ABSTRACT
Pre-sociate habits of thought have dominated discussions of the modern family, and the voice of the sociologist has usually been drowned by the exaggerated anxieties of parsons, lawyers and moralists who talk too often of divorce, of broken homes and of sexual irregularities. How often do we hear the working mother denounced as a traitor to her family though several surveys have shown that most wives go out to work to earn in order to help the family, not to escape from it. As breadwinner, the husband acquired dominating authority in his family: he had first claim on its resources, he found his few pleasures and scant recreation outside the home, and he took little interest and all too little share in the upbringing of his children. A recurring theme in public discussion of the changing social environment of the family has been anxiety lest material affluence has been purchased at the cost of moral impoverishment.
