CCF’s Stephanie Coontz for The New York Times: What Can Different-Sex Couples Learn From Same-Sex Couples?

Posted on February 18, 2020 in CCF News, Members In The News

Experts: Amanda Miller / Daniel Carlson / Debra Umberson / Joanna Pepin / Kristi Williams / Sharon Sassler / Stephanie Coontz / Virginia Rutter

Five years after marriage equality, CCF Director of Research and Public Education Stephanie Coontz asks: What can different-sex couples learn from same-sex couples? Featuring research by CCF experts Joanna Pepin, Dan Carlson, Virginia Rutter, Amanda Miller, Deb Umberson, Kristi Williams, Sharon Sassler and many more, Coontz highlights the role of gender expectations in shaping marital dynamics […]

Topics of Expertise: Cohabitation, Committed Relationships & Marriage / Couples Conflict, Separation & Divorce / Division of Labor in Families / Family Caregiving (for Adults, Children, and Disabilities) / Gender & Sexuality / History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life / LGBTQ Partnering & Families / Parenthood: Motherhood/Fatherhood

Same-Sex Couples Devote More Attention to End-of-Life Plans than Heterosexual Couples

Posted on June 19, 2018 in Brief Reports

Experts: Debra Umberson

A Research Brief Prepared for the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center Research Brief Series Mieke Beth Thomeer, Rachel Donnelly, Corinne Reczek, and Debra Umberson Introduction End-of-life planning enhances the quality of later-life caregiving, health, and death. Ideally, informal planning—conversation with loved ones about future care and end-of-life preferences—and formal planning—wills, […]

Topics of Expertise: Aging / Cohabitation, Committed Relationships & Marriage / Gender & Sexuality / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

Perceptions of Shared Power, Gender Conformity, and Marital Quality in Same- and Different-Sex Marriages

Posted on May 15, 2018 in Brief Reports

Experts: Debra Umberson

A Research Brief Prepared for the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center Research Brief Series Amanda M. Pollitt, Brandon A. Robinson, and Debra Umberson Introduction Marriage is a key institutional context for the study of gender and gender inequality. One way in which gender inequality is maintained in marriage is through gender […]

Topics of Expertise: Cohabitation, Committed Relationships & Marriage / Feminism & Families / Gender & Sexuality / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

Do Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual Spouses Differ in the Ways They Care for Each Other During Physical Illness?

Posted on May 15, 2018 in Brief Reports

Experts: Debra Umberson

A Brief Prepared for the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center Debra Umberson, Mieke Beth Thomeer, Corinne Reczek, Rachel Donnelly, and Rhiannon A. Kroeger Introduction An important benefit of marriage may be the care provided by spouses during episodes of physical illness and is one reason that married people enjoy better health […]

Topics of Expertise: Family Caregiving (for Adults, Children, and Disabilities) / Gender & Sexuality / Health & Illness / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

Same-Sex Couples May Have More Egalitarian Relationships

Posted on January 2, 2015 in Members In The News

Experts: Robert-Jay Green

Same-Sex Couples May Have More Egalitarian Relationships http://www.wbur.org/npr/373835114/same-sex-couples-may-have-more-egalitarian-relationships National Public Radio (NPR) December 29, 2014

Topics of Expertise: Division of Labor in Families / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

“Can I watch?” Sometimes women kissing women isn’t about you

Posted on January 28, 2014 in Press Releases

Experts: Paula England / Virginia Rutter

Is there more going on in the hookup scene than meets (men’s) eyes? The college hookup scene is typically understood as a male-dominated environment—where men are mainly in charge of sexual initiation, parties are often centered around fraternity houses, treating women as sex objects is common, and women engage in sexual displays, including kissing each other, in order to arouse male interest.

Yet, in the forthcoming April 2014 issue of Gender & Society, a team of researchers observes that for some women the super-straight environment of college hookups is also a setting “to explore and to later verify bisexual, lesbian, or queer sexual identities.” Turns out public kissing and threesomes play an important role—and that not all of that sex play is about performing for men’s pleasure.

Topics of Expertise: Gender & Sexuality / LGBTQ Partnering & Families / Singles & Dating

Children in families with same-sex parents

Posted on August 28, 2013 in Members In The News

Experts: Dawn O. Braithwaite

CCF’s Dawn Braithwaite was on KFOR’s Lincoln Live radio show discussing children in families with same-sex parents. Listen to the interview on their website (after clicking, scroll down and select “Children in Gay Families”).

Topics of Expertise: Child Welfare / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

Lesbian Mystiques

Posted on February 18, 2013 in Brief Reports

Betty Friedan highlighted the many ways that cultural images and expectations of gender in the 1950s and 60s held women back. The expectations derived most obviously from patriarchy, which Friedan recognized, but also from white supremacy, capitalism, and heterosexism, which she did not. In Friedan’s time the feminine mystique certainly constrained women’s senses of themselves and their possibilities, but at least it recognized women as a group. The “lesbian mystique,” by contrast, denied lesbians even existed. The concept was literally inconceivable. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria is rumored to have flatly proclaimed: “Women don’t do that.”

Topics of Expertise: Gender & Sexuality / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

Feminine Mystique Symposium: Feminism and Families Today

Posted on February 18, 2013 in Online Symposia, Press Releases

Experts: Stephanie Coontz

On the 50th Anniversary of The Feminine Mystique, Council on Contemporary Families Scholars identify what’s changed—and what hasn’t.

Topics of Expertise: Division of Labor in Families / Feminism & Families / Gender & Sexuality / History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life / LGBTQ Partnering & Families / Race, Ethnicity & Culture / Work & Family

It’s Not Just City Folk: Gays and Lesbians Experience Striking Gains in Acceptance in All Regions and Subgroups of America

Posted on December 11, 2012 in Press Releases

At a time of dramatic change in attitudes towards gays and lesbians in America, a new study released this month in Gender & Society highlights the diversity of gay and lesbian experiences in America. “Midwest or Lesbian? Gender, Rurality, and Sexuality,” by University of Nebraska sociologist Emily Kazyak, puts the lives of rural gays and […]

Topics of Expertise: Gender & Sexuality / History & Trends on Gender, Marriage & Family Life / LGBTQ Partnering & Families

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EXPERTS

M. V. Lee Badgett

Professor of Economics, School of Public Policy UMass Amherst; Williams Institute UCLA

Karla Mason Bergen

Associate Professor of Communication, College of Saint Mary

Kelly Campbell

Professor of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino

Megan Carroll

Assistant Professor of Sociology, California State University San Bernardino

Robert-Jay Green

Executive Director of the Rockway Institute for LGBT Psychology and Public Policy, and Distinguished Professor in the Clinical Psychology PhD Program, California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco

Jacqueline Hudak

Clinical Director, Perelman School of Medicine, Dept of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania

Gayle Kaufman

Professor of Sociology and Gender and Sexuality Studies, Davidson College

Katherine A. Kuvalanka

Associate Professor, Miami University

Ricci Levy

President and CEO, Woodhull Freedom Foundation

Abigail Ocobock

Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame

Michael Rosenfeld

Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

Stephen Russell

Professor and Chair, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin

David Trimble

Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University Medical School; Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, Boston Medical Center; American Family Therapy Academy; Boston Center for Culturally Affirming Practices

Debra Umberson

Centennial Professor in Liberal Arts and Professor of Sociology, University of Texas

Sarah Wright

Executive Director, Social Work in Progress