The Challenges Facing American Families and How to Help Them

On July 7th Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, co-authors of Red Families vs Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture, Patrick F. Fagan, a Senior Director and Fellow of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion, and Eyal Press, a Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Absolute Convictions met to discuss why family structures vary across the United States and how politics impacts upon family structure. David Gray, the director of the Workforce and Family Program at the New America Foundation, hosted the panel discussion.

Ms. Cahn and Ms. Carbone traced the history of family structures in the United States. Identifying the 1950’s as the real sexual revolution, Ms. Carbone pointed out that by 1957 major changes in marital behavior amongst college educated women had already taken place. As the median age of marriage rose and the use of contraception became normalized a ‘Blue-Family’ paradigm was created where marriage was viewed as appropriate only once full emotional maturity and financial independence had already been attained. This paradigm made childbearing, not sexuality, the main reason for marriage. In its wake the ‘Blue Family paradigm’ created a ‘Red family backlash’ where traditional attitudes towards the family were revived. Ms. Cahn identified methods of bridging the family divide, for example by emphasizing uncontroversial topics such as contraception over controversial ones such as abortion, or by focusing on marriage education instead of sex education. Mr. Fagan held a slightly different view on the issue. Pointing out that whereas in 1950 12 percent of children were raised in families he identified as ‘broken’ but that nowadays over 60 percent of children were now raised in such families, he argued that Federal Social Policy had been an unmitigated disaster. He blamed the decline in the marriage rate on the increasing availability of contraception, stating that it had undermined monogamy. Mr Press focused on debates about abortion in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. He argued that the Catholic, Middle Class families often categorized as ‘Red families’ were in fact well adjusted to a society where contraception and abortion were available. The groups who were ‘Red families’ were by contrast people who had experienced family breakdown at an early age.

Participants

Presenters
Naomi Cahn
Professor, George Washington University School of Law
Co-author, Red Families vs. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture

June Carbone
Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Law
Co-author, Red Families vs. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture

Respondents
Patrick F. Fagan
Senior Fellow and Director
Center for Research on Marriage and Religion

Eyal Press
Schwartz Fellow
New America Foundation
Author, Absolute Convictions (Picador, 2007)

Moderator
David Gray
Director, Workforce and Family Program
New America Foundation