Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Nostalgia is a very human trait.
Social changes always involve trade-offs.
Second marriages can and do create 'real' families.
Cohabitation itself doesn't cause ineffective parenting.
Contrary to popular opinion, 'Leave it to Beaver' was not a documentary.
It's always seductive to know where one stands in relation to the average.
Rising inequality has changed family dynamics for all socioeconomic groups.
Donald Trump has tapped into a deep vein of racism, nativism, and misogyny.
If the ascent of women has been much exaggerated, so has the descent of men.
There is no denying that we have made great progress toward gender equality.
Having more education is one of the biggest predictors of women having careers.
When liberals dismiss all Trump supporters as racists, this only fuels their anger.
As a historian, I've spent much of my career warning people about the dangers of nostalgia.
The growing diversity of family life comes with new possibilities as well as new challenges.
The place where we keep our clothes isn't always the only place where we keep our commitments.
Feminism needs a political program because gender inequality has been fostered by political decisions.
Graduating from high school is certainly a good idea, but it's no longer much protection against poverty.
The idea that academics should remain ''above the fray'' only gives ideologues license to misuse our work.
A primary motivation for introducing no-fault divorce was, in fact, to reduce perjury in the legal system.
Indeed, the spread of 'virtual' communities on the Internet speaks to a deep hunger to reach out to others.
Social and economic policies constructed around the male breadwinner model have always disadvantaged women.
Over the ages, some societies have accorded far less value and respect to singles than to married individuals.
People feel better when their spouses have good friendships, over and above the effects of their own friendships.
Usually, Valentine's Day comes and goes with just a day or two of news media attention to courtship and marriage.
The worst problems for children stem from parental conflict, before, during, and after divorce or within marriage.
Establishing a 'livable wage' floor would immediately reduce the gap in average pay between American women and men.
Hyper-parenting has many pitfalls. Overprotected and overpraised children may develop an inflated sense of entitlement.
Couples need time alone to renew their relationship. They also need to sustain supportive networks of friends and family.
Inequality was written into the creation of the American Republic when our Founding Fathers denied voting rights to women.
When you can't change what's bothering you, one typical response is to convince yourself that it doesn't actually bother you.
As an overly confident college freshman, the first time I received a below-average score on an exam was a needed wake-up call.
In 1992, I critiqued the panic over growing family diversity. My skepticism about the doomsayers has since been proven correct.
Nostalgia wouldn't begin to capture your sense of loss, ... The Way We Really Are Coming to Terms With America's Changing Families.
No single choice about how to organize work and family life is right or possible - for every family. And every choice has tradeoffs.
Marriage is no longer the only place where people make major life transitions and decisions, enter into commitments, or incur obligations.
Using the existence of a marriage license to determine when the state should protect interpersonal relationships is increasingly impractical.
As time passes, the actual complexity of our history - even of our own personal experience - gets buried under the weight of the ideal image.
Valentine's Day is a perfect time to reject the idea that the ideal man is taller, richer, more knowledgeable, more renowned, or more powerful.
Marriage is no longer the main way in which societies regulate sexuality and parenting or organize the division of labor between men and women.
Heterosexuals were the upstarts who turned marriage into a voluntary love relationship rather than a mandatory economic and political institution.
Marriage has been in a constant state of evolution since the dawn of the Stone Age. In the process, it has become more flexible - but also more optional.
We must recognize that there are healthy as well as unhealthy ways to be single or to be divorced, just as there are healthy and unhealthy ways to be married.
Educated parents find more time to spend with their children by reducing time dedicated to home-based activities that involve little interaction with children.
Marriage can provide a bounty of emotional, practical, and financial support. But finding the right mate is no substitute for having friends and other interests.
Economically as well as emotionally, modern marriage has become like an affluent gated community. It has become harder for low-income Americans to enter and sustain.
It no longer makes sense to see singlehood and marriage as two distinct and stable social categories that should be accorded different legal rights and social esteem.
Throughout history, people with few educational or economic resources and little bargaining power have often looked to authoritarian, ruthless people to stand up for them.
Turning back the inequality revolution may be difficult. But that would certainly help more families - at almost all income levels - than turning back the gender revolution.
As soon as love became the driving force behind marriage, people began to demand the right to remain single if they had not found love or to divorce if they fell out of love.
For a century, women have binged on romance novels that encouraged them to associate intimidation with infatuation; it's no wonder that this emotional hangover still lingers.