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Family and Gender What is the definition of a family? Is it a “Mother” and “Father”, the father being the breadwinner and the mother staying home doing the cooking, cleaning and raising the children. Is it a same sexed couple with children, or it a single parent raising the children alone. What is considered a women, is it a female that has the body of a model. What is a man, is he a male that goes into the service to protect his family and country, that is muscle bound. Over the last three decades the American family has been undergoing a drastic and far-reaching transformation. Both family structure and family values have been changing and as a result of these changes, the American family is a much-altered institution. Today, two-thirds of all married women with children and an even higher percentage of single mothers work outside the home, this compared to just 16 percent in 1950. Fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce—twice the rate in 1966 and three times the rate in 1950, three out of ten children are born out of wedlock. In 2002 69 percent of children lived with 2 parents, while 23 percent of children live with only their