Stephanie Coontz-"The Way We Wish We Were"

Stephanie Coontz's "The Way We Wish We Were" was a good insight on the types of stereotypes we placed on family. We percieve the 1950s to be "the golden age" and the birth of the "greatest generation". But in reality high standards of the '50s "drove thousands of women to therapists, tranquilizers, or alcohol when they actually tried to live up to it" (677). There are many stereotypes we percieve when it comes to the ideal family and much of it comes from the media's portrayal and the inconsistant data and studies does not help to clarify any misunderstandings, instead it confuses people. In one way or another every family is dysfunctional and nowhere near perfect but almost every family strives to have a strong moral structure that can guide them through the vast regulations of society; "although two -thirds of respondents [...] wanted 'more traditional standards of family life' the same percentage rejected the idea that 'women should return to their traditional role' "(689). Coontz also explains that "lack of perspectives where families have come from and how their evolution connects to other social trends tends to encourage contradictory claims and wild exaggeration about where the fanily is going" (686). It is difficult for one to form his or her own opinion on subjects were there are ambigous facts. Coontz mentions, "what these polls reveal is women's growing dissatisfaction with tha failure of employers[...] to pioneer arrangements that make it possible to combine work and family life. These polls do not suggest that women are actually going to stop working[...]"(687). History has shown that society is always changing there are certain periods were there seems to be a common beliefs and then there are periods were society belives in the opposite of what they previously believed.

The article's purpose is to show that it is not critical to follow or live by social analytical polls and surveys because they are not as accurate as we think and we can not control things that occur outside the family despite the shape of our families. Perhaps there was never really a "traditional family" or "family values" because people and their families are always changing.