Families and Gender

In addition to the economy, many other social conditions shape families. Among them are gender, class, and race. Every person and every family are touched by them. In our daily living, we experience all three simultaneously. At each moment of our lives, we are men or women; rich, poor, or somewhere in between; and black, white, Asian, or any one of a variety of “races.” Gender, class, and race are social realities that always affect our lives. We discuss gender in this chapter and class and race in the next. Gender is the oldest and most pervasive social division.