Family and Juvenile Law, Co-Sponsored by Children and the Law, Employee Benefits, Law and the Social Sciences, Minority Groups, Poverty Law, Socio-Economics, and Women in Legal Education

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Section on Family and Juvenile Law, Co-Sponsored by Children and the Law, Employee Benefits, Law and the Social Sciences, Minority Groups, Poverty Law, Socio-Economics, and Women in Legal Education
Marina Salon F, South Tower/Level 3, San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina

The Growing Disconnect Among Work, Family, and Marriage

(Program to be published in Washington & Lee University Journal of Civil Rights & Social Justice)

This panel will examine why it is hard for women and men across the socio-demographic spectrum to combine work, marriage, and family. This difficulty plays out differently for different people. For example, highly educated men and women often face difficulties combining work, family and marriage; hence the opt-out revolution, in which professional women are leaving the workplace in droves, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently, to focus on their families. Significant numbers of professional men and women have never been married or are divorced or separated. Many also have no children living with them. The split between work and family are equally pronounced for lower income persons. Less educated women often combine work and children, but do not marry or have long-term stable relationships on which they can draw. Many low income men are not marrying, although fathering children, and struggle to find work. This panel will examine these phenomena in detail. Understanding the disconnect among marriage, family, and work for individuals across the socio-demographic spectrum is important to understanding the limits of what family law can and cannot do in this regard.

Business Meeting at Program Conclusion.