Some questions about the family

[National Dialogue Moderator <moderator>]

Many of the issues about women are also issues about the family.  I 
would like to raise some questions about the family.  Is the family 
(the couple) an economic unit, or is it composed of two individual 
economic units who are treated separately for purposes of social 
programs?  If the family is a single economic unit, what should happen 
to its earnings history or credits when it dissolves?  Unfortunately, 
many families do dissolve, so that individuals are partners in 
multiple families over their lives.  Is a legally married couple 
different from an unmarried couple?  Is a couple in a state with 
common law marriage legally married for this purpose?  How is the 
period of marriage defined?

Dora Noble points out earlier in the discussion that this can create a 
real disadvantage to a woman who becomes disabled.

It seems to me that some of the difficulties in dealing with women and 
social security arise from the fact that often women are in the labor 
force, and then we say that the family is like two individual economic 
units, but when women are homemaking and/or caregiving, we say that 
the family is a single unit.  When it comes time to pay benefits, we 
effectively select one or the other in a way that does not work well 
for all individuals.

I would be interested in comments on this issue.


Anna Rappaport