WASHINGTON, April 25 (AP) � More black families are headed by married couples and more are living in homes they own, the Census Bureau reported today.
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The report showed a steady increase in the number of black families headed by married couples, to 47.9 percent in 2002 from 47.8 percent in 2000 and 46.1 percent in 1996, the earliest year for which data are available. The six-year increase equals about 520,000 families.

The portion of black families headed by single women continued to decline. It was 43 percent last year, one percentage point lower than 2000 and four points lower than in 1996.

When it comes to marriage rights, gays and lesbians are willing to play semantic games. We will use awkward phrases like "civil union" and "domestic partnership" so long as we can get what our families really need: the rights, responsibilities and safeguards of legal marriage.

[O]bjectivity and knowledge come to be closely linked with the researcher�s own subjectivity, and it underscores the importance of the acknowledgment of what feminists have called the personal in one�s work. This in turn implies an open recognition of why some piece of research that one has chosen to do is meaningful. � The point is that the data are never totally separated from the political, personal, and professional opinions of the person manipulating them. (italics in original)

Q: Were you divorced or widowed, and how long were you married?
A: I think that�s an inappropriate question. My opinion has nothing to do with my personal situation. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 29, 2003)

"A great deal more wisdom and considerably enlarged social resources are needed to deal with the problems of broken homes in order that the children of the unmarried and divorced will not pass on their unhappy heritage."

"How Much Do We Love Our Mommy?"
1. More than a birthday cake made of sunbeams.
2. ...
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6. Less since she started making us call Gary "Daddy"

After 26 months of tussles over Bush's "faith-based initiative," the sponsor of the legislation in the Senate agreed to remove any mention of religion in a bill whose stated purpose was helping religious charities. All that was left was a package of charitable tax incentives -- and even those were barely 15 percent of the amount Bush had proposed. The "faith-based" legislation -- central to Bush's campaign promise to "rally the armies of compassion" -- had turned into a retreat.

Feminism sent some very powerful messages to girls growing up in the '70s and '80s in Australia. We are all (men and women) beneficiaries of the ground-breaking policy changes brought about by the tireless efforts of a strong band of femocrats, feminist lobbyists and liberationists. But woven into the fabric of this feminism was a very strong message about motherhood. The role of motherhood was presented to my generation as a handicap, a hindrance and potentially a major obstacle to any girl reaching her full potential. It was a man's world we had to take on, and that was to be done in a manly way. Definitely not with a bulge in the stomach or baby on the breast. The truth of motherhood being a handicap was certainly reinforced once we entered the workforce ... The fact that the workplace remains dreadfully family unfriendly; that many working mothers are guilt-stricken and expect to be discriminated against by employers when their dual roles conflict; that many young women erroneously think they can postpone having children well into the second decade of their busy careers; and that an increasing number of young, fertile women are choosing not to have children at all, leads to some big questions for feminism.

"It debunks the stereotype that men want 'good sex and lots of it' while wives want understanding," said John Gottman, author of The Relationship Cure and co-founder of a marriage clinic ... For those who remain married, years of being together yield an intimacy that trumps even the newly-wed glow, says the study, published in the Reader's Digest.

In her beautifully written and engaging study, Raising America, Ann Hulbert displays a sense of balance and proportion often lacking in discussions of child rearing. Hulbert, the author of The Interior Castle: The Art and Life of Jean Stafford (1992), presents a detailed and masterly history of ideas about parenting from the late 19th century to the present. She finds that child rearing advice nearly always falls into one of two camps, the �hard� or the �soft.� Advocates of a hard, or parent-centered, approach tend toward a �sterner and more masculine� attitude toward child rearing. They believe that nurture counts more than nature, so strict discipline is required. By contrast, advocates of the soft, or child-centered, approach, more �empathetic and effusive,� seek to encourage children�s natural development through parental love and bonding.