Labeling people single parents, for example, when they may in fact be co-parenting - either with an unmarried other parent in the home or with an ex-spouse in a joint custody situation - stigmatizes their children as the products of 'single parenthood' and makes the uncounted parent invisible to society.

Stephanie Coontz

Over the ages, some societies have accorded far less value and respect to singles than to married individuals.

Stephanie Coontz

Whatever their relative valuation of the single and married states, most societies in history made sharp distinctions between those who married and those who remained single: They were seen as mutually exclusive ways of life, with different legal rights and social obligations.

Stephanie Coontz

It no longer makes sense to see singlehood and marriage as two distinct and stable social categories that should be accorded different legal rights and social esteem.

Stephanie Coontz

Because we live so much of our adult lives as singles, it no longer makes sense to assume that marriage is the only way people will organize their obligations and commitments.

Stephanie Coontz

In 1992, I critiqued the panic over growing family diversity. My skepticism about the doomsayers has since been proven correct.

Stephanie Coontz

Nostalgia is a very human trait.

Stephanie Coontz

As time passes, the actual complexity of our history - even of our own personal experience - gets buried under the weight of the ideal image.

Stephanie Coontz

Trump made his fortune manipulating tax laws and stiffing small businessmen, creating a few well-paying jobs along the way. Vulnerable people looking to master 'the art of the deal' learned the hard way that Trump held all the cards.

Stephanie Coontz

Feminism insists on women's right to make choices - about whether to marry, whether to have children, whether to combine work and family or to focus on one over the other. It also urges men and women to share the joys and burdens of family life and calls on society to place a higher priority on supporting caregiving work.

Stephanie Coontz

We need to push for work-family practices and policies that allow individuals to customize their work lives according to their changing individual preferences and family obligations, not just their traditional gender roles.

Stephanie Coontz

Historically, it has required a combination of favorable employment trends and active government intervention to lower the percentage of people in poverty and raise living standards for the working middle class.

Stephanie Coontz

During the 1960s, rising real wages for low-income and high-income workers, due in part to rapid economic growth and the spread of unionization, worked in tandem with expanding government support systems to improve Americans' well-being.

Stephanie Coontz

Graduating from high school is certainly a good idea, but it's no longer much protection against poverty.

Stephanie Coontz

Unemployment, low wages, and poverty discourage family formation and erode family stability, making it less likely that individuals will marry in the first place and more likely that their marriages will dissolve.

Stephanie Coontz

Investing in living-wage jobs and reducing the inequities between local school districts would give young people more, not less, incentive to postpone childbearing and more possibilities for independence.

Stephanie Coontz

Having more education is one of the biggest predictors of women having careers.

Stephanie Coontz

Educated parents find more time to spend with their children by reducing time dedicated to home-based activities that involve little interaction with children.

Stephanie Coontz

No single choice about how to organize work and family life is right or possible - for every family. And every choice has tradeoffs.

Stephanie Coontz

Sometimes, having a mom stay home is a big help. On the other hand, when a mother works outside the home, her husband generally does more child care and has higher parental knowledge about his childrens' friends, routines, and needs, cutting across the tendency for fathers to be second-string parents at home.

Stephanie Coontz

Stephanie Coontz Quotes

Over the ages, some societies have accorded far less value and respect to singles than to married individuals.

Whatever their relative valuation of the single and married states, most societies in history made sharp distinctions between those who married and those who remained single: They were seen as mutually exclusive ways of life, with different legal rights and social obligations.

It no longer makes sense to see singlehood and marriage as two distinct and stable social categories that should be accorded different legal rights and social esteem.

Because we live so much of our adult lives as singles, it no longer makes sense to assume that marriage is the only way people will organize their obligations and commitments.

In 1992, I critiqued the panic over growing family diversity. My skepticism about the doomsayers has since been proven correct.

Nostalgia is a very human trait.

As time passes, the actual complexity of our history - even of our own personal experience - gets buried under the weight of the ideal image.

Trump made his fortune manipulating tax laws and stiffing small businessmen, creating a few well-paying jobs along the way. Vulnerable people looking to master 'the art of the deal' learned the hard way that Trump held all the cards.

We need to push for work-family practices and policies that allow individuals to customize their work lives according to their changing individual preferences and family obligations, not just their traditional gender roles.

Historically, it has required a combination of favorable employment trends and active government intervention to lower the percentage of people in poverty and raise living standards for the working middle class.

During the 1960s, rising real wages for low-income and high-income workers, due in part to rapid economic growth and the spread of unionization, worked in tandem with expanding government support systems to improve Americans' well-being.

Graduating from high school is certainly a good idea, but it's no longer much protection against poverty.

Unemployment, low wages, and poverty discourage family formation and erode family stability, making it less likely that individuals will marry in the first place and more likely that their marriages will dissolve.

Investing in living-wage jobs and reducing the inequities between local school districts would give young people more, not less, incentive to postpone childbearing and more possibilities for independence.

Having more education is one of the biggest predictors of women having careers.

Educated parents find more time to spend with their children by reducing time dedicated to home-based activities that involve little interaction with children.

No single choice about how to organize work and family life is right or possible - for every family. And every choice has tradeoffs.