Feuds about Families Conservative, Centrist, Liberal, and Feminist Perspectives

by Benokraitis, Nijole V.

• ISBN13: 9780139124600
• ISBN10: 0139124608
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-04
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This unique anthology contains readings that represent three major perspectives--conservative, centrist, liberal/feminist--on 16 important and controversial marriage and family-related topics. Section introductions put the articles in context and "critical thinking" questions challenge the authors' theoretical position, usage of data, consistency, etc. --helping readers to sort intelligently through the issues and perspectives and to develop informed opinions. Contains articles from several political and ideological positions on such topics as family values, gender roles, cohabitation, parenting, divorce, and stepfamilies. Features two original, theoretical chapters that characterize the "family wars" and their consequences in everyday life. For anyone interested in marriage/family issues from a variety of perspectives.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
PART I. INTRODUCTION	1	(24)
Who's Who in the Family Wars: A Characterization of the Major Ideological Factions	2	(12)
Norval D. Glenn
How Family Wars Affect Us: Four Models of Family Change and Their Consequences	14	(11)
Nijole V. Benokraitis
PART II. DEFINING MARRIAGE AND FAMILY ISSUES	25	(75)
Current Perspectives on the Family Conservative:
The Breakdown of the Family	30	(9)
Patrick F. Fagan
A Communitarian Position on the Family	39	(8)
Jean Elshtain
Enola Aird
Amitai Etzioni
William Galston
Mary Ann Glendon
Martha Minow
Alice Rossi
Why We Miss the 1950s	47	(11)
Stephanie Coontz
Family Values
The Family-Values Debate	58	(9)
James Q. Wilson
The Revolution in Family Norms	67	(7)
Dennis Orthner
The New Crusade for the Old Family	74	(7)
Arlene Skolnick
Stacey Rosencrantz
Women's and Men's Family Roles
Women Should Domesticate Men for Marriage	81	(5)
George Gilder
Gender Roles: A Taboo Subject	86	(7)
Maggie Gallagher
Remaking Marriage and Family Roles	93	(7)
Betty Carter
Joan K. Peters
PART III. LOVE, SEX, AND MARRIAGE	100	(73)
Love and Courtship
The End of Courtship	106	(12)
Leon Kass
Love and Individualism	118	(5)
Robert N. Bellah
Richard Madsen
William M. Sullivan
Ann Swidler
Steven M. Tipton
Women as Love's Experts and Love's Victims	123	(8)
Carol Tavris
Sex and Cohabitation
Stupid Cohabitation: The Ultimate Female Self-Delusion	131	(7)
Laura Schlessinger
How Therapists Threaten Marriages	138	(8)
William J. Doherty
Why Get Married?	146	(2)
Andrea Martin
Marriage
The Benefits of Marriage	148	(5)
Steven Flanders
Social Science Finds: ``Marriage Matters''	153	(7)
Linda J. Waite
Feminism and Marital Equality	160	(13)
Karen R. Blaisure
Katherine R. Allen
PART IV. PARENTS AND CHILDREN	173	(66)
Single-Parent Families
Imperiled Infants	177	(9)
Bryce J. Christensen
The Carnage of Declining Marriage and Fatherhood	186	(9)
David Popenoe
The Father Fixation	195	(3)
Judith Stacey
Raising Children
Spare the Rod?	198	(7)
Den A. Trumbull
S. Dubose Ravenel
Conservative versus Mainstream Models of Childrearing in Popular Manuals	205	(10)
John P. Bartkowski
Christopher G. Ellison
Ten Myths That Perpetuate Corporal Punishment	215	(7)
Murray S. Straus
Gay and Lesbian Families
Gay Parenting and the Developmental Needs of Children	222	(7)
Lawrence F. Burtoft
Gay and Lesbian Parenting	229	(5)
Barbara F. Okun
Why Gay People Should Seek the Right to Marry	234	(5)
Thomas B. Stoddard
PART V. WORK, RACE, ETHNICITY, AND SOCIAL CLASS VARIATIONS	239	(61)
Work and Family Life
Conservative: Family Research Council, Children's Needs and Parents' Careers	244	(5)
Parenting, Bureaucratic Style	249	(9)
Dana Mack
Ozzie and Harriet Are Dead	258	(5)
Rosalind C. Barnett
Caryl Rivers
Racial and Ethnic Diversity
Black Family Structure and Poverty	263	(5)
Stephan Thernstrom
Abigail Thernstrom
Multiculturalism or One People?	268	(4)
Amitai Etzioni
Racial Safety and Cultural Maintenance in Childcare	272	(9)
Lynet Uttal
The Impact of Social Class
Searching for the White Underclass	281	(5)
Carl F. Horowitz
What Money Can't Buy	286	(8)
Susan E. Mayer
Making Ends Meet	294	(6)
Kathryn Edin
Laura Lein
PART VI. FAMILY CRISES AND TRANSITIONS	300	(83)
Family Violence
Violent Women and the Myth of Innocence	310	(8)
Patricia Pearson
Myths About Family Violence	318	(7)
Richard J. Gelles
The Myth of Sexual Symmetry in Marital Violence	325	(9)
Russell P. Dobash
R. Emerson Dobash
Margo Wilson
Martin Daly
Divorce
Finding Fault with No-Fault Divorce	334	(4)
Glenn T. Stanton
Dismantling the Divorce Culture	338	(7)
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead
Why Women Seek Divorce	345	(9)
Demie Kurz
Remarriage and Stepfamilies
Why Remarriage Is Wrong	354	(2)
William A. Heth
The Stepfather as Nonfather	356	(7)
David Blankenhorn
My Wife-in-Law and Me: Reflections on a Joint-Custody Stepparenting Relationship	363	(8)
Sarah Turner
Family Policies
What Government Must Do to Reduce Welfare	371	(3)
Charles Murray
Is Federal Welfare Reform Helping or Hurting Poor Families?	374	(9)
Laura A. Wilson
Robert P. Stoker
Abandoning Poor Families	383
Ruth Sidel