Law Commons^™

Father-Absence, Social Equality, And Social Progress, Helen M. Alvare

helen m alvare

Abstract: Father-Absence, Social Equality and Social Progress

The future of the male half of the U.S. population is less certain than it once was. News outlets now regularly report that women outnumber men in college and in the workforce. These reports rightly grab attention. Men’s growing absence from the lives of their own biological children, however, is too little explored. The 2007 Census update reported that of the nineteen million children living in lone-parent households, sixteen and one-half million lived with their mothers alone. Fewer than 30 percent of these fathers have even weekly contact with their children. Poor and …

Beyond The Sex- Ed Wars: Addressing Disadvantaged Single Mothers’ Search For Community, Helen M. Alvare

helen m alvare

Abstract: Beyond the Sex-Ed Wars

By Helen M. Alvaré

There is bi-partisan alarm over recent reports that our nation’s nonmarital birth rate has reached nearly 40%. Policymakers worry not only about fiscal effects, but also about the welfare of children reared in single-parent households and the fact that marriage and childbearing patterns are beginning to diverge sharply on the basis of race and socioeconomic status. Yet there is little new in recent proposals to address the phenomenon. Supporters of abstinence-only sex education, and of “comprehensive” sex-education, continue to trade accusations. Federal and state agencies promise to work harder but intend …

Beyond The Sex- Ed Wars: Addressing Disadvantaged Single Women’S Search For Community, Helen M. Alvare

helen m alvare

Abstract: Beyond the Sex-Ed Wars

By Helen M. Alvaré

There is bi-partisan alarm over recent reports that our nation’s nonmarital birth rate has reached nearly 40%. Policymakers worry not only about fiscal effects, but also about the welfare of children reared in single-parent households and the fact that marriage and childbearing patterns are beginning to diverge sharply on the basis of race and socioeconomic status. Yet there is little new in recent proposals to address the phenomenon. Supporters of abstinence-only sex education, and of “comprehensive” sex-education, continue to trade accusations. Federal and state agencies promise to work harder but intend …