@article{864188,
      recid = {864188},
      author = {Carbone, June, and Cahn, Naomi R.,},
      title = {Marriage markets : how inequality is remaking the American  family /},
      pages = {1 online resource (267 pages) :},
      abstract = {"There was a time when the phrase "American family"  conjured up a single, specific image: a breadwinner dad, a  homemaker mom, and their 2.5 kids living comfortable lives  in a middle-class suburb. Today, that image has been  shattered, due in part to skyrocketing divorce rates,  single parenthood, and increased out-of-wedlock births. But  whether it is conservatives bewailing the wages of moral  decline and women's liberation, or progressives celebrating  the result of women's greater freedom and changing sexual  mores, most Americans fail to identify the root factor  driving the changes: economic inequality that is remaking  the American family along class lines.  In Marriage  Markets, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn, co-authors of the  acclaimed Red Families v. Blue Families, examine how  macroeconomic forces are transforming our most intimate and  important  spheres, and how working class and lower income  families have paid the highest price. Just like health,  education, and seemingly every other advantage in life, a  stable two-parent home has become a luxury that only the  well-off can afford.  The best educated and most prosperous  have the most stable families, while working class families  have seen the greatest increase in relationship  instability.  Why is this so? This book offers a new  answer: it is due to the economics of marriage markets, and  of how men and women match up when they search for a life  partner. For instance, when eligible (i.e., desirable and  marriageable) men outnumber eligible women, the marriage  and marital stability rates are significantly higher than  when the reverse situation occurs - the exact situation we  have in America today. The failure to see marriage as a  market affected by supply and demand has obscured any  meaningful analysis of the way that societal changes  influence culture.  Only policies that redress the balance  between men and women through greater access to education,  stable employment, and opportunities for social mobility  can a culture that encourages commitment and investment in  family life.  A rigorous and enlightening account of why  American families have changed so much in recent decades,  Marriage Markets cuts through the ideological and  moralistic rhetoric that drives our current debate and  offers real insight into-and solutions for-a problem that  will haunt America for generations to come"--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/864188},
}