Fostering--A Sociological Perspective

Abstract

t N MODERN W ESTERN SOCIETY the female role contains | two principal requirements. To be a success, a woman feels that she X must get married and secondly, she must rear a family. These two ideals dominate our culture in nearly all age groups, social strata and sub-cultures. They are accepted by the majority of the unmarried as well as the married. If a woman remains single, she is encouraged to feel a sense of inadequacy in spite of the several possible alternative goals available. Religious withdrawal, social mobility, positions of power are rarely entirely satisfactory, viz. the seriousness with which she pursues them out of all proportion to their intrinsic value and economic rewards. Efforts to provide culturally acceptable substitute goals are ineffective, when the pressure of popular culture persuades every adolescent girl that, if she is not a mother in her early twenties, she is a failure. This is only one of the pressures entailed in our increasing emphasis on the nuclear family as the basic social unit in contemporary western society. Perhaps the principal function of the nuclear family concerns the reproduction, maintenance and socialization of children. Due to the division of labour within the family and its typically s-mall size, the female role provides the sole adult responsible for child care. Although the father may not be Margaret Mead's 'tired, arld often dreaded, nightly visitor', his role is mainly concerned with providing economic means and status rather than an adult model for the children. He is not as identified with child-rearing as is the mother. On the other hand, many mothers have no significant role in the family besides mothering. If a married woman is unable to have her own children, she will feel deprived, and look for alternatives. Some women turn to voluntary work, others to a career and some adopt or foster a child. A recent research project on foster parents illustrates the role of the foster-child in the life of the mother and in the family structure as a whole.