A Book I'm Eager to Read by Candice Watters on 12/13/2006 at 1:50 PM

Christmastime is typically a good time to pick up books I've been longing to read. Typically a family member gets wind of what I'm hoping to read and puts a copy under the tree. Thankfully, this year, the publisher got a jump on things and sent a review copy of Kay Hymowitz's Marriage and Caste in America. Now it's staring at me from the coffee table, just begging to be read. And to sweeten the deal, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reviewed the book, teasing me with these nuggets:

For Ms. Hymowitz, the two Americas do not divide between the poor who are supposedly in need of government assistance and the rest of us. The division is best defined in another way: between those who see marriage as an indispensable condition of child-rearing and those who don't. ... The Marriage Gap, as Ms. Hymowitz calls it, appears likely to have a more profound effect on the future of both Americas than the gender gap so lamented by the feminists.

And this:

...marriage is again flourishing among well-educated women. Today's educated mothers may work outside the home or not, but they and their husbands are committed to what Ms. Hymowitz calls The Mission -- the project of shaping their children into adults (and citizens) who have the requisite skills and self-discipline to prosper in a complex, post-industrialist society.

Why does this matter?

According to Ms. Hymowitz -- and this is the scariest part of the book -- most social analysts ignore the root of the problem and therefore end up prescribing "solutions" that actually "smooth the way" for single parenthood.

It's not going to be a fun read, the way a novel is, but I believe this book is important. And I know from my own life experience that if I actually find the time to read it, I'll owe a big thank you to the man who sacrificially shares in the parenting in our home. The husband with whom I share The Mission.

A Book I'm Eager to Read by Candice Watters on 12/13/2006 at 1:50 PM

Christmastime is typically a good time to pick up books I've been longing to read. Typically a family member gets wind of what I'm hoping to read and puts a copy under the tree. Thankfully, this year, the publisher got a jump on things and sent a review copy of Kay Hymowitz's Marriage and Caste in America. Now it's staring at me from the coffee table, just begging to be read. And to sweeten the deal, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reviewed the book, teasing me with these nuggets:

For Ms. Hymowitz, the two Americas do not divide between the poor who are supposedly in need of government assistance and the rest of us. The division is best defined in another way: between those who see marriage as an indispensable condition of child-rearing and those who don't. ... The Marriage Gap, as Ms. Hymowitz calls it, appears likely to have a more profound effect on the future of both Americas than the gender gap so lamented by the feminists.

And this:

...marriage is again flourishing among well-educated women. Today's educated mothers may work outside the home or not, but they and their husbands are committed to what Ms. Hymowitz calls The Mission -- the project of shaping their children into adults (and citizens) who have the requisite skills and self-discipline to prosper in a complex, post-industrialist society.

Why does this matter?

According to Ms. Hymowitz -- and this is the scariest part of the book -- most social analysts ignore the root of the problem and therefore end up prescribing "solutions" that actually "smooth the way" for single parenthood.

It's not going to be a fun read, the way a novel is, but I believe this book is important. And I know from my own life experience that if I actually find the time to read it, I'll owe a big thank you to the man who sacrificially shares in the parenting in our home. The husband with whom I share The Mission.