Changes in Family Structure

Here to Stay: American Families in the Twentieth Century, by Mary Jo Bane. New York: Basic Books. 195 pp.

Conservatives panic at the thought of the demise of the American family; utopians call for its abolition. Both seem to agree that equality for women is not compatible with family life. Countering such conceits, Mary Jo Bane, a feminist, presents us with a persuasive argument that, as in the past, changes in family structure do not threaten the family as an institution. She...