By Emma Dion // February 27, 2020
WASHINGTON – The Joint Economic Committee heard testimony from four sociology experts on Tuesday afternoon at a hearing to discuss improving family stability for the wellbeing of American children. Much of the hearing focused on the current family-related policy in the United States, which experts said lacks the ability to support non-traditional and minority families. The testimony panel discussed various solutions to fix this problem for over two hours.
Dr. Rashawn Ray, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow from The Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington DC, was the only person of color to provide testimony at the hearing and began his testimony with a question for those in the room to consider.
“I grew up in a single parent household and have never seen my biological father before. I am now happily married to my high school sweetheart with two smart and talented boys. How did I get here?”
Dr. Ray credited his successful upbringing to the determination of his single mother, Joslyn Talley, and the childcare and support that he received from his grandparents and aunt.
Dr. Ray’s testimony spoke to the fact that when minority families are facing economic hardship, they turn to extended family arrangements for help. His research suggests that racially diverse families today are more likely to consider extended kin and grandparents as part of their family. However, Dr. Ray pointed to the lack of government support and recognition for extended family members, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents as parental figures in a child’s upbringing.
Vice Chairman Don Beyer (D-VA) openly stated that government policy currently in place does not recognize extended family arrangements as a form of childcare. As said in his opening remarks, “the share of multi-generational households has grown, but our policies haven’t changed. Grandparents, aunts and uncles are taking care of kids and are often doing it because the cost of childcare is unbelievable.”
Dr. Ray called for policy that recognizes extended family arrangements, since the American economic market has created an environment in which African American and Latino families often live under these circumstances as a “structural survival strategy in an economic market that has rarely provided them with opportunities to live in autonomous, self-sufficient households.”
Dr. Betsey Stevenson, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, also called for better recognition and support for broader kinship relationships in her testimony. Stevenson pointed out that because trends are showing that grandparents are playing an important role in childrearing both for married and single parents, government policy needs to reflect that.
“Research shows that couples who live away from their parents are more likely to move toward their parents – the grandparents – once children are born. Public policy needs to consider the ways in which the role and responsibilities taken on by grandparents can be better supported and recognized,” said Stevenson near the end of her opening testimony.
Joint Economic Committee member and U.S. Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) asked Dr. Ray how policy makers should recognize the role of grandparents, aunts and uncles in providing care for kids. Dr. Ray suggested that “there needs to be greater flexibility and malleability in grandparents’ ability to take on some of the recourses and tax breaks associated with raising children.”
Over the course of the hearing, other panelists gave different solutions for increasing family stability. Kay Hymowitz, a William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, brought attention to something she considers to be “an underappreciated part of the story.” Instead of focusing on extended familial relationships, the government needs to prioritize on bringing up better eligible bachelors and father figures. Hymowitz calls this the “marriageable men problem.”
According to Hymowitz, as more and more women are getting higher education and entering the workforce, they are searching for men who also have higher education and well-paying jobs. Since Hymowitz’s research shows that men and women both prefer marriages where husbands earn as much or more income as wives, there are less “economically desirable men” for highly educated women to marry. Therefore, there is a “mismatch between what women might want [in a marriage], and the men available.”
Hymowitz suggested policy ideas that offer methods to bring up more highly educated and highly paid men in society- “to ensure more children grow up in stable, two-parent families, we need to focus our attention on young men.” According to Hymowitz, that means improving their education starting from a young age to technical training and apprenticeships later in life.
Hymowitz also drew attention to a necessary fix that is “less amenable to government policy but is no less crucial to addressing the marriageable men problem.” In her testimony, Hymowitz brought up the need to re-affirm the importance of fathers and male contributions to the American family household.
Dr. Ray did not have a father in his childhood upbringing. In his testimony, he recalled his mother saying, “I’m a woman. I can’t necessarily show you what it means to be a man, in particular a black man in society, but I can put you around other people who can.” Dr. Ray confirmed that showing young children what fatherly figures look and act like is “something we should really, really do.”
As the hearing was coming to a close, Congresswoman Herrera Beutler expressed her belief that mutual love and respect is “ultimately how we get to more stable relationships and marriages.”
Representative Beyer addressed the fact that Congress has been working to pass legislation to improve economic stability for families, such as the National Defense Authorization Act. Beyer also recognized that current government oversight still needs work, saying that upholding fatherly figures in the household is essential for future legislation. “Making paid family leave a reality for women and men will be another important step.”
Advanced Reporting Times, Spring 2020 