Why do people - gay or straight - need the state's permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn't, because marriage was a private contract between two families. The parents' agreement to the match, not the approval of… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
As an overly confident college freshman, the first time I received a below-average score on an exam was a needed wake-up call. — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish ora German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family,… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share
A primary motivation for introducing no-fault divorce was, in fact, to reduce perjury in the legal system. — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Graduating from high school is certainly a good idea, but it's no longer much protection against poverty. — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Almost all scholarly research carries practical and political implications. Better that we should spell these out ourselves than leave that task to people with… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Investing in living-wage jobs and reducing the inequities between local school districts would give young people more, not less, incentive to postpone childbearing and… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Hyper-parenting has many pitfalls. Overprotected and overpraised children may develop an inflated sense of entitlement. — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Social and economic policies constructed around the male breadwinner model have always disadvantaged women. — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
When I speak on work-family issues to audiences around the country, some of the biggest complaints I hear come from individuals who are described… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Extended families have never been the norm in America; the highest figure for extended-family households ever recorded in Americanhistory is 20 percent. Contrary to… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
Unilateral divorce has decreased the bargaining power of the person who wants the marriage to last and has not engaged in behavior that meets… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
The closer we get to achieving equality of opportunity between the sexes, the more clearly we can see that the next major obstacle to… — Stephanie Coontz Copy Share Image
