The typical American family has changed dramatically since the days of "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Father Knows Best." Double-income families are now the rule, and fathers are much more involved in raising the children and cleaning house. Reactions to these changes have been diverse, ranging from grave misgivings to a sense of liberation and new possibility. Groups as diverse as Promise Keepers, the Million Man March, and Robert Bly's mythopoetic men's movement tell us that fathers are import...

When we talk about family values, like whether children need two parents, we are also talking about gender values, because a "yes" answer to this question might imply that only women with husbands should have children. In the same way, when we talk about gender issues, such as whether men should be paid higher wages than women, we are also talking about family issues, because a "yes" answer suggests that husbands should be the family breadwinner. In this...

Over the past several decades, the demographic populations of many countries such as Canada as well as the United States have greatly transformed. Most striking is the influx of recent immigrant families into North America. As children lead the way for a "new" North America, this group of children and youth is not a singular homogenous group but rather, a mosaic and diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural group. Thus, our current understanding of "normative development" (covering social, psyc...

In the labor market and workplace, anti-discrimination rules, affirmative action policies, and pay equity procedures exercise a direct effect on gender relations. But what can be done to influence the ways that men and women allocate tasks and responsibilities at home?In Gender Equality, Volume VI in the Real Utopias series, social scientists Janet C. Gornick and Marcia K. Meyers propose a set of policies-paid family leave provisions, working time regulations, and early chi...

Over the past several decades, researchers as well as social policymakers and educators have acknowledged the importance that fathers play in their children's lives. A good deal of research on fathering has been conducted among Euro-American families in North America. However, our understanding of fathering across various ethnic groups remains limited. Throughout Canada and the United States, the immigrant population has been growing rapidly. Currently, no book has delineated the field of ...