New Family Values

Liberty, Equality, Diversity

By (author) Karen Struening

Publication date:

02 July 2002

Length of book:

240 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742512306

How many different kinds of families are there? New Family Values provides a critical analysis of scholars and authors who argue that law and policy should be used to foster one model of the family—the intact, two-parent, heterosexual family. Karen Struening argues that this position does not adequately address the problem it supposedly solves—family dissolution—and unnecessarily constrains personal liberty. Healthy families may be necessary for civic unity and individual stability, but there can be many different kinds of families.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Debating Family Values
Chapter 3 Personal Liberty and the Right of Privacy
Chapter 4 What Are Families For? An Argument for Diversity in Family Forms
Chapter 5 Fatherless Families and the Reassertion of the Gender-Structured Family
Chapter 6 Do Welfare Recipients Have a Right of Privacy? A Public-Private Paradox
Chapter 7 Feminist Family Policies: A Comparison of Egalitarian and Caregiver Models
Chapter 8 Conclusion

New Family Values is an extraordinarily good book. Struening uses an impressive array of facts to convincingly argue against 'family communitarians' like Elshtain and Galston, and in favor of supporting diversity in family forms. Having just completed a survey of the relevant literature, I know that there is really nothing out there like it.