Maggie Gallagher

Linda Waite is a well known sociologist who studies issues of marriage, family, and health. Many of the findings on the benefits of marriage that have been collected over the past few decades are pulled together nicely and simply here. At the same time, in their eagerness to support their thesis, the authors ignore some of the down sides of typical marital arrangements. For example, they claim that in a household economy specialization is what allows the whole to function so well. They do not proscribe which partner specializes in which function (ie childcare, cleaning, etc. vs paid labor), so they claim to be neutrally pointing out the benefits of specialization. But by ignoring the very real social forces that shape the roles into which partners are placed, they fail to address some of the fundamental flaws of the institution they are defending. They make a strong case for marriage, but by engaging a bit further with the potential downside to marriage, they could have written an even more convincing book on the topic.… (meer)