Introduction: Special Issue on Feminism and Family Life

Abstract

Feminism has revolutionized the family field. Probably no field of study is more profoundly influenced by feminist thought. In the four decades since feminist scholars introduced a gendered understanding of family life, the field has absorbed feminist influences. Feminist concepts and investigative strategies have produced new descriptions of family experience, conceptualized family forms and family processes in new ways, and identified new topics for investigation. Feminist scholars have also illustrated the general importance of family studies, elevating our general interest in and concern for this social institution; studies of families and family life are now seen as parallel to studies of individuals or groups in other social institutions.Unlike other disciplines, which marginalize feminist works, the family field now incorporates key feminist elements into its very core. Not all family scholars work from an explicitly feminist perspective, but many feminist concerns have become embedded in the foundational frameworks of the field. At the same time, feminist research and activism flourish throughout the family domain. Family researchers and practitioners can draw from a voluminous and generative feminist literature on every conceivable family topic.This issue of the Michigan Family Review undertakes a feminist examination of family life. A call for papers produced a submission of 10 papers, which were then reviewed by referees. We anticipated that papers submitted and finally selected would present a blend of theoretical, empirical, and practice-based orientations, and that they would strike a balance between family related disciplines. This was not the case. In both submissions and final selections, sociological studies outnumber the others. Although all contributors are sociologists, the articles use intellectual traditions drawn from a variety of disciplines along with wide-ranging methods of inquiry.To make our feminist issue of the Michigan Family Review as current and comprehensive as possible, we invited scholars to review recently published books on gender and family and to pay special attention to their feminist and policy implications. The books selected for review include the topics of gender equity in national family and work policy (Jacobs and Gerson), caregiving among families of different class locations (Hansen), the impact of Viagra on intimate relationships (Loe), men's contemporary experiences of fatherhood (Townsend), the uniqueness of African American families (Hill), and a history of marriage (Coontz). While the books represent the national community of feminist family scholars, many of the research-based articles in this issue examine family life in Michigan communities. All of the contributors to this collection have strong connections to Michigan colleges and universities.We have tried to make this issue appealing to family scholars and practitioners as well as feminists across a range of disciplines. The selection of each article was guided by its scholarly merit and by questions such as these: Is it informed by feminist principles? Does it reflect current feminist thought? Does it open the family field to new kinds of gender questions?Feminist ThemesThe collection is, in many respects, exemplary of the present character of feminist research on families. The contents are not easily categorized: If there is a unifying thread, it will be found in the persistent attention given to different contexts and social locations that produce a range of family experiences for women and men. All of the articles move family analysis beyond dichotomous simplifications of women's and men's experiences as well. Although gender in families remains an anchor point, it is always contingent on other dimensions of difference such as social class, race, and sexual orientation. The following themes reflected in the articles also are central to current feminist thought on the family. …