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Enduring Bonds: Inequality, Marriage, Parenting, and Everything Else That Makes Families Great and Terrible

is actually abating. Frances Kobrin Goldscheider and Sharon Sassler provide evidence that gender attitudes are converging between the haves and the have-nots: for both, gender roles are becoming more egalitarian. One of the most well-established trends is the dramatic growth in fathers’ involvement with children, a universally welcomed development. There is also evidence that government policy can promote gender egalitarianism. These trends persist—indeed, in some respects, they may be stronger—in cohabiting relationships. This trend toward egalitarianism may thus transcend the marriage divide given the propensity of less-educated people to cohabit rather than marry. Does this mean anything for social policy? Carbone and Kahn are correct to imply that a regime with some egalitarian marriages is more complex, since it lacks uniform normative guidance (p. 275). This is indeed key to understanding the modern family. It’s less clear why a society with discrepant levels of egalitarianism ipso facto entails different kinds of support (at least the kinds of support mooted in the Reeves chapter). Aside from the policy recommendations, what are the book’s takeaways about the marriage divide? The first is an incontrovertible case for casting a wide net when looking at causes and consequences: structural, cultural, and public policy factors are all relevant. The second takeaway is the importance of the changing economic prospects of men and women. Over the past forty years the occupational outlook for many men has dimmed, and some have left the paid labor force entirely. The opposite is true for women: they work more and have better jobs than ever before. These divergent trends are vital for understanding the modern family. Finally, the book limns the consequences of the family divide. In particular, the proliferation of single-parent families has contributed to the growth of income inequality. To be sure, it’s far from the most important reason why incomes have polarized, but there are noteworthy consequences for children and society alike. Some critics may observe this is exclusively a book about heterosexual families, but I don’t fault the authors for this. Marriage equality is too new, and many a family scholar, myself included, has ignored same-sex relationships with a lament about inadequate data. This is a mantle for future scholars to take up when more data on same-sex couples become available.