Family Classes: What Really Happened to the American Family June Carbone UMKC

The Family as a Marker of Class?

Adult Women Currently Married, by Education, 1970 / 2007

Adult Men Currently Married, by Education, 1970 / 2007

% of Births to Never-married Women, by Race, Education, and Year

Percent of 14-year-old Girls Living with Mother and Father, by Race, Mother’s Education, and Year Percent of 14-year-old Girls Living with Mother and Father, by Race, Mother’s Education, and Year

Female Median Income as a % of Male Median Income by Education

% of year-old Men Unemployed at Some Point Over the Preceding 10 yrs

Gender and Unemployment Laid-off men do less—not more— housework, eating up their extra hours snacking, sleeping and channel surfing (which might be why the Cartoon Network, whose audience has grown by 10 percent during the downturn, is now running more ads for refrigerator repair school). Unemployed men are right behind alcoholics and drug addicts as the group most likely to beat their female partners.

[D]ual arrangements (working wives) = positive marital quality for the middle-class negative marital quality for the working-class Benefits for both from greater income, but for the working class greater marital tension low job satisfaction desire to decrease hours of employment or return to homemaking.

% of 25–44-year-olds Agreeing That Marriage Has Not Worked Out for Most People They Know, by Education

What Really Happened to the Family? Income Inequality Segments Marriage Markets, Separated by Age of Marriage, Education Unequal Societies Write Off a High Percentage of Men – Unemployment, Substance Abuse, Imprisonment, Mental Illness The Top is the Only Group Where Marriageable Men Outnumber Marriageable Women

Our Theory in Brief Men (blue)/Women (red) Mismatch

The Higher the % of Women on a College Campus, The More... They express negative appraisals of men They hold more negative views of their relationships They go on fewer dates They have a low likelihood of having a boyfriend (or having had one on campus) They receive less (i.e., commitment) in exchange for sex

Likelihood that a Woman Who Has a Boyfriend is Still a Virgin by Percentage of Women on Campus

The Alternatives: Invest in Women Or Bring Back Patriarchy

None of it will work without addressing inequality