Who is your family?
268
Fears about a “crisis” in the family have generated head-
lines since the early 1900s, when divorce rates began to
rise. Nowadays defenders of the traditional family cite a
set of familiar statistics: Nearly a third of all children are
born to unwed mothers; half of all marriages end in
divorce; a third of all families are headed by a single par-
ent; more than half of all single mothers with children
younger than six work outside the home. Some even
redefine marriage itself. By 2010 state legislatures and
judges in New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts,
Vermont, and Connecticut allowed same sex marriages.
Yet when the issue was put directly to the electorate, the
voters of thirty-five states rejected it.
If ever the traditional “ideal” prevailed in America,
it was among white families in the 1820s and 1830s.
Divorce was rare; the overwhelming majority of families
had two parents; only one woman in fifteen worked out-
side the home.
Whether such families were “happier” or
“stronger” than now is a different matter. Divorce was