American Family
Family relations changed as a result of American Industrialization. Rapid industrialization caused families to break into pieces as individuality became emphasized. Prior to the industrialization, families lived together in a large households. Frederic Le Play, who is one of the founding fathers of modern social science, emphasized the importance of stem families, in which family workers worked together in harmony. Le Play saw industrialization as destruction of stem families.
The Industrialization resulted in the creation of nuclear families. Families were divided to meet the new standard of the industrialized society. As the new industrialized society focused more on individuals rather than the cooperative work of families of the agricultural society, it became more economically profitable to maintain a smaller family. Also, as family members started to move to industrialized places for jobs, families disintegrated. As a result of the creation of nuclear families, the number of children started to decrease. Therefore, family’s focus soon was directed towards the children. The children were taught to be individualistic not obedient, further helping the cause of individualism during the American Industrialization.