Question

How do people in the US view nontraditional family structures? How do you think these views might change in the next 20 years?

Do you believe we have a true meritocracy in the US? Why or why not

Answer 1

Today, American society displays greater diversity, and many American households can be considered non-traditional under this definition.

Family structures that may be considered non-traditional or alternative include single parenthood, cohabitation, same-sex families, and polygamy

Family life is changing. Two-parent households are on the decline in the United States as divorce, remarriage and cohabitation are on the rise. And families are smaller now, both due to the growth of single-parent households and the drop in fertility. Not only are Americans having fewer children, but the circumstances surrounding parenthood have changed. The same time that family structures have transformed, so has the role of mothers in the workplace – and in the home. As more moms have entered the labor force, more have become breadwinners.

Non-marital cohabitation and divorce, along with the prevalence of remarriage and (non-marital) recoupling in the U.S., make for family structures that in many cases continue to evolve throughout a child’s life. While in the past a child born to a married couple – as most children were was very likely to grow up in a home with those two parents, this is much less common today, as a child’s living arrangement changes with each adjustment in the relationship status of their parents

These views will be changing in the next 20 years because of

• The growing complexity and diversity of families
• The rise of single-parent families, and changes in two-parent families
• Blended families
• The growing complexity and diversity of families
• The rise of single-parent families, and changes in two-parent families
• Blended families
• The shrinking American family
• The rise of births to unmarried women and multi-partner fertility
• Births to unmarried women
• Multi-partner fertility
• Parents today are older and better educated.
• Mothers moving into the workforce

True meritocracy is not applicable in US. This is because of the following reason

Education in the US is a heavily privatised, for-profit scheme that excludes low-income people and members of disadvantaged racial groups, and only reinforces the existing socioeconomic inequities