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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Family Formation Among Women In The U.S. Military: Evidence From The Nlsy, Jennifer H. Lundquist, Herbert Smith
Family Formation Among Women In The U.S. Military: Evidence From The Nlsy, Jennifer H. Lundquist, Herbert Smith
Dr. Jennifer H. Lundquist
Although female employment is associated with lower levels of completed fertility in the civilian world, we find family formation rates among U.S. military women to be comparatively high. We compare enlisted women with civilian women using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3,547), the only data set to measure simultaneously the nuptiality and fertility of both populations. Using propensity score matching, we show that the fertility effect derives primarily from early marriage in the military, a surprisingly ‘‘family-friendly’’ institution. This shows that specific organizational and economic incentives in a working environment may offset the more widespread contemporary social …
When Race Makes No Difference: Marriage And The Military, Jennifer H. Lundquist
When Race Makes No Difference: Marriage And The Military, Jennifer H. Lundquist
Dr. Jennifer H. Lundquist
While “retreat from marriage” rates have been on the rise for all Americans, there has been an increasing divergence in family patterns between blacks and whites, with the former experiencing markedly higher divorce, nonmarital childbearing and never-marrying rates. Explanations generally focus on theories ranging from economic class stratification to normative differences. I examine racial marriage trends when removed from society and placed in a structural context that minimizes racial and economic stratification. I compare nuptial patterns within the military, a total institution in the Goffmanian sense, which serves as a natural control for the arguments presented in the literature on …