研究生读说写第一册NNIT 7life without father.doc

Unit 7 Life Without Father Background Information 1. About the author and the text David Blankenhorn is founder and president of the Institute for American Values, a private, nonpartisan organization devoted to contributing intellectually to the renewal of marriage and family life and the sources of competence, character, and citizenship in the United States. This text is from his book Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem, which was published in 1995. 2. The change in American family structure No other century promoted such rapid change in American families than the twentieth century did. Through most of the first half of the century families were two-parent plus children units, but by the 1980s and 1990s divorce was common in half of the homes and many families were single- parent or included step-parents, step-siblings and half-siblings. The major changes in opinions and even some laws on race, gender and sexuality during the 1960s and 1970s brought change to families as well. Some families were headed by gay parents, lived in communes or other non-traditional homes, were of mixed race, or had adopted children. Family life had changed dramatically in less than 50 years. The change in the core make-up of what was considered a family ushered in new celebrations and holidays, ways of cooking, eating, and entertainment, and even daily activities. 3. The change of gender roles Among the most fundamental changes affecting American society over the last generation has been the redefinition of the roles of men and women and husbands and wives. A traditional perspective in which women were occupied in the private sphere of life centering around running a home and raising a family while men engaged in the public sphere of earning a living and participating in civic and political events has rapidly been replaced by a modern perspective in which there is much less gender-role specialization and women have increasingly been entering the labor force as