Unequal Family Lives

Across the Americas and Europe, the family has changed and marriage is in retreat. To answer the question of what is driving these changes and how they impact social and economic inequality, progressives have typically focused on the economic causes of changing family structures, whereas conservatives tend to stress cultural and policy roots. In this illuminating book, an international group of scholars revisit these issues, offering competing and contrasting perspectives from left, center, and right, while also adding a third layer of analysis: namely, the role of gender – changes in women’s roles, male employment patterns, and gendered family responsibilities – in driving family change across three continents. Unequal Family Lives: Causes and Consequences in Europe and the Americas adds richness and depth to our understanding of the relationship between family and economics in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108235525

Naomi R. Cahn is the Harold H. Greene Chair at George Washington University Law School.

June Carbone is the Robina Chair in Law, Science, and Technology at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Laurie Fields DeRose teaches in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University and is Director of Research for the World Family Map project.

W. Bradford Wilcox is Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies.