Academic

Cahn & Carbone on Red Families v. Blue Families

By Kim Krawiec

Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture, by Naomi Cahn (GW, law) and June Carbone (UMKC, law) is now available from Oxford University Press.  From the OUP product description:

Red Families v. Blue Families identifies a new family model geared for the post-industrial economy. Rooted in the urban middle class, the coasts and the "blue states" in the last three presidential elections, the Blue Family Paradigm emphasizes the importance of women's as well as men's workforce participation, egalitarian gender roles, and the delay of family formation until both parents are emotionally and financially ready. By contrast, the Red Family Paradigm--associated with the Bible Belt, the mountain west, and rural America--rejects these new family norms, viewing the change in moral and sexual values as a crisis. In this world, the prospect of teen childbirth is the necessary deterrent to premarital sex, marriage is a sacred undertaking between a man and a woman, and divorce is society's greatest moral challenge. Yet, the changing economy is rapidly eliminating the stable, blue collar jobs that have historically supported young families, and early marriage and childbearing derail the education needed to prosper. The result is that the areas of the country most committed to traditional values have the highest divorce and teen pregnancy rates, fueling greater calls to reinstill traditional values.

Featuring the groundbreaking research first hailed in The New Yorker, this penetrating book will transform our understanding of contemporary American culture and law. The authors show how the Red-Blue divide goes much deeper than this value system conflict--the Red States have increasingly said "no" to Blue State legal norms, and, as a result, family law has been rent in two. The authors close with a consideration of where these different family systems still overlap, and suggest solutions that permit rebuilding support for both types of families in changing economic circumstances.

Congrats to Naomi and June! 

(Naomi is also the author of Test Tube Families:  Why the Fertility Market Needs Legal Regulation ? NYU Press, and both Cahn and Carbone are contributors to Baby Markets: Money and the New Politics of Creating Families)

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).