Textual comparison and analysis across literature

¶ … Women and Men's Roles and Choices Have Changed

To Popenoe (1993), differnce in sex roles and factor of women entering the market place on a par with men has resulted in decline of the American family. Popenoe attributes this mainly to the way men and women's roles have changed and to the fact that women are more out of the house then used to and choosing to either delay their birth activities, or not to give birth at all due to preference of a career. To Popenoe (1993), the absence of mother from the home is detrimental to the child's welfare. With women and men entering marriage more as a business contract in the evaluation of what each can gain from the partnership, divorce has become more rampant, and so too has marriage out of wedlock resulting in the instability and dissolution of the comfort and strength of the two-parent family home.

Budin and England's (2001) essay is more sympathetic and may provide further reason into the decline of childbirth and the surge of women into the workforce. Times have become more expensive, and mothers having children earn exponentially lower pay with each child that they have. On top of this, mothers are also discriminated against by employers, lose valuable work experience, are less productive at work, and, oftentimes, unable to enter the work of their choice. Men, on the other hand, have none of these discriminatory experiences. Childless marriage has none of these penalties. It is the addition of children that, divorce of not, introduces these penalties and multiplies with each additional child. No wonder, America's declining child population and entrance in marriage is seen.

Goldin, in 2004, is less static in his perspective and sees the changing roles on a continuum as hinging on socio-historical era. The first cohort in 1900-1920 selected either college or family. The second, 1920-1945, chose job then family. The third, 1946-mid 1960s, had family then job. The fourth cohort, 1960s-1980 was career than family, whilst the fifth, continuing into our present time, has career and family. In this way, Goldin is more optimistic about America's future than Popenoe and more optimistic about social treatment of women as dependent on motherhood than Budig and England are. Writing at a later stage than they, he possesses a more encompassing, transcendental perspective and with that sees American family as a changing phenomenon over time.

Outcomes that are used to shed light on these changes

Popenoe (1993) has grave concerns that the family has whittled down to a barely functional unit that will, in turn, produce malfunctioning children and, consequently, a malfunctioning society.

Popenoe's evidence to this extent is the significant increase in divorce since the1960s and the significant slump of childbirth since that same year. These circumstances are due to the changing sex roles, where woman has entered the marketplace and is loath to risk her career. Changes (according to Popenoe) are also due to the fact that both individuals have ceased to become parents in the familiar sense and instead focus on themselves and their careers. Their children suffer as a result, and the nuclear family, as was, becomes non-existent.

Budin and England (2001), however, attribute decline of population and interest in marriage to penalty that women bear with each and every children and the increasingly difficulty in this world of ours to make ends meet. For women this is aggravated by discrimination and difficulty in entering the work of their choice, and this difficulty only comes about with introduction of children. The authors have arrived at this conclusion by careful study of the sociological trends -- and by their own research study. Empirical observations show clearly the disparity in work treatment and work advantages between male and women and that these disadvantages for women are augmented by motherhood.