The Color of Family Ties
Race, Class, Gender, and Extended Family
Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian

Throughout this article, “The Color of Family Ties” Gerstel and Sarkisian attempt to explain to readers the extended family relationships that exists amongst different racial and class groups. In attempting to understand these relationship differences, Gerstel and Sarkisian first note that amongst different families of different races, blacks and latino/a families are more likely to have closer relationships with extended family than that of white families. The reason why blacks and latino/a families are closer with their extended family is because they are more dependent upon the financial support of their extended family. Because it is “widely known” that whites make a higher income than minority groups, white families tend to be more financially stable within their own direct families, that they are not dependent upon the support of others. Further throughout the article, Gerstel and Sarkisian actually prove that familial interactions within the direct family and also within extended family is more related to class than to cultural differences. Although there are obvious cultural differences within different races, “White, Black, and Latino/a individuals with the same amount of income and education have similar patterns of involvement with their extended families (4).” I don’t know if I necessarily agree with this statement, because throughout my experiences both coming from a middle class minority background and having friends whose families are also middle class however they are white, I find that minority groups and families are more likely to be dependent upon extended family not only because of financial support, but also emotional support, as that extended family of a minority group looks for people who can relate to their other obstacles that they have to face as a minority. I feel that it is almost more necessary and important for minority families to have a closer relationship with their extended family because they are most likely the only other group in which they can share similar experiences and social issues with. I do however agree that within married relationships, there is a certain disconnect that people experience with their extended family because now it is not only important to maintain a relationship with one’s direct relationship with their extended family, but also maintain and build a relationship with their spouse’s extended family.



Using Kin for Child Care: Embedment in the Socioeconomic Networks of Extended Families
Lynet Uttal

This article attempts to explain why African American and Mexican American mothers who are employed are more likely than Anglo American mothers to use childcare arrangements with relatives. There are three different explanations to explain why Black and Hispanic families depend more on the support of their extended kin for childcare, “the cultural explanation that states that these practices are the product of differing cultural preferences, the structural explanation that conceives of them as adaptive responses to structural constraints ( such as limited economic resources) and the integrative explanation that argues that they are due to the intersection of culturally-specific values and practices (race and culture), structural constraints (race and class), and the social organization of gender (care-giving is provided mainly by female relatives). Throughout the article, Lynet Uttal includes some of the conclusions that she gathers from her interviews. I thought that it was really interesting that White mothers were so reluctant to have their own mothers look after their children because they thought of it as an imposition upon their lives, and many did not agree with the way in which they treated childcare and Black and Latino/a families thought that although it was not ideal for their mothers to look after their children, it was an acceptable form of childcare that was treated as something that was supposed to happen. Minority women are also more likely to use extended kin to help take care of their children because it is more financially reasonable and supportive, it serves as an acceptable temporary substitute for a mother, and also it helps encourage and continue cultural practices that have shaped much of their lives as adults. I feel that not only would it be insulting to my mother who has raised me to not have time to help me raise my children, but also it would put a particular strain on their relationship as grandmother and grandchild. I think that by having extended family help raise another’s child is important to help maintain the cultural values that embodied and structured much of the way in which I view the world, and are the basis of the values that embody my life today.

The Female World of Cards and Holidays: Women, Families, and the Work of Kinship
Micaela di Leonardo

Women’s work in the family and in society has experienced significant changes in which di Leonardo wishes to examine. Micaela di Leonardo notes the change in women’s role in the household, as they have become more necessary to maintain relationships with the extended family. Tasks revolving around keeping in touch with extended family and organizing holiday celebrations are dependent upon the woman in the household. Women have now taken over another aspect of work, this is called kin work. Similarly to housework and child care, men are not active participants. Throughout my personal experiences, I feel that women are more family oriented than men are. As stated by the author, kin work is also solely based on gender, it is not influenced by race or social class, which allows sociologists to study all different groups of women. In my personal experiences, the women in my family are more family oriented than the men in my family in terms of planning and organizing family events. However the men in my family are very involved and are active participants in daily family activities. I don’t think that this is necessarily because the men in my family are more lazy than the women in my family or care less about getting the family together, but I just think that overall women do enjoy more sentimental events that include getting the family together than men do.

Explaining the Gender Gap in Help to Parents:
The Importance of Employment
Natalia Sarkisian and Naomi Gerstel

This article examines the gender gap of ones willingness as adults to spend time taking care of their parents. Daughters are more likely to spend more time helping their parents than sons, and Sarkisian and Gerstel attempt to explain why. In attempting to discover why females are more apt to help their elderly parents than males, Sarkisian and Gerstel study the structural differences in the types of jobs men have and the types of jobs women have. I thought that it was really interesting that another variable that contributed to the gender gap was race, and that African American women, employed or non- employed were more likely than European Americans to help their parents, and also that the level of education affected one’s likeliness to help their parents.