Family Differences In Latin America

A) Introduction:

Family, the concept/ term often used to describe those that are related by blood or marriage, but does not encapsulate all households, especially the types we encounter nowadays across cultures. In this essay I will compare the contemporary societies and family definitions of the United States and Brazil. Focusing on various components that represent family life, I hope to bring about a clearer picture of the similarities and differences in these countries. The Brazilian population was approximately 201. 01 million as of 2013, while the US population was 316.67 million for the same year (“Countries Compared by People > Population. International Statistics at NationMaster.com"). Given these statistics we can see that both
I have seen in my own family how single-parents still get along with each other, and often continue ties with both sides of the families in consideration of the children. I do not think that is as common in the US, at least not by my observations. Some of these differences are definitely due to religious ties and an overall sense of the need to “stay together” often associated with Latin culture ("Marriage Trends in Latin America: A Fact Sheet"). As noted in “Marriage Trends in Latin America: A Fact Sheet,” (2011) document from the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center website, Brazil did not make divorce legal until 1977. “In recent times, due to more Western cultural adaptations and increased financial autonomy, women face less of a stigma when divorcing and have greater freedom to choose this option ("Marriage Trends in Latin America: A Fact Sheet").” In comparing, divorce is regulated on the state level in the US and has been a part of its history since colonial times ("The History Of Divorce Law In The USA | History Cooperative"). Although before 1969 California, one of the parties in the couple had to be at fault in order to get divorced. It was not until the 70s that other states followed California's lead in the “no-fault” divorce law (“The History Of Divorce Law In The USA|
Even though the current Brazilian president is a woman, it is still heavily dominated male society. Brazilian men often take a macho stance and are the primary breadwinners as well the domineering force within a household, but this is just one type of family that makes up a culturally/ socially diverse country. Per Dessen & Torres (2002), “...Brazilian contemporary family includes a hierarchical structure, with husband/father exerting authority and power over the wife and children, a work division separating 'masculine' from 'feminine' tasks, and attribution and the bigger proximity between the mother and the children (Dessen & Torres, “Family and socialization factors in Brazil: An overview...”).” Meanwhile in the US, as we read in the Stephanie Coontz (1999) article: “What's new is not that women make half their families' living, but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to remain single or to leave an unsatisfactory marriage (Coontz, “The American Family”).” In Brazil women are now catching up to that type of lifestyle in the sense of more equality between men and women in the