By Axios | Created at 2024-10-02 17:20:55 | Updated at 2024-10-03 23:25:11
1 day ago
Americans are less and less likely to fit into a traditional definition of family — a dynamic that has come into question during the 2024 presidential race.
The big picture: Some in the GOP have used comments about not having biological children as a line of attack against Vice President Kamala Harris, a proud parent to two stepchildren.
- Comments from Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), from a 2021 interview criticizing "childless cat ladies" and "people without children" on the left have now become infamous.
- Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) also questioned Harris last month for not having biological children, saying she "doesn't have anything to keep her humble."
By the numbers: Family dynamics and household setups in the U.S. have changed dramatically in the past 50 years.
- In 1970, 67% of Americans ages 25 to 49 were living with their spouse and one or more children younger than 18, according to Pew Research Center. Over the past five decades, that share has dropped to 37%.
- About 16% of children live in a household with a step-parent, step-sibling or half-sibling, per Pew data.
Zoom in: The statistics are also reflected by Harris' family. Her stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff, warmly refer to her as "Momala" and as their parent.
- "We might not look like other families in the White House," Cole Emhoff said in a speech during the Democratic National Convention in August. "But we are ready to represent all families in America."
- Their mother and second gentleman Doug Emhoff's ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, shared a photo of herself and her kids at the DNC and produced a video for the convention.
- Kerstin Emhoff has also discussed the family's approach to navigating life together after Dough Emhoff and Harris married. She said earlier this year, "For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it."
State of play: Divorce, remarriage and cohabitation have increased in the U.S., as two-parent households have declined, according to Pew.
- Andrew Cherlin, professor emeritus of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, said, that some Republicans are making statements about children in a "negative, punitive, blaming way," that makes not having children a personal fault.
- "That kind of rhetoric really is not going to appeal to most Americans," he said.
Between the lines: While Harris doesn't have biological children, "she doesn't seem childless," Cherlin said. "Her stepchildren see her as an important figure in their family life. She sees them as important."
- Cherlin added that step-families also suffer from a bad reputation in movies and pop culture, and therefore it's "easy to cast them as an inferior family form."
- If Harris becomes president, "this could be a watershed moment for step-families," Cherlin said. "She could help erase the negative stereotype that's associated with them. She might even be changing how we think about what it means to be childless."
Zoom out: Children with at least one college-educated parent are much more likely to live in a two-parent household, and with two parents in a first marriage, than kids whose parents are less educated, per Pew.
- Democratic voters are more likely to have a college degree than their Republican counterparts.
Case in point: "The very people who are most likely to vote for Trump, are less likely to be in traditional families than the college-educated people who tend to support Harris," Cherlin said.
- He added that he suspects the GOP has realized that, and through subtle changes in their rhetoric, have "stopped calling for the traditional family ... and narrowed their family rhetoric to having children."
- It is an important distinction, he said, between them and the conservatives of a few decades ago.
