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"June Carbone and Naomi Cahn examine how macroeconomic forces are transforming marriage, and how working class and lower income families have paid the highest price"-- "There was a time when the phrase "American family" conjured up a single, specific image: a breadwinner dad, a homemaker mom, and their 2.5 kids living comfortable lives in a middle-class suburb. Today, that image has been shattered, due in part to skyrocketing divorce rates, single parenthood, and increased out-of-wedlock births. But whether it is conservatives bewailing the wages of moral decline and women's liberation, or progressives celebrating the result of women's greater freedom and changing sexual mores, most Americans fail to identify the root factor driving the changes: economic inequality that is remaking the American family along class lines. In Marriage Markets, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn, co-authors of the acclaimed Red Families v. Blue Families, examine how macroeconomic forces are transforming our most intimate and important spheres, and how working class and lower income families have paid the highest price. Just like health, education, and seemingly every other advantage in life, a stable two-parent home has become a luxury that only the well-off can afford. The best educated and most prosperous have the most stable families, while working class families have seen the greatest increase in relationship instability. Why is this so? This book offers a new answer: it is due to the economics of marriage markets, and of how men and women match up when they search for a life partner. For instance, when eligible (i.e., desirable and marriageable) men outnumber eligible women, the marriage and marital stability rates are significantly higher than when the reverse situation occurs - the exact situation we have in America today. The failure to see marriage as a market affected by supply and demand has obscured any meaningful analysis of the way that societal changes influence culture. Only policies that redress the balance between men and women through greater access to education, stable employment, and opportunities for social mobility can a culture that encourages commitment and investment in family life. A rigorous and enlightening account of why American families have changed so much in recent decades, Marriage Markets cuts through the ideological and moralistic rhetoric that drives our current debate and offers real insight into-and solutions for-a problem that will haunt America for generations to come"--

Families --- Marriage --- Domestic relations --- Equality --- Working class --- Social classes --- Economic aspects --- 316.356.2 <73> --- -Marriage --- -Domestic relations --- -Equality --- -Working class --- -Social classes --- -Class distinction --- Classes, Social --- Rank --- Caste --- Estates (Social orders) --- Social status --- Class consciousness --- Classism --- Social stratification --- Commons (Social order) --- Labor and laboring classes --- Laboring class --- Labouring class --- Working classes --- Labor --- Egalitarianism --- Inequality --- Social equality --- Social inequality --- Political science --- Sociology --- Democracy --- Liberty --- Family law --- Persons (Law) --- Sex and law --- Married life --- Matrimony --- Nuptiality --- Wedlock --- Love --- Sacraments --- Betrothal --- Courtship --- Home --- Honeymoons --- Family --- Family life --- Family relationships --- Family structure --- Relationships, Family --- Structure, Family --- Social institutions --- Birth order --- Households --- Kinship --- Matriarchy --- Parenthood --- Patriarchy --- Gezinssociologie--Verenigde Staten van Amerika. VSA. USA --- -Economic aspects --- -Employment --- Law and legislation --- Social aspects --- Social conditions --- -Gezinssociologie--Verenigde Staten van Amerika. VSA. USA --- -316.356.2 <73> --- 316.356.2 <73> Gezinssociologie--Verenigde Staten van Amerika. VSA. USA --- Sociology of the family. Sociology of sexuality --- United States --- Employment --- Families - Economic aspects - United States --- Marriage - Economic aspects - United States --- Domestic relations - United States --- Equality - United States --- Working class - Economic aspects - United States --- Social classes - United States --- Etats-Unis --- United States of America