Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"
Strange Bedfellows offers an original perspective on the post-World War II 'marriage revolution.' By focusing on the interactions of feminist advocates, 'men's rights' groups, legislatures, and the courts, Alison Lefkovitz insightfully charts the emergence of new policies toward divorce, alimony, and marital property. In so doing, she reveals the disparate and harmful impact of marriage reform on the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and gay couples. This is an important and timely book." * Kathy Peiss, University of Pennsylvania *
"The legal evolution of marriage in the United States is as old as the Republic. But beginning in the 1960s, the pace of legal change accelerated with the universal adoption of no-fault divorce. Strange Bedfellows traces this unfinished revolution, highlighting the roles played by men as much as women in challenging the gendered obligations of marriage. As Alison Lefkovitz brilliantly shows, even as the breadwinning/homemaking model of marriage was dismantled for the privileged with decidedly unequal results for women and men, it was redeployed against the poor, especially racial minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ couples. Placing the legal revolution of marriage firmly in the economic, cultural, and political transformation of the 1960s to the present, Lefkovitz offers a sobering picture of marriage as Americans' fundamental social safety net." * Barbara Young Welke, University of Minnesota *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter 1. The Problem of Marriage in the Era of Women's Liberation
Chapter 2. The End of Breadwinning and Homemaking
Chapter 3. Blaming Feminism for the Fragile Family
Chapter 4. Race, Welfare, and Marriage Regulation
Chapter 5. Sham Marriages, Real Love, and Immigration Reform
Chapter 6. Gay Marriage and "Homosexual Households"
Conclusion. The End of Marriage as We Know It
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
