Nicholas H. Wolfinger – författare

In 1980, single mother families were five times more likely than two-parent families to be poor. Forty years later, single-mother families are still five times more likely to be poor. How can this be given the vast increases in education and employment achieved by American women over this period? In Thanks for Nothing, Nicholas H. Wolfinger and Matthew McKeever explore the contradictions that lie at the heart of single motherhood. Drawing on forty years of data from two large national surveys, they find that the mystery of single mothers' economic stagnation can be explained by changes in the kind of women most likely to become single mothers. In 1980, most single mothers were divorced women; forty years later, the majority are mothers who gave birth out of wedlock. On paper, divorced women look a lot like their married contemporaries, but with one income instead of two. Never-married mothers are a completely different population--they have less education, work less, and receive lower economic returns on their educational credentials when they do work. They're also far more likely to have grown up in underprivileged families. Ultimately, Wolfinger and McKeever find that some single mothers are doing better even as others have fallen through the cracks. Providing an in-depth look into the economics of single motherhood, Thanks for Nothing offers the most detailed statistical portrait of single mothers to date and, importantly, provides concrete suggestions for how policymakers should respond to persisting inequalities among mothers.

One of the primary concerns with “fragile” families (one parent – usually mother) is economic: Poverty rates for single mothers are several times that of two-parent families.

Growing up in a divorced family leads to a variety of difficulties for adult offspring in their own partnerships. One of the best known and most powerful is the divorce cycle, the transmission of divorce from one generation to the next. This book examines how the divorce cycle has transformed family life in contemporary America by drawing on two national data sets. Compared to people from intact families, the children of divorce are more likely to marry as teenagers, but less likely to wed overall, more likely to marry people from divorced families, more likely to dissolve second and third marriages, and less likely to marry their live-in partners. Yet some of the adverse consequences of parental divorce have abated even as divorce itself proliferated and became more socially accepted. Taken together, these findings show how parental divorce is a strong force in people's lives and society as a whole.

Growing up in a divorced family leads to a variety of difficulties for adult offspring in their own partnerships. One of the best known and most powerful is the divorce cycle, the transmission of divorce from one generation to the next. This book examines how the divorce cycle has transformed family life in contemporary America by drawing on two national data sets. Compared to people from intact families, the children of divorce are more likely to marry as teenagers, but less likely to wed overall, more likely to marry people from divorced families, more likely to dissolve second and third marriages, and less likely to marry their live-in partners. Yet some of the adverse consequences of parental divorce have abated even as divorce itself proliferated and became more socially accepted. Taken together, these findings show how parental divorce is a strong force in people's lives and society as a whole.

The new generation of scholars differs in many ways from its predecessor of just a few decades ago. Academia once consisted largely of men in traditional single-earner families. Today, men and women fill the doctoral student ranks in nearly equal numbers and most will experience both the benefits and challenges of living in dual-income households. This generation also has new expectations and values, notably the desire for flexibility and balance between careers and other life goals. However, changes to the structure and culture of academia have not kept pace with young scholars’ desires for work-family balance. Do Babies Matter? is the first comprehensive examination of the relationship between family formation and the academic careers of men and women. The book begins with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, moves on to early and mid-career years, and ends with retirement. Individual chapters examine graduate school, how recent PhD recipients get into the academic game, the tenure process, and life after tenure. The authors explore the family sacrifices women often have to make to get ahead in academia and consider how gender and family interact to affect promotion to full professor, salaries, and retirement. Concrete strategies are suggested for transforming the university into a family-friendly environment at every career stage.The book draws on over a decade of research using unprecedented data resources, including the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, a nationally representative panel survey of PhDs in America, and multiple surveys of faculty and graduate students at the ten-campus University of California system..

Professors Speak Out showcases the powerful stories of eighteen university professors from various fields and backgrounds, all of whom have been investigated by their academic institutions. These shocking narratives reflect the rising frequency and increasing absurdity of campus investigations, which often result from the expression of disfavored opinions that should be protected by inalienable free speech rights and longstanding principles of academic freedom. As the reader will learn, the investigation itself is often the punishment, though the process can inflict serious additional sanctions. Some contributors lost their jobs, while others have faced a variety of other unwarranted consequences. By providing a badly needed platform for persecuted voices in contemporary academia, this unique volume exposes the grave injustice that menaces faculty members today and calls into serious question the reprehensible bureaucratic processes that allow for such investigations. Taken together, the eighteen contributors show how a new campus McCarthyism is brutally assaulting academic freedom.

More Professors Speak Out is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2025 anthology Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations, which gave voice to faculty members investigated by their institutions. This new volume’s stories reveal how threats to academic freedom have evolved and diversified. While many of the first book’s narratives centered on investigations triggered by allegations of racial insensitivity during the post-George Floyd reckoning, these new accounts expose a different landscape: faculty targeted by the expanding reach of state power, as state legislatures impose sweeping new laws governing what can be taught and researched at public universities. The collection also features Canadian academics who have clashed with the identitarian orthodoxies of the Justin Trudeau era. Together, these stories demonstrate that the assault on academic freedom is not the exclusive province of the political left or right—it comes from all directions. Finally, this new volume reaffirms a truism of the first book: in higher education, the process – the investigation alone – is often the punishment.