Multiple Meanings of Family Issue FF26

Multiple Meanings of F Family Focus On... Multiple Meanings of Family Issue FF26 IN FOCUS: The Family Family Definitions Continuum page F1 Policy, Gender Power, and amily Family Outcomes page F2 Definitions Continuum Discourse-Dependent Families page F4 Family Values Reconsidered page F5 by Mellisa Holtzman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Children’s Experiences as Siblings Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana in Diverse Family Structures page F7 efining exactly what one means parenthood, gay and lesbian marriage and Family Structure from the by “the family” can be difficult. parenting, infertility technologies, and the Perspective of Children page F8 D While no single legal definition of potential outcomes of human cloning. Social Fathers page F10 the family exists, policymakers at both the Moreover, given that social and techno- Lives of Foster Parents page F11 state and federal level generally classify logical changes continue to precipitate International Adoptive individuals as family members if they are changes in the structure and meaning of Families page F12 related to each other by virtue of blood, family, understanding how individuals marriage, or adoption. Relationships that choose between definitions of Adopting Children with are not based on one or more of these the family is Developmental Disabilities page F13 criteria usually do not receive state This framework allows crucial. Yet, it Infertile Couples page F15 recognition or sanction. us to contextualize is unlikely that When is a Grandparent Not a we will come to Yet few people would argue variations in family Grandparent? page F16 understand indi- with the idea that family is definitions and understand viduals’ choices Family Identities of Gay Men page F17 based on something more than their implications. if we do not first Lesbian Mothers page F18 legal or biological ties and that comprehend, in a systematic way, the range feelings of connectedness and emotional Working with Gay- and of choices with which they are faced. Lesbian-Headed Families page F19 attachment are crucial to the experience of A continuum of definitions Raising the Grandkids page F21 family. It seems likely, then, that both biological ties and social attachments Based on my ongoing research, I am Policy Issues and define the family. proposing a conceptual framework that Grandparent-Headed Families page F22 describes variations in the way family is What remains unclear, however, is the Legal Standing of defined in U.S. society. Specifically, I argue extent to which biological and social Grandparent Caregivers page F23 that definitions of the family vary along a definitions compete or coexist. That is, Parental Stress Among Rural continuum with biological conceptions on although both definitions may inform a Grandparents page F24 one end, social conceptions on the other, person’s conception of the family, it is not and feelings of ambivalence—an inability or Very Old Grandparents page F25 necessarily true that both definitions will unwillingness to choose between biologi- Impact of HIV/AIDS on be equally or consistently embraced. cal and social definitions—characterizing Family Structure in Kenya page F25 People may vacillate between the two the area between the two poles. Heterosexual Licensed conceptions of family, sometimes seeing Domestic Partners page F26 family as primarily biological, sometimes While some individuals will align them- Unintended Results of as primarily social, and sometimes as both. selves with the far ends of the continuum, thereby embracing a predominantly bio- Co-Custody page F28 Understanding how family is defined is logical or social definition of the family, Hutterite Families page F29 increasingly important as individuals and many people will embrace both definitions policymakers wrestle with the implica- Teachers and Latino to some degree, thus occupying various Immigrant Parents page F30 tions of divorce and remarriage, single Family Definitions continued on page F3 Family Focus On... Multiple Meanings of Family Policy, Gender Power, and Family Outcomes by Dr. Lynn Prince Cooke, Department of Social Policy and Nuffield College, Oxford University, United Kingdom ince the 1960s, concern has been I have tested the model across nine in- The effect of divorce law growing over rising divorce rates, dustrialized societies: Australia, the former The sensitivity of household bargaining S declining fertility, and more children East and West Germany, Great Britain, to policy differences is assessed further being raised in poverty in single female- Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the with an analysis of inter-state variation in headed households. To reverse these United States. The countries vary in the the division of housework among U.S. trends, some urge a return to the tradi- degree to which policies support a male couples. In the United States, family laws tional male-breadwinner family structure breadwinner versus a dual-earner model. vary from state to state, which means at its zenith during the 1950s. Based on The effect of female employment that women’s access to economic re- cross-national comparative analyses sources in the event of marital dissolu- In my analyses, I take advantage of two reported here, however, support for the tion also varies. Access depends, for natural experiments to assess policy traditional family model does not appear example, on the community property effects on the division of labor on couples to be the solution. laws and child support enforcement. within a country. The first assessment is Instead, the evidence overwhelmingly of the former East and West Germany. Variation in these policies affects each suggests that policy encouraging gender After World War II, West Germany partner’s relative power derived from equity encourages population and family implemented policies in support of a their respective alternatives to the mar- stability. In other words, gender equity male-breadwinner model that discouraged riage, that is, the extent to which either represents more than a feminist ideal; it female employment. Socialist East Ger- person is better or worse off in the event proves essential for sustaining healthy many implemented extensive provisions of a divorce. Analyses using the National post-industrial societies. to encourage female employment. Survey of Families and Households support the thesis that in states where the The question of women’s I selected couples law improves a woman’s economic pros- economic independence The evidence suggests that that married for pects post-divorce, the husband’s share Central to the family debates policy encouraging gender the first time of domestic tasks is substantively and is the desirability of women’s equity encourages population between significantly greater. Some state laws rising economic independence and family stability. 1985 and have been enacted only within the past from a male breadwinner, whether 1995 and fol- few years, so policy effects on the house- via employment or state transfers. On lowed them until hold division of labor emerge quickly. one hand, women’s greater economic 2000 to see how the cohort of newlyweds Policy effects are similar, albeit more equality with men (theoretically) encour- negotiated marital life during economic muted, for cohabiting couples. ages men’s greater involvement in the unification. Since unification, East German domestic sphere. On the other, women’s women no longer command the relative Division of labor and fertility greater independence reduces the need resources they did under socialism. The second element of the framework for kinship ties and increases the “oppor- About half of the women in both the East connects the household division of labor tunity cost” of children, thereby (theoreti- and West samples are out of the labor with family outcomes. Most evidence cally) encouraging the demise of family. force, and women who are employed in suggests less evolution in domestic gen- Repercussions of these possibilities both regions tend to work full-time. der roles than would be predicted by the ripple throughout society and the state. change in relative resources associated To the extent individual resources predict with women’s employment. While the To compare these dynamics across societ- the division of domestic labor, it should evolution proceeds slowly, the pace is no ies, I extend Blood and Wolfe’s classic also now be similar across the two regions. reflection of the relative importance of model to incorporate policy effects on Yet this is not the case. Controlling for effects. Greater gender equity in domestic women’s relative power in the family, and women’s employment and earnings, East tasks leads to greater fertility and more link the household division of paid and German men assume a substantially greater stable relationships. unpaid labor to family outcomes. The two percentage of household tasks. This sup- key empirical questions are: first, does ports the thesis that less than 50 years of The effects of the division of domestic policy affect gender equity within the divergent policies significantly alter the tasks on fertility have been assessed in home? And second, does gender equity gendered division of labor among people East and West Germany, Hungary, Italy, affect family outcomes? who share a common socio-cultural past. Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Family Focus June 2005 Policy, Gender continued on page F3 F2 Family Focus On... Multiple Meanings of Family FAMILY DEFINITIONS continued

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