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Chapter 8: "Husbands and Wives"
Michael R. Leming, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Spring Semester 1998
- Do you think fundamentalist families more "successful" than other families, as they themselves believe?
- What is regarded in the church subculture at Southside as the one normative family structure? What are families supposed to be like? Why are the core church members likely to be young married parents? Why does the church promote just one model of what the family should be like? (How does this connect to the current Republican presidential campaign theme of "family values"?)
- What factors keep many families from actually living up to the ideal the church promotes? How do women who deviate from the norm (such as by working outside the home) make it socially acceptable? How do wives sometimes try to get their husbands to "help out"? What sorts of people or families tend to get "left out" at Southside?
- What problems do the rules for family life sometimes cause?
- What kinds of problems do "unequally yoked" couples sometimes have?
- Why are women (p. 138) more active supporters of the fundamentalist way of life when they are (apparently) subordinate in church and home life? Are they in fact subordinate, or do women who submit themselves to their husbands become happier?
Go back to Sociology 265 - Discussion Questions
If you have any questions or comments please email:
leming@stolaf.edu
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