ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of family strategies in relation to external economic and social forces in a historical context and in relation to the process of industrialization, the role of kinship, and internal family strategies on labor-force participation, household membership, allocation of resources, and consumption patterns. It focuses on American society but draws comparisons from European cases as well. The family's relationship to the process of industrialization provides grand examples of the interaction between internal family strategies and external economic processes. The various aspects of the family's interaction with external economic processes necessitated a careful marshaling of the family's internal resources, the management of the family members' labor-force participation, consumption patterns, and household resources. The gainful employment of children and married women outside the home posed a critical dilemma for working-class families. Economic constraints and aspirations for mobility necessitated contributions from women's and children's labor.
