Sex Roles, Economic Factors, and Marital Solidarity in Black and White Marriages

A major consequence of the Moynihan Report was to focus on black conjugal patterns a degree of attention that had simply not been there before. Besides detailed census analyses there appeared a variety of publications by independent investigators (Liebow, 1967; Billingsley, 1968; Rainwater, 1970; Willie, 1970; Scanzoni, 1971; Staples, 1971). Out of the numerous issues raised by this rapidly expanding literature, we wish to focus on only two interrelated questions. One has to do with the structures of sex roles; the other has to do with the conditions which promote or hinder marital satisfaction. Both issues will be examined in and results compared for black and white marriages.