172 - Special Session. Closing the Economic Marriage Gap: The Policy Debate

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

The 2008 recession and its aftermath focused national attention on the increasing wealth gap in the United States. One implication of this gap has been long known to sociologists and demographers: economic inequality is linked to a marriage and divorce gap along racial and class lines, which, in turn, is associated with differential outcomes for children’s well-being and variations in levels of family stability. Educated, middle-class Americans are more likely to get married, stay married, and be happily married, and their children fare better on a range of educational, health, and economic measures. Since the 1996 overhaul of welfare policy, the federal and many state governments have used public funds to support a variety of marriage promotion, relationship strengthening, and parent education programs in an effort to increase family stability for children and promote the positive outcomes typically associated with living in two-parent married families. Policies that link anti-poverty measures to marriage and family formation have long been contentious, especially in light of federal and state efforts to ban same-sex marriage. Thus marriage education policies have been criticized for promoting a heteronormative marriage agenda on the one hand, and praised as a solution to a range of social problems on the other. This panel brings together scholars on both sides of the debate to consider the impact of policies to strengthen families and promote marriage on economic inequality and family stability. What are the policy implications of federally funded relationship and marriage education programs for the marriage gap? Are there alternative public policy avenues to support stable parental relationships and improve child outcomes? What are the implications of such programs in a political and social climate in which only heterosexual couples are legally allowed to marry in most states?

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Session Organizers

• Melanie Heath, McMaster University

• Orit Avishai, Fordham University

• Jennifer Randles, California State University-Fresno

Presiders

• Melanie Heath, McMaster University

• Orit Avishai, Fordham University

Individual Presentations

• Cultural and Economic Influcences on Family Formation among Young Adults - Andrew J. Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University

• Unmarried Parents and Relationship Education - Sarah Halpern-Meekin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Marriage for Same-sex Couples and their Well-being - Mignon R. Moore, University of California-Los Angeles

• Doing Math One-handed? Inequality and the Marriage Problem - Philip N. Cohen, University of Maryland-College Park

• Vulnerable Fathers: A Fringe Issue No Longer - Ronald Mincy, Columbia University

Discussant

• Barbara Jane Risman, University of Illinois-Chicago