Family Values at the Turn of the Century 12.5.23

• HIS 379 The Family in America
• Year 4

Family Values at the Turn of the Century

The History of Family in America (HIST 379)
Dr. Caitlin Wiesner
Main Hall Room 213
December 5, 2023 (Week 13)

President Reagan's 

War on Drugs (1982-1989)

In 1985, the number of Americans who said they used cocaine on a routine basis increased from 4.2 million to 5.8 million. 

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 set new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, including possessions of crack cocaine (calculated at a 100:1 ratio with possession of powdered cocaine) 

The American prison population skyrocketed in the wake of the War on Drugs, from 329,000 in 1980 to 627,000 in 1989. 

By 1991, a greater number of African American men ages 18 to 22 were in prison than enrolled in college. 

www.nytimes.com

Discuss: "Children of Crack" Washington Post (July 1989)

How does the Washington Post describe “the children of crack” and the mothers they are born to?

Why did “crack babies” receive a huge share of media attention in the late 1980s?

How did this attention fit into the conservative “family values” movement of the 1980s?

President Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

“I am here to tell you it does not 

take a village to raise a child. 

It takes a family.”

- Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas) (1996)

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) (1993) 

• Granted women and men up to twelve weeks of unpaid job-protected leave for the birth and care of a newborn child or to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition. 
• 60% of the workforce uncovered by FMLA

Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 abolishes welfare (AFDC) and replaces it with Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF), limiting families to two consecutive years of benefits and five years total. 

“…the most brutal act of social policy since Reconstruction.”

New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

The "Welfare Queen" 

Chicago Tribune (1974)

The Wall Street Journal (June 2011) 

Discuss: James Justen Describes Fighting Chrysler for Domestic Partner Benefits (1996)

How does James Justen’s struggle for domestic partner benefits challenge the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)?

How does DOMA and the private denial of domestic partner benefits compare in the 1990s compare to the “family values” homophobia of the 1970s and 1980s?

www.npr.org

"Family Values" in Immigration

As the population of the United States grew from 205 million in 1970 to 300 million in 2006, immigrants accounted for 28 million of the increase.

Most of the newcomers who arrived in the 1990s arrived from Latin America (16 million) and Southeast Asia (9 million)

By 2000, Latinos (35 million) surpassed African Americans (34 million) as the nation’s largest minority group. 

In 2006, heated debates over immigration reform in the Republican-controlled Congress popularized the term "anchor baby"

A fact is an objective and incontrovertible piece of information.
Evidence is the application of one or more facts to support an argument.
An argument is a subjective claim made to expand an area of knowledge.

We will begin discussion of readings each class with an FAQ (Fact, Argument, Question) Exercise. All students will free write the following:

     A fact that stood out to you in the reading (please include page number)
    An explanation of how that fact works as evidence for the historian’s argument
    A question that the reading raised for you

A fact is an objective and incontrovertible piece of information.
Evidence is the application of one or more facts to support an argument.
An argument is a subjective claim based on evidence that expands an area of knowledge.

FAQ (Fact, Argument, Question) Exercise

All students will free write the following:

1.  A fact that stood out to you in the reading (please include page number)
2. An explanation of how that fact works as evidence for the historian’s argument
3. A question that the reading raised for you

Discussion: Robert O. Self, All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s (2012)

Part IV: Family Values, 1973-2011

1) Why did the "breadwinner conservatives" of the 1970s demonize feminism? How did feminists respond to these attacks?  

2) How did evanglical Christians contribute to "breadwinner conservatism" in the 1970s and 1980s?

3) How did the Reagan Administration of the 1980s mobilize "family values" to secure political power?  

4) Did "breadwinner conservatism" and "family values" survive the turn of the 21st century? Why or why not?