THE AMERICAN FAMILY
Life Magazine, November 1999Essay by Stephanie Coontz
As the century comes to an end, many observers fear for the future of America¹s families. Our divorce rate is the highest in the world, and the percentage of unmarried women is significanly higher than in 1960. Educated women are having fewer babies, while immigrant children flood the schools, demanding to be taught in thier native language. Harvard University reports that only 4 percent of its applicants can write a proper sentence. There¹s an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases amoung men. Many streets in urban neghborhoods are littered with cocaine vials. Youths call heroin ³happy dust². Even in small towns, people have easy access to addictive drugs, and drug abuse by middle clsss wives is skyrocketing. Police see 16-year-old killers, 12-year-old prostitues, and gang members as young as 11. America at the end of the 1990s? No, America at the end of the 1890s...
THE WAY WE WEREN’T
The Star Tribune, Wednesday May 7, 1997
By Cecelia Goodnow
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The key to regaining a sense of stability during this period of wrenching social, cultural and economic change isn't reclaiming 'traditional family values.' According to historian/author Stephanie Coontz, it's adapting our social institutions.
Stephanie Coontz, who studies the history of American families, was riding to the airport when her taxi driver started railing against the welfare system...
AUTHOR COONTZ SUMS UP HOT-BUTTON ISSUES OF THE ‘90s
The Star Tribune, Wednesday May 7, 1997By Cecelia Goodnow
Seattle Post-IntelligencerStephanie Coontz, author of The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with American's Changing Families, offers her take on the following social issues: Wayward Teens, Social Support, the Role of Marriage...
IN SEARCH OF MEN WHO ARE IN SEARCH OF COMMITMENT
The Washington Post, Sunday, September 7, 1997
By Stephanie Coontz
At a recent talk in Chicago I gave about the dangers of romanticizing "traditional" families, a young man asked me if I didn't think the mass rallies of the men's group Promise Keepers in football stadiums across the country represented "potential fascism." I argued, to considerable skepticism from my audience, that however disturbing the ideology of the leaders, the motivations that bring thousands of men together for these events are not fascist, or even explicitly right-wing...
MANAGING OLD AND NEW FAMILY TRADITIONS
By Stephanie Coontz
Combining traditions has always been a challenge. But it's particularly difficult today because so many older family members embrace rituals that were developed long ago when the wife was home full-time and could spend her days cooking and preparing for the holidays. These traditions are totally inappropriate for today's families, when women work and men share in the household responsibilities, so it makes sense that families are struggling to rethink them. I've seen a number of responses that have worked for families...
By Stephanie Coontz
HILO, Hawaii
Criticism has become as much a cliché as the holiday itself. Most people believe that Mother's Day started out as a private celebration of women's family roles and relations. We took Mom breakfast in bed to thank her for all the meals she made us. We picked her a bouquet of flowers to symbolize her personal, unpaid services. We tried to fix in our memory those precious moments of her knitting sweaters or sitting at our bedside, all the while focusing on her devotion to her family and ignoring her broader social ties, interests and political concerns...
FOLLOWING THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, CHILDCARE IS POISED TO BECOME THE NEXT EMOTIVE ISSUE IN THE NATIONAL DEBATE. A LEADING FAMILY HISTORIAN OFFERS HER SOLUTIONS.
Mother Jones, June 1998Interview By Sarah Pollock
ON FEBRUARY 4, 1997, WHEN ENGLISH AU PAIR Louise Woodward fractured the skull of her 8-month-old charge, Matthew Eappen causing his death five days later she unleashed a storm of outrage. One of the targets was Deborah Eappen, the child's mother, who had returned to work as an ophthalmologist (albeit part time) after her son's birth. Eappen was vilified as selfish and irresponsible for leaving her son in the care of an 18 year-old...
