Enduring Bonds

Philip N. Cohen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change and the Family Inequality blog. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlantic.

"Enduring Bonds was purposefully assembled to be read in the classroom . . . . but is written in very accessible plain-language prose that makes the work legible to the non-specialist while also not compromising on the rigor of analysis demanded by complex population-level data and assessment of policy success (or failure). Highly recommended to those interested in how socioeconomic inequality is transmuted through and by our families; our political moment, perhaps now more than ever, demands that we interrogate the question of who “gets to” be a family (and what families we do or don’t protect, as a society) from an unapologetic position of social justice advocacy. Cohen offers useful data and arguments for us to draw on in that struggle."

• IntroductionChapter 1. Modernity, Parenting, and Families1. Why Don’t Parents Name Their Daughters Mary Anymore?2. “Parenting” through the (Only Very Recent) Ages3. How Do They Do It?4. Parenting Survivor Bias5. Santa’s Magic, Children’s Wisdom, and InequalityChapter 2. Marriage, Single Mothers, and Poverty1. What Does It Take to Eliminate Poverty?2. Reducing Poverty through Marriage3. Single Mothers and CrimeChapter 3. Marriage Promotion1. We Can’t Build Our Social System around Marriage Anymore2. Marriage (Not) Promoted3. Turns Out Marriage and Income Inequality Go Pretty Well Together4. Marriage Promotion and the Myth of Teen Pregnancy5. The Marriage Movement Has Failed (Long Live the Marriage Movement)6. Getting Serious about Promoting Marriage to End PovertyChapter 4. Marriage Equality in Social Science and the CourtsChapter 5. Doing Dimorphism1. Gender Wars and the Defense of Difference2. Pink and Blue3. Braced for BeautyChapter 6. Gender Inequality1. Gender Segregation at the New York Times2. The Gender Gap Gets It from All Sides3. Gender Shifts in Families4. That Feminist Viral Statistic MemeChapter 7. Race, Gender, and Families1. Black Is Not a Color2. Black Women’s Educational Success3. Detroit’s Grueling Demographic Decline4. What They Say about Race When They Don’t Say Anything about Race5. Race, Racism, and Missing MarriagesChapter 8. Feminism and Sexuality1. Not Your Feminist Grandmother’s Patriarchy2. Does Sleeping with a Guy on the First Date Make Him Less Likely to Call Back?3. Is the Price of Sex Too Damn Low?4. Getting beyond How The Factual Feminist Is Wrong about the Prevalence of Rape5. Why I Don’t Defend the Sex-versus-Gender Distinction6. Does Doing Difference Deny Dominance?NotesReferencesIndex