The changing family and women’s issues in the 1990s

Abstract

Since the early 1800s when the work place and the home first experienced a clear-cut separation, causing women and men to be perceived as workers and nonworkers, no other period in American history has altered women’s and families’ role so radically as the recent three decades. There is a structural and spiritual difference between the family of the 1950s and that of the 1980s and 1990s. The American family today ranges from the conventional Ozzie and Harriet type to the single parent, working couple, lesbian or gay, blended, unconnected, teen parent or grandparent-led, and homeless family. The attendant challenges for caregivers and providers, particularly women, vary immensely, as was clearly indicated by a group of testifiers at a public forum convened by a women’s body in San Mateo County, California. Drawing from those testimonies, this article examines the various configurations of the American family and assesses the public policy implications of the impact on women of the changing American family. The principal inference is that as the changing family trend gathers further momentum in the 1990s, it will be imperative for policy makers and the American socioeconomy to respond creatively and constructively to the new American family and to women’s changing role in the family and economy.