The Changing of America Family

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The changing of American families has left many families broken and struggling. Pauline Irit Erera, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, wrote the article “What is a Family?”. Erera has written extensively about family diversity, focusing on step-families, foster families, lesbian families, and noncustodial fathers. Rebecca M. Blank, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, where she has directed the Joint Center for Poverty Research, wrote the article “Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?”. She served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton administration. Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University wrote the article “The Origins of the Ambivalent Acceptance of Divorce”. She is also the author of several other books on the changing profiles of American family life. These three texts each talk about the relationship between the parent and the child of a single-parent household. They each discuss divorce, money/income they receive, and the worries that come with raising a child in a single-parent household. One of the biggest changes in American families has been divorce and the single-parent families. In the article “What is a Family?”, Pauline Irit Erera argues that after World War 11, is when the major changes in families begun. Women were already accustomed to having jobs and working while their men were away during the war, and when the men all came back is when things started to change. Erera says, “The movement for gender equality led to increased employment opportunities for women, while at the same time declining wage rates for unskilled male workers made them less desirable marriage partners.” (Ere... ... middle of paper ... ...men in prison, when they get out, they face a major decline in their earning ability and have to deal with high rates of unemployment (Blank 441). Works Cited Blank, M. Rebecca. “Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?” Writing in the Disciplines: A Reader and Rhetoric for Academic Writers. 7th ed. Eds. Mary Lynch Kennedy and William J. Kennedy. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2012. 439-44. Cherlin, J. Andrew. “The Origins of the Ambivalence of Divorce.” Writing in the Disciplines: A Reader and Rhetoric for Academic Writers.7th ed. Eds. Mary Lynch Kennedy and William J. Kennedy. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2012. 433-37. Erera, I. Pauline. “What is a Family?” Writing in the Disciplines: A Reader and Rhetoric for Academic Writers.7th ed. Eds. Mary Lynch Kennedy and William J. Kennedy. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2012. 416-26.

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