Family%20Classes:%20What%20Really%20Happened%20to%20the%20American%20Family

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Family Classes What Really Happened to the
American Family

• June Carbone
• UMKC

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The Family as a Marker of Class?
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Adult Women Currently Married, by Education, 1970
/ 2007
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Adult Men Currently Married, by Education, 1970 /
2007
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of Births to Never-married Women, by Race,
Education, and Year
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Percent of 14-year-old Girls Living with Mother
and Father, by Race, Mothers Education, and Year
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Female Median Income as a of Male Median Income
by Education
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of 29-60-year-old Men Unemployed at Some Point
Over the Preceding 10 yrs
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Gender and Unemployment

• Laid-off men do lessnot morehousework, eating
  up their extra hours snacking, sleeping and
  channel surfing (which might be why the Cartoon
  Network, whose audience has grown by 10 percent
  during the downturn, is now running more ads for
  refrigerator repair school).
• Unemployed men are right behind alcoholics and
  drug addicts as the group most likely to beat
  their female partners.

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Divorce Proneness by Perceived Economic Distress
(Amato)
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Paul Amato, Alone Together

• Dual arrangements (working wives)
• positive marital quality for the middle-class
• negative marital quality for the working-class
• Benefits for both from greater income, but for
  the working class
• greater marital tension
• low job satisfaction
• desire to decrease hours of employment or return
  to homemaking.

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of 2544-year-olds Agreeing That Marriage Has
Not Worked Out for Most People They Know, by
Education
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What Really Happened to the Family?

• Income Inequality Segments Marriage Markets,
• Separated by Age of Marriage, Education
• Unequal Societies Write Off a High Percentage of
  Men Unemployment, Substance Abuse,
  Imprisonment, Mental Illness
• The Top is the Only Group Where Marriageable Men
  Outnumber Marriageable Women

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Our Theory in BriefMen (blue)/Women (red)
Mismatch
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The Higher the of Women on a College Campus,
The More. . .

• They express negative appraisals of men
• They hold more negative views of their
  relationships
• They go on fewer dates
• They have a low likelihood of having a boyfriend
  (or having had one on campus)
• They receive less (i.e., commitment) in exchange
  for sex

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Likelihood that a Woman Who Has a Boyfriend is
Still a Virgin by Percentage of Women on Campus
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The Alternatives Invest in Women Or Bring Back
Patriarchy
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None of it will work without addressing inequality