During the culture wars of the 1970s and 1980s, conservative crusaders worried about threats to "traditional" families stemming from both the top and the bottom of the social ladder. In the name of "family values," they denounced educated elites for denigrating marriage, endorsing premarital sex and cohabitation, and refusing to get judgmental about divorce and unwed motherhood. The "do-your-own-thing" individualism of such people, they claimed, was bad enough for spoiled middle-class children, but threatened disaster when it seeped down to the "underclass."

The public outrage over the "religious freedom" bills recently passed in Arkansas and Indiana caught the governors of those states completely off-guard, judging by their confused and contradictory responses.

Next week a new parental leave policy goes into effect in the UK, extending the length of leave for up to 50 weeks after the birth or adoption of a baby, with 39 of the 50 weeks subsidised. After the first two weeks, a mother in a two-earner family can transfer all or some of the remaining weeks to the father, allowing her to go back to work earlier and him to stay home longer than in the past.

For most of America’s history, people typically aspired to acquire “a competency” rather than great riches. A competency meant the ability to comfortably sustain a household without depending on others.

“Competence” also meant being capable and reliable. The American Dream was that people who worked hard and capably could support their families.

Stephanie Coontz, teacher and author of The Way We Never Were and Marriage, A History, is director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families. In this interview with Omega, she speaks about the evolution of marriage and changing gender roles.

Omega: You say marriage has changed more in the past 30 years than in the past 3,000 years. You've said that the very traits that make marriage in our contemporary society more rewarding have also made it less stable. How so?

Over the past 40 years, the geography of family life has been destabilized by two powerful forces pulling in opposite directions and occasionally scraping against each other, much like tectonic plates. One is the striking progress toward equality between men and women. The other is the equally striking growth of socioeconomic inequality and insecurity.

New research about an old institution challenges the conventional wisdom that the family today is worse off than in the past.

The key to regaining a sense of stability during this period of wrenching social, cultural and economic change isn't reclaiming 'traditional family values.' According to historian/author Stephanie Coontz, it's adapting our social institutions.

Stephanie Coontz, who studies the history of American families, was riding to the airport when her taxi driver started railing against the welfare system.