Articles

The number of US mothers who also work outside the home is actually on the rise.

Families have never been perfect, says Stephanie Coontz, author and director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families in Chicago. Yet many of us still perpetuate the myths, says Coontz, one of several family scholars scheduled to speak at a free public conference Thursday and Friday at Emory University. In a different place, in a different time --- we believe --- we were closer, kinder, more organized and self-sufficient. Truth, however, tends to be air-brushed with time.

He was divorced, with a son. So was she. And so when Cathy and Denny Dobbs merged their families nearly 20 years ago, it was much like the popular 1970s sitcom "The Brady Bunch." They both worked on the job and at home. They spent time with their children and with each other. They still do. The same can be said for Leslie and Anthony Royal's family. And Nancy and Richard Schulz. But is "the family that stays together" the image most of us conjure up when we think of the modern family?

U.S. courts' rulings on marriage have evolved in response to changing norms. Stephanie Coontz is a teacher of history and family studies at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Wash. With several state supreme courts due to rule on suits from same-sex couples demanding access to marriage, conservatives must be delighted to have a Justice Samuel Alito. During his confirmation hearings, Alito argued that judges should interpret the Constitution based "on the meaning that someone would have taken…

Pundits and politicians love to pontificate about strengthening traditional marriage. But as someone who has studied marriage forms and family life for more than three decades, I wonder how many of them have the faintest idea of what they're talking about. I suppose they mean the "traditional" marriage of one man and one woman.

Usually Valentine's Day comes and goes with just a day or two of news media attention to courtship and marriage. Not this February. New Yorkers are debating whether to join the other 49 states in legalizing no-fault divorce - even while conservative pro-marriage groups elsewhere plead with their legislatures to repeal it. Meanwhile, Congress has just approved financing for new marriage education programs. And state courts in New Jersey and Washington are expected to rule soon on same-sex…