Homeward Bound shows that as family structure becomes more complex, so too does elder care, and existing institutions and legal approaches are not prepared to handle those complexities. As 79 million American Baby Boomers approach old age, their diverse family structures mean the burden of care will fall on a different cast of family members than in the past. Our current approaches are based on an outdated caregiving model that presumes life-long connection between the parents and offspring, with the existence of high internal norm cohesion among family members providing a valuable safety net for caregiving. Single parent and remarried parent-led families are far more complicated, fragile, and point to the need for increased formal support from the religious, medical, legal, and public policy communities. We base our analysis on in-depth, qualitative interviews with surviving grown children and stepchildren whose mother, father, stepparent, or ex-stepparent died. Their stories illustrate the profound ways that the caregiving, mourning, and inheritance process has changed in ways not adequately reflected in formal legal, medical, and religious tools. The solutions center on awareness and preparation: providing more support for individual planning for incapacity and death and, even more importantly, creating legal, political, and social planning for the "graying of America" at a time of increasingly complex familial ties.

Homeward Bound: Modern Families, Elder Care, and Loss

Politics & Social Sciences

Cahn, Naomi

Ziettlow, Amy

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

There was a time when the phrase "American family" conjured up a single, specific image: a breadwinner dad, a homemaker mom, and their 2.5 kids living comfortable lives in a middle-class suburb. Today, that image has been shattered, due in part to skyrocketing divorce rates, single parenthood, and increased out-of-wedlock births. But whether it is conservatives bewailing the wages of moral decline and women's liberation, or progressives celebrating the result of women's greater freedom and changing sexual mores, most Americans fail to identify the root factor driving the changes: economic inequality that is remaking the American family along class lines. In Marriage Markets, June Carbone and Naomi Cahn examine how macroeconomic forces are transforming our most intimate and important spheres, and how working class and lower income families have paid the highest price. Just like health, education, and seemingly every other advantage in life, a stable two-parent home has become a luxury that only the well-off can afford. The best educated and most prosperous have the most stable families, while working class families have seen the greatest increase in relationship instability. Why is this so? The book provides the answer: greater economic inequality has profoundly changed marriage markets, the way men and women match up when they search for a life partner. It has produced a larger group of high-income men than women; written off the men at the bottom because of chronic unemployment, incarceration, and substance abuse; and left a larger group of women with a smaller group of comparable men in the middle. The failure to see marriage as a market affected by supply and demand has obscured any meaningful analysis of the way that societal changes influence culture. Only policies that redress the balance between men and women through greater access to education, stable employment, and opportunities for social mobility can produce a culture that encourages commitment and investment in family life. A rigorous and enlightening account of why American families have changed so much in recent decades, Marriage Markets cuts through the ideological and moralistic rhetoric that drives our current debate. It offers critically needed solutions for a problem that will haunt America for generations to come.

Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking the American Family

Carbone, June

Parenting & Relationships

Red Families v. Blue Families identifies a new family model geared for the post-industrial economy. Rooted in the urban middle class, the coasts and the "blue states" in the last three presidential elections, the Blue Family Paradigm emphasizes the importance of women's as well as men's workforce participation, egalitarian gender roles, and the delay of family formation until both parents are emotionally and financially ready. By contrast, the Red Family Paradigm--associated with the Bible Belt, the mountain west, and rural America--rejects these new family norms, viewing the change in moral and sexual values as a crisis. In this world, the prospect of teen childbirth is the necessary deterrent to premarital sex, marriage is a sacred undertaking between a man and a woman, and divorce is society's greatest moral challenge. Yet, the changing economy is rapidly eliminating the stable, blue collar jobs that have historically supported young families, and early marriage and childbearing derail the education needed to prosper. The result is that the areas of the country most committed to traditional values have the highest divorce and teen pregnancy rates, fueling greater calls to reinstill traditional values. Featuring the groundbreaking research first hailed in The New Yorker, this penetrating book will transform our understanding of contemporary American culture and law. The authors show how the Red-Blue divide goes much deeper than this value system conflict--the Red States have increasingly said "no" to Blue State legal norms, and, as a result, family law has been rent in two. The authors close with a consideration of where these different family systems still overlap, and suggest solutions that permit rebuilding support for both types of families in changing economic circumstances. Incorporating results from the 2008 election, Red Families v. Blue Families will reshape the debate surrounding the culture wars and the emergence of red and blue America.

Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture

On the Frontlines: Gender, War, and the Post-Conflict Process

Gender oppression has been a feature of war and conflict throughout human history, yet until fairly recently, little attention was devoted to addressing the consequences of violence and discrimination experienced by women in post-conflict states. Thankfully, that is changing. Today, in a variety of post-conflict settings--the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Colombia, Northern Ireland --international advocates for women's rights have focused bringing issues of sexual violence, discrimination and exclusion into peace-making processes. In On the Frontlines, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Dina Francesca Haynes, and Naomi Cahn consider such policies in a range of cases and assess the extent to which they have had success in improving women's lives. They argue that there has been too little success, and that this is in part a product of a focus on schematic policies like straightforward political incorporation rather than a broader and deeper attempt to alter the cultures and societies that are at the root of much of the violence and exclusions experienced by women. They contend that this broader approach would not just benefit women, however. Gender mainstreaming and increased gender equality has a direct correlation with state stability and functions to preclude further conflict. If we are to have any success in stabilizing failing states, gender needs to move to fore of our efforts. With this in mind, they examine the efforts of transnational organizations, states and civil society in multiple jurisdictions to place gender at the forefront of all post-conflict processes. They offer concrete analysis and practical solutions to ensuring gender centrality in all aspects of peace making and peace enforcement.

Ní Aoláin, Fionnuala

Haynes, Dina Francesca

Red Families v. Blue Families identifies a new family model geared for the post-industrial economy. Rooted in the urban middle class, the coasts and the "blue states" in the last three presidential elections, the Blue Family Paradigm emphasizes the importance of women's as well as men's workforce participation, egalitarian gender roles, and the delay of family formation until both parents are emotionally and financially ready. By contrast, the Red Family Paradigm-associated with the Bible Belt, the mountain west, and rural America-rejects these new family norms, viewing the change in moral and sexual values as a crisis. In this world, the prospect of teen childbirth is the necessary deterrent to premarital sex, marriage is a sacred undertaking between a man and a woman, and divorce is society's greatest moral challenge. Yet, the changing economy is rapidly eliminating the stable, blue collar jobs that have historically supported young families, and early marriage and childbearing derail the education needed to prosper. The result is that the areas of the country most committed to traditional values have the highest divorce and teen pregnancy rates, fueling greater calls to reinstill traditional values. Featuring the groundbreaking research first hailed in The New Yorker, this penetrating book will transform our understanding of contemporary American culture and law. The authors show how the Red-Blue divide goes much deeper than this value system conflict-the Red States have increasingly said "no" to Blue State legal norms, and, as a result, family law has been rent in two. The authors close with a consideration of where these different family systems still overlap, and suggest solutions that permit rebuilding support for both types of families in changing economic circumstances.

Business & Money

Economics

This new edition captures the rapid changes to the American family and the corresponding evolution of legal doctrine. It emphasizes that contemporary families take a variety of forms, including marital and nonmarital relationships, and that constitutional considerations play an increasingly important role in family law. This third edition includes updated coverage of same-sex marriage and relationships; a new section on the Hague Convention; extensive coverage of debt and the 2005 Bankruptcy Act; detailed discussion of new reproductive technologies; and major revisions to the chapters on professional ethics and child support. New cases have been introduced where needed, and the notes following each lead case and article have been thoroughly updated.

Contemporary Family Law (American Casebook Series)

Abrams, Douglas

Meyer, David

Ross, Catherine

Family Law

West Academic Publishing

When a woman in the United States becomes pregnant or tries to become pregnant, she enters a world of information, technology, and expertise. Suddenly her body becomes public in a new way: medicine, law, and popular culture all offer her sometimes contradictory "expert" advice. Confinements explores the advice offered to pregnant and infertile women by examining assumptions about femininity, class, and the reproductive body that structure the language of expertise. Even advice books written from a specifically countercultural or feminist point of view often attempt to police the way women think about their bodies.
Confinements argues that our perceptions about both pregnancy and infertility are limited by our culture's battles over the meaning of choice and control, arguments over what is natural or unnatural, and the troubled relationship between reproduction and the domestic sphere. The book breaks new ground in its analysis of gender, health, and reproduction.

Confinements: Fertility and Infertility in Contemporary Culture

Literature & Fiction

Michie, Helena

History & Criticism

Rutgers University Press

The first comprehensive book that offers invaluable step-by-step advice for families with donor-conceived children. Wendy Kramer, founder and director of the Donor Sibling Registry, and Naomi Cahn, family and reproductive law professor, have compiled a comprehensive and thorough guide for the growing community of families with donor-conceived children. Kramer and Cahn believe that all donor-conceived children’s desire to know their genetic family must be honored, and in Finding Our Families, they offer advice on how to foster healthy relationships within immediate families and their larger donor family networks based on openness and acceptance. With honesty and compassion, the authors offer thoughtful strategies and inspirational stories to help parents answer their own, and their children’s, questions and concerns that will surely arise, including: <ul>
<li>How to support your children’s curiosity and desire to know about their ancestry and genetic and medical background.</li>
<li>How to help children integrate their birth story into a healthy self-image.</li>
<li>How to help your children search for their donor or half siblings if and when they express interest in doing so.</li>
</ul>
Finding Our Families opens up the lives of donor-conceived people who may be coping with uncertainty, thriving despite it, and finding novel ways to connect in this uncharted territory as they navigate the challenges and rewards of the world of donor conception.

Finding Our Families: A First-of-Its-Kind Book for Donor-Conceived People and Their Families

Kramer, Wendy

Adoption

Penguin Publishing Group

This popular family law casebook engages students with the significant changes to the American family and the corresponding evolution of family law doctrine and policy. In the fifth edition, all 17 chapters are fully updated to reflect the latest family law developments, including ones that have occurred since Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). The book emphasizes that contemporary families take a variety of forms, including marital and nonmarital adult relationships, and that constitutional considerations play an increasingly important role in family law. The fifth edition preserves and builds on the approach of the earlier editions: presenting core substantive family law doctrine while also exploring ongoing and emerging policy debates and discussing the importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations with experts in fields such as psychology and accounting. A limited number of new cases replace older ones in most chapters, and the introductions to and notes and questions following each lead case, statute, or article have been thoroughly updated. In addition, problems for discussion in each chapter―including new and updated problems for this edition―enable students to apply doctrine in real-life settings that lawyers face. Contemporary Family Law also introduces the myriad issues central to family law practice and to a lawyer’s ethical and professional responsibilities. The book includes material on shifting paradigms in family law practice and the roles of family lawyers, and devotes separate chapters to professional ethics, alternative dispute resolution, and private ordering. The book addresses jurisdictional issues in one integrated chapter. In addition to providing a grounding in the historical and contemporary regulation of marriage, the book includes material throughout on the legal treatment of nonmarital couples and their children. The book also explores the diverse pathways to legal parentage and their impact on parent-child and co-parent relationships. Moreover, because child custody arrangements lead to some of the most acrimonious family disputes, this casebook devotes two chapters to custody: the first treats the initial custody decision, and the second explores continuing litigation concerning visitation, custody, and key childrearing decisions after the initial disposition, including disputes involving third parties such as cohabitants and grandparents. Both custody chapters include disputes involving nonmarital children. The fifth edition includes new and expanded material throughout, such as: 
<ul>
<li>Issues arising after Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court’s decision on the fundamental right of same-sex couples to marry and to have every state recognize their marriage, and the decision’s ramifications throughout family law, including rules for entering marriage, parentage, domestic partnerships, civil unions, and other legal statuses.</li>
<li>Changes in marriage regulation, including state bigamy and legal challenges to them and “child marriage," including legislative efforts to raise the minimum age of marriage, with examples of new legislation.</li>
<li>Developments involving nonmarital couples, including Blumenthal v. Brewer’s affirmation of Illinois’s policy against allowing economic remedies for nonmarital couples.</li>
<li>Changes in parentage law, including surrogacy legislation, the latest revision of the Uniform Parentage Act (2017), and the new Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act adopted in 2018.</li>
<li> Extensive coverage of debt and family finances, new material drawn from numerous studies on the current economic climate (replacing the excerpt from Elizabeth Warren on bankruptcy), as well as new material on how the 2017 changes to federal tax law affect families;</li>
<li>Discussion of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (S. Ct. 2016) and later developments in the courts and in state legislatures regulating access to abortion;</li>
<li>New lead cases on moral fitness in custody adjudication and domestic violence in custody decisions with substantially revised notes;</li>
<li>a new lead case on relocation by a custodial parent―here a male nurse―reflecting changes in the law in many jurisdictions; expanded notes on parental decisions involving transgender youth; and a new discussion of disputes over “custody” of animal companions, commonly known as pets.</li>
<li>A full chapter containing updated materials about domestic violence and its harmful effects on marital and nonmarital households, and about intrafamily tort actions and family-related tort actions brought against family members by third persons.</li>
<li>A full chapter on adoption, including the latest trends and practices in transracial adoption, international adoption by American parents, and adoption by same-sex couples.</li>
<li>A fully updated chapter on the child support obligations of marital and non-marital parents.</li>
</ul>

McClain, Linda

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cahn, Naomi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cahn, Naomi

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cahn, Naomi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Homeward Bound: Modern Families, Elder Care, and Loss

Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking the American Family

Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture

On the Frontlines: Gender, War, and the Post-Conflict Process

Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture

Marriage Markets: How Inequality is Remaking the American Family

Contemporary Family Law (American Casebook Series)

Confinements: Fertility and Infertility in Contemporary Culture

Finding Our Families: A First-of-Its-Kind Book for Donor-Conceived People and Their Families

Contemporary Family Law (American Casebook Series)