A Policy Paradox: Response to Theodora Ooms

It's hard to look at the 2018 family separation policies of the U.S. federal government (and ensuing uproar) at the border with Mexico and not think that family policy should play a key role in American politics. But it doesn't. As Ooms argues in her masterful recounting of the history of family policy, the field has made major advances, but family policy remains largely unknown and undervalued by academics, policymakers, media, and the general public. Ooms herself says that it would be helpful “if more political scientists were interested in family issues as well as more family scholars and practitioners learned about political science and policymaking.” As a political scientist, I can say definitively that writing about families and public policy is an uphill battle in my field. The challenges that I face in doing so are not that different from what family policy scholars face more generally.