Family Sociology

Covering diversity and equality, globalization, human rights, modern urban living and the role of work and institutions, The Sociology Book looks at the big questions of how we cooperate: What is society? What makes it tick? Why do we interact in the way that we do with our friends, co-workers, and rivals?

A century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female college graduates than ever before, and more women want to have a career and family, yet challenges persist at work and at home. This book traces how generations of women have responded to the problem of balancing career and family as the twentieth century experienced a sea change in gender equality, revealing why true equity for dual career couples remains frustratingly out of reach.

Capitalist ideology wants us to believe that there is an optimal way to live. "Making connections" means networking for work. Our emotional needs are to be fulfilled by a single romantic partner, and self-care equates to taking personal responsibility for our suffering. We must be productive and heteronormative; we must have babies and buy a house. But the kicker is most people cannot and do not want to achieve all or any of these life goals. Instead, we are left feeling atomized, exhausted, and disempowered. Radical Intimacy shows that it doesn't need to be this way.

Overwhelmed is a map of the stresses that have ripped our leisure to shreds, and a look at how to put the pieces back together. Schulte speaks to neuroscientists, sociologists, and hundreds of working parents to tease out the factors contributing to our collective sense of being overwhelmed, seeking insights, answers, and inspiration.

The Subjection of Women is an 1869 essay by the English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill, based on ideas he developed jointly with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill. At the time of its publication, the essay's argument for equality between the sexes was an affront to conventional norms regarding the status of men and women. Mill contended that the emancipation and education of women would have positive benefits for all people; the companionship of equally educated persons would result in the greater intellectual development of all.

Eigentlich hatte Didier Eribon sich vorgenommen, ab jetzt regelmäßig nach Fismes zu fahren. Doch seine Mutter stirbt wenige Wochen nach ihrem Umzug in ein Pflegeheim in dem kleinen Ort in der Champagne. Wie in Rückkehr nach Reims wird dieser Einschnitt zum Ausgangspunkt für eine Reise in die Vergangenheit. Eribon rekonstruiert die von Knappheit und Zwängen bestimmte Biografie einer Frau, die an einen brutalen Ehemann gekettet blieb und sich sogar in ihren Träumen bescheiden musste. "Meine Mutter", hält er fest, "war ihr ganzes Leben lang unglücklich."

The Recovery of Family Life defends marriage and family life while exposing the limits and blind spots in these powerful revolutionary ideologies. After suggesting a general framework within which to understand the ends and means of family policy, Scott Yenor explores what a liberal society should seek to accomplish in marriage and family policy.

The kinds of families we see today are different than they were even a decade ago, some fantastically so, as paths to parenthood have been rejiggered by technology, activism, and law. In Modern Families, Joshua Gamson brings us extraordinary family creation tales - his own included - that illuminate this changing world of contemporary kinship. We meet a child with two mothers, made with one mother's egg and the sperm of a man none of them has ever met and carried by the other mother.

What happened when Jane Austen’s heroines and heroes were finally wed? Marriage is at the center of Jane Austen’s novels. The pursuit of husbands and wives, advantageous matches, and, of course, love itself, motivate her characters and continue to fascinate people today. But what were love and marriage like in reality for ladies and gentlemen in Regency England? Rory Muir uncovers the excitements and disappointments of courtship and the pains and pleasures of marriage, drawing on fascinating first-hand accounts as well as novels of the period.

When privileged parents say that they "want what's best" for their child, they don't consciously add "and not for other children." Yet the practical effect of parents with privilege relentlessly pursuing their own child's interests is that other children are left behind. Author Sarah W. Jaffe interviewed dozens of parents who are resisting the cultural pressures to seek "the best" for only their kids while navigating some of the major decisions that parents make—about childcare, schools, how they use their time and money, and the legacy they hope to leave their kids. 

Low-wage workers make up the largest group of employed parents in the United States, yet scant attention has been given to their experiences as new mothers and fathers. Work Matters brings the unique stories of these diverse individuals to light. Drawing on years of research and more than fifteen hundred family interviews, Maureen Perry-Jenkins describes how new parents cope with the demands of infant care while holding down low-wage, full-time jobs, and she considers how managing all of these responsibilities have long-term implications for child development.

12歳までは子ども脳、15歳からはおとな脳。13歳から15歳の間の3年間は、脳の移行期に当たる。思春期の脳は不安定で制御不能のポンコツ装置。

Das Beziehungsglück liegt in Frauenhand. Denn die Damen der Schöpfung sind es, die Liebesbeziehungen bewusst gestalten wollen. Was wäre also, wenn Frauen um das Geheimnis dauerhaft harmonischer Partnerschaften wüssten? Wenn sie das Naturgesetz glücklicher Paarbeziehungen kennen und damit nicht länger Opfer der Unterschiede zwischen Mann und Frau sein würden? Dann wäre alles möglich, dann könnten sie aktiven Einfluss auf ihre Persönlichkeit, ihre Beziehungen und damit auf ihr gesamtes Lebensglück nehmen!

"Alle, wirklich alle Frauen können betroffen sein. Und alle, wirklich alle Männer können Täter sein." Die Rechtsanwältin Christina Clemm zeigt, wie allgegenwärtig die Gewalt gegen Frauen ist, und was wir verändern müssen - politisch wie privat. Lisa M. trifft Mirko im Studium. Sie verlieben sich, streiten kaum. Dann wird sie schwanger, sie ziehen zu seiner Mutter, haben bald drei Kinder. Eine Familie wie im Bilderbuch, wäre da nicht seine Wut. Anfangs muss Lisa die Hämatome noch verstecken, mit der Zeit wird er zielsicherer. Sie versucht zu fliehen, doch vergeblich.

The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. At kitchen tables all across the country, parents agonize over whether to burden their children with loans or to sacrifice their own financial security by taking out a second mortgage or draining their retirement savings. Indebted takes listeners into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life.

Every year, more than 3.5 million children under age 15 require medical treatment for sports injuries, nearly half of which are the result of simple overuse. Journalist Mark Hyman investigates the evolution of youth sports from mere games to full-on quests to turn children into tomorrow's superstar athletes by pushing them beyond physical and emotional limits. Opening up a crucial discussion about the perils of youth-sports culture today, Hyman offers the solutions and answers we need.

Conventional wisdom holds that same-sex marriage is a purely modern innovation, a concept born of an overtly modern lifestyle that was unheard of in 19th-century America. But as Rachel Hope Cleves demonstrates in this eye-opening book, same-sex marriage is hardly new. Born in 1777, Charity Bryant was raised in Massachusetts. A brilliant and strong-willed woman with a clear attraction for her own sex, Charity found herself banished from her family home at age 20.

Army Wives goes beyond the sound bites and photo ops of military life to bring listeners into the hearts and homes of today's military wives. Biank tells the story of four typical Army wives who, in a flash, find themselves in extraordinary circumstances that ultimately force them to redefine who they are as women and wives.

Genitori in coppia, coniugata e di fatto, più di due genitori, un figlio ad ogni costo, genitori omosessuali: diversi modi di essere madri e padri e una molteplicità di forme di famiglia.

Stephen Heywood was 29 years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight, his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine.