Sociology Now, Census Update

ALMOST DAILY, WE HEARsome political pundit prophesy the end of the family. The crisis of

the family is so severe that in 2000, the U.S. Congress passed a Family Protection Act, as if

the family were an endangered species, like the spotted owl. Divorce and remarriage have

never been more common. Millions of children are growing up with single parents or in

blended households. Millions of young adults are putting off marriage until their 30s, or

cohabiting instead of getting married, or opting to stay single. People are selecting house-

hold arrangements today that would mystify our ancestors. Even the conservative U.S.

Bureau of the Census has given in and added the category “cohabiting partners” to the old

litany of single, married, widowed, or divorced.

On the other hand, the family has never been more popular. Suddenly, everyone seems

to want one: single people, gay men and lesbians, even the elderly and widowed. Prime-time

TV, which used to make fun of the nuclear family with shows like Married... with Children,

is overloaded with moms, dads, and

kids. And the wedding industry

generates sales of about $50 billion

every single year.

The family is in crisis. The family has never been more popular.

The gay marriage debate is a good example of both sides of the argument. Opponents

say it would wreak “a potentially fatal blow to the traditional family,” leading “inexorably to

polygamy and other alternatives to one man/one woman unions” (Dobson, 2004). At the

same time, gay couples across

the country have been eager to

pledge their love and commit-

ment by getting married. And

millions of supporters believe

matrimony should not be

limited to only some couples

but open to everyone who wants to enter into it. How much more popular can the idea of

marriage get?

The great novelist Thomas Wolfe said “you can’t go home again.” A few years earlier, the

poet Robert Frost wrote that “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they

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Is the family in crisis—or has it never

been more popular, or more supported?

We believe both—in part, sociologists

understand, because both are true.