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Distinguishing Households From Families, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Distinguishing Households From Families, Katharine B. Silbaugh
Faculty Scholarship
The study of the relationship between all families, whether marital or non-marital, and households, is underdeveloped, despite extensive study of the mismatch between family law, which is still focused on marriage and parenthood, and family practices. Often, in an effort to update the discourse, discussions of non-marital families seem to deploy households or living arrangements as a substitute classification in the place of the old marital family. This Article argues that we need to resist the tendency to substitute the idea of “household” when the boundaries of legal family fail us, because households are not necessarily familial, and because core …
The Domain Of Civic Virtue In A Good Society: Families, Schools, And Sex Equality, Linda C. Mcclain
The Domain Of Civic Virtue In A Good Society: Families, Schools, And Sex Equality, Linda C. Mcclain
Faculty Scholarship
The general topic for this panel's discussion, "The Constitution of Civic Virtue for a Good Society," brings to mind an impossibly large set of fundamental questions. For example, what role does civic virtue play in sustaining our constitutional order and what role, if any, should government play in inculcating civic virtue and, thus, fostering self-government? What role do the institutions of civil society-a realm between the individual and the state, including the family and religious, civic, and other voluntary associations-play? What, exactly, is the content of civic virtue and what textual sources and institutional actors determine it? If historical accounts …
The Place Of Marriage In Democracy's Formative Project, Linda C. Mcclain
The Place Of Marriage In Democracy's Formative Project, Linda C. Mcclain
Faculty Scholarship
Shoring up the institution of marriage is a theme in the "mar riage movement" and in recent legislative debates over welfare reform and family policy. One common premise is that strength ening marriage and renewing a "marriage culture" is vital to national health and that the best way for government, at all lev els, to strengthen and support families and to foster the well being of children is to promote and support marriage (Marriage Movement; Bush, 2002) Calls to renew civil society identify marital, two-parent families as foremost among the seedbeds of civic virtue upon which our Nation depends for …
Care As A Public Value: Linking Responsibility, Resources, And Republicanism, Linda C. Mcclain
Care As A Public Value: Linking Responsibility, Resources, And Republicanism, Linda C. Mcclain
Faculty Scholarship
I begin this Article with the preceding two statements concerning care for children because they focus on the relationship between resources and responsibility and capture two conflicting approaches to that relationship. The first statement resists a definition of "responsibility" that leaves out the work of social reproduction, that is, of caring for children and preparing them to take their place as responsible, self-governing members of society. Highlighting the lack of resources that poor parents face when tackling the work of social reproduction, the statement also suggests common ground among parents across class lines as to the importance of caring for …
Another Word On Child Care, Alan L. Feld
Another Word On Child Care, Alan L. Feld
Faculty Scholarship
Professors Schaffer and Berman have written a stimulating brief in support of a deduction for child care expenses in computing federal taxable income. But, in addition, by the range of considerations which their article takes into account, it illustrates the difficulty in opting for deductibility or nondeductibility on the basis of a rational consideration of income tax policies. The difficulty derives primarily from the fact that child care expenditures partake of both a personal (consumption) element and a business (income earning) element.1 To the extent it represents the latter, it does not represent personal income appropriately subject to tax; …
Deductibility Of Expenses For Child Care And Household Services: New Section 214, Alan L. Feld
Deductibility Of Expenses For Child Care And Household Services: New Section 214, Alan L. Feld
Faculty Scholarship
It is increasingly common to find families composed of husband, wife and young children, where both husband and wife are gainfully employed. For some, this pattern is regarded as preferable to the older "ideal" family, where the husband was the sole breadwinner and the wife cared for the children, performed household chores and perhaps engaged in social or charitable activities. Where both spouses are gainfully employed, it is often necessary for the family to employ household help to care for the children and do the housework. These expenditures are "necessary" to the gainful employment of both spouses in the sense …