FAMILY LIFE
The Changed Family
CAROL SORGEN
The American Jewish
family —indeed the
American Jewish
community — is not
what it was 20 years aga
Dr. Sylvia Fishman
documents the
differences.
Dr. Sylvia Barack Fishman
Special to The Jewish News
T
wenty years ago, the
proportion of Ameri-
can Jewish singles
—six percent — lagged far
behind the 16 percent of sin-
gles in the general American
population. Today, in many
major metropolitan areas,
between one-third to one-
fifth of the adult Jewish
population is single, ex-
ceeding the national average
of 19 percent.
Nearly 20 years ago, al-
most all American Jewish
women married in their 20s.
Today, age of first marriage
has been postponed as edu-
cational and career goals
have taken precedence over
childbearing goals.
A rising divorce rate, wo-
men working outside the
home, increasing numbers of
singles, feminism — these
are the societal forces that
have influenced the Ameri-
can Jewish family and in
particular, Jewish women,
over the last 20 years, ac-
cording to a recent study
conducted by Dr. Sylvia
Barack Fishman, a research
associate at the Cohen Cen-
ter for Modern Jewish
Studies at Brandeis Univer-
sity, Waltham, Ma.
Fishman studied not only
the differences between past
and present, but also among
geographic areas. One of the
areas surveyed was Balti-
more. In fact, she said in a
telephone interview from her
university office, "I use Bal-
timore a lot in my research
because it's a fairly tradi-
tional city. If you can see
changes in Baltimore, you
know that they are wide-
spread throughout other
Jewish communities in the
United States."
While her study dealt with
changes in the American
Jewish family, Fishman
found that Jewish women
especially have changed
with the times.
For example, consider
Fishman's marriage data.
Jewish population studies
conducted in 1970 found
that 53 percent of American
Jewish women were married
by age 24; 85 percent by age
29; and 95 percent by age 34.
In comparison, Fishman
studied Jewish women in
Baltimore and in Dallas. In
Baltimore in 1986, 80 per-
cent of women ages 18
through 24 and 27 percent of
women ages 25 through 34
had never married. In Dallas
in 1989, 93 percent of wo-
men ages 18 through 24 and
27 percent of women ages 25
through 34 had never mar-
ried.
For the Jewish communi-
ty, these figures translate to
an increasing number of sin-
gles, who now comprise a
significant population
across the country. Yet Jew-
ish communal institutions,
which need the talent,
energy and financial contri-
butions of their singles com-
munities, have not re-
sponded adequately, either
by welcoming singles into
existing programming or by
creating new programming,
Fishman charges.
"Jewish communities
need to see singles as 'real
live Jews.' There has been a
real laissez-faire attitude
about them and that's de-
structive," she says. "On a
moral basis, you just can't
ignore people because
they're single. They should
have a place among us. If we
wait around, we may lose
these people altogether.
They may become so alien-
ated that they will never af-
filiate." When Jews do mar-
ry, Jewish households are
quite different today than in
the past. Although the Jew-
ish family has long been
considered the epitome of the
strong, close-knit, mid-
dle- class family, in actuality
only one-third of Jewish
households today consist of
the stereotypical Mom, Dad
and kids. "It's not the same
family we knew in the 1950s
or even the '60s," Fishman
says.
Fishman cites four rea-
sons for the change in Jew-
ish families. One reason is
new childbearing patterns.
Formerly, most women bore
children in their twenties;
now, many young women de-
lay childbearing to their late
twenties-early thirties.
Delayed childbearing has
several consequences. Infer-
tility is a problem for ap-
proximately 15 percent of
married couples in their
thirties who start trying to
conceive, says Fishman.
Moreover, to attain a re-
placement level for the A-
merican Jewish population,
families must have 2.2 chil-
dren, Fishman notes. "By
delaying childbearing, it
might not work out that
way."
There are other factors,
too. Lifestyles are estab-
lished, and couples may find
themselves unable to deal
with more than one child.
Career considerations may
limit the number of children
the couple has. "A woman
might have a child and ev-
eryone is pleased for her, yet
she receives the message at
work, 'One child is fine, but
don't expect to have any
more children if you want to
be a partner'," she contin
ues.
A second reason for the
changed family is women
working outside the home.
Twenty years ago, Jewish
women, more than any other
ethnic group, left the work
force during their childbear-
ing and childrearing years.
If they returned to work at
all, it was only when their
children became teenagers
or older. Now, most Jewish
women continue to work
during these years.
In a comparison of work
patterns in Boston, Balti-
more, Essex and Morris
Counties of New Jersey, San
Francisco, Dallas, and
Washington, D.C., Fishman
found that two-thirds of
Jewish mothers of children
under age six held paying
jobs.
"The dual-career family is
now the new conventional
family," she asserts.
The widespread employ-
ment outside the home of
mothers of pre-school and
school-age children changes
the parent-Jewish institu-
tion dynamic in several
ways, Fishman points out.
It has created a growing
need for Jewish day care and
after-school care. Jewish
schools and institutions can
no longer assume that most
households include a parent
at home who is available for
car pools, hot lunch pro-
grams and other institu-
tional needs. Parental time
and energy available for
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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