FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Virginia Rutter / Sociology @ Framingham State University vrutter@gmail.com How Can Colleges Define Consent and Reduce Unwanted Sex? No easy answers here. CCF’s Online Symposium, Defining Consent, takes an unflinching look at the thorny question, what should count as consent to sexual activity – and what should not? In the process, […]
Online Symposia
KEYNOTE ESSAY: No Easy Answers: Can Colleges Define Consent and Reduce Unwanted Sex? || Stephanie Coontz & Paula England
Experts: Paula England / Stephanie Coontz
Defining Consent Symposium Keynote No Easy Answers: Can Colleges Define Consent and Reduce Unwanted Sex? The Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf) was convened for the Council on Contemporary Families by Stephanie Coontz and Paula England, who prepared this overview of the seven-part series. Their takeaway: Let’s reject simplistic answers and deal with the complicated realities […]
Topics of Expertise: Gender & Sexuality / Sexual Abuse & MisconductThe Social Production of Campus Sexual Assault || Jennifer S. Hirsch & Shamus Khan
The Social Production of Campus Sexual Assault A briefing paper prepared by Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan, Columbia University, for the Council on Contemporary Families Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf). Public conversation about campus sexual assault tends to focus on two different issues. The first stems from the idea that campuses are a “hunting […]
A Restorative Justice Approach to Campus Sexual Misconduct || David Karp
A Restorative Justice Approach to Campus Sexual Misconduct A briefing paper prepared by David Karp, University of San Diego, for the Council on Contemporary Families Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf). The current #MeToo reckoning, following from the decade-long grassroots campus sexual assault movement, underscores the pervasiveness of sexual harm. As the contribution by Armstrong at al […]
“Consensualish”– What about sex that is unwanted, but not physically coercive? || Jessie V. Ford
“Consensualish” – Let’s talk about sex that people don’t want but “go along” with it A briefing paper prepared by Jessie V. Ford, Columbia University, for the Council on Contemporary Families Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf). In the spring of freshman year, shortly after leaving a party with a guy friend, Lydia and he had […]
Defining Sexual Consent on Campus: What’s in Media vs. What’s in the Policies || Elizabeth A. Armstrong et al.
Defining Sexual Consent on Campus: Media vs. Policies A briefing paper prepared by Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Sandra Levitsky, Kamaria Porter, Miriam Gleckman-Krut, Elizabeth Chase, all from University of Michigan, and Jessica Garrick, Southern Methodist University, for the Council on Contemporary Families Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf). In our sound bite media culture, the least typical […]
Sex and Consent on Campus: Definitions, Dilemmas, and New Directions || Deborah L. Rhode
Sex and Consent on Campus: Definitions, Dilemmas, and New Directions A briefing paper prepared by Deborah L. Rhode, Stanford University, for the Council on Contemporary Families Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf). This symposium is a testament to our substantial but still partial progress around issues of sex and consent. When I went to college in […]
What’s New About Consent || Rebecca L. Davis
Experts: Rebecca Davis
What’s New About Consent A briefing paper prepared by Rebecca L. Davis, University of Delaware, for the Council on Contemporary Families Defining Consent Online Symposium (.pdf). Writing in 1962, the editor and author Helen Gurley Brown controversially admonished her readers to think again about the aphorism that “nice girls don’t.” “Get it straight in your […]
Executive Summary: Children Are Now Back at School, Time to Focus on What Their Parents Need
Experts: Barbara Risman
*Executive summary prepared for CCF by Barbara J. Risman, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago. The birth rate is falling throughout much of the world. Yet many people still want to be parents, and they invest great time, energy and love in their children. The essays in this […]
Why No One Can “Have It All” and What to Do About It
Experts: Kathleen Gerson
A briefing paper prepared by Kathleen Gerson, New York University, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. If debates about women’s rights, relationships between the sexes, and worsening conflicts between paid work and family life seem endless, that’s because Americans can’t agree on what is happening, much less […]
Work that Works for Low-Wage Workers
Experts: Maureen Perry-Jenkins
A briefing paper prepared by Maureen Perry-Jenkins, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. Low-wage jobs may not be anyone’s ideal for a career, but they are not going away anytime soon. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shown (Figure […]
Fears of Violence: Concerns of Middle-Class Latinx Parents
A briefing paper prepared by Lorena Garcia, University of Illinois at Chicago, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. Who doesn’t want their children to grow up happy and healthy? But different families face different challenges. I interviewed 68 newly middle-class Latinx parents in Chicagoland, and learned that […]
Mothering While Black
A briefing paper prepared by Dawn Marie Dow, the University of Maryland, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. It is common for observers to talk about a “stalled revolution” in family life. Most American mothers raising small children now work outside of the home, but the […]
Dads Count Too: Family-Friendly Policies Must Include Fathers
Experts: Stephanie Coontz
A briefing paper prepared by Stephanie Coontz, Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. A major obstacle to the successful coordination of work and family life in today’s world is the assumption that this is primarily […]
Raising a Village: Identifying Social Supports for All Kinds of Families
A briefing paper prepared by Caitlyn Collins, Washington University in St. Louis, for the Council on Contemporary Families’ Symposium Parents Can’t Go It Alone—They Never Have. Two-thirds of mothers today work outside the home in wealthy Western countries. Despite this similarity, mothers’ experiences managing their work and family commitments vary a lot from country to […]