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Stephanie Coontz | |
|---|---|
 Stephanie Coontz, speaking at the University of Washington (2012). | |
| Born | (1944-08-31)August 31, 1944 (age 81) |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupations | Historian, author, faculty member atThe Evergreen State College |
| Website | www |
Stephanie Coontz (born August 31, 1944) is an American author, historian,[1][2] and faculty member atEvergreen State College. She teaches history and family studies and is Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families, which she chaired from 2001 to 2004. Coontz has authored and co-edited several books about the history of the family and marriage. She is featured inMonogamish, 2017 a documentary exploring contemporary attitudes towardmonogamy,marriage, and alternative relationship structures within American society.[3]
Coontz earned aBachelor of Arts from the American History Honors Program (1966) at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, where she was a member of the campus political partySLATE and participated in thecivil rights movement and theFree Speech Movement. Attending theUniversity of Washington on aWoodrow Wilson Fellowship, she earned aMaster of Arts in European History (1970). Abandoning further graduate work, she joined the staff of the National Peace Action Coalition, later becoming a National Coordinator; they focused on building peaceful, legal demonstrations against theVietnam War. Before returning to full-time teaching in 1975, Coontz also had a leadership role in theYoung Socialist Alliance, aTrotskyist youth group of theSocialist Workers Party (SWP). By the late 1970s, however, Coontz had parted company with the SWP.
In addition to her current teaching position atEvergreen, Coontz has also taught atKobe University in Japan and theUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. She won the Washington Governor's Writers Award in 1989 for her bookThe Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families. In 1995 she received the Dale Richmond Award from theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics for her "outstanding contributions to the field of child development." She received the 2001-02 "Friend of the Family" award from the Illinois Council on Family Relations. In 2004, she received the first-ever "Visionary Leadership" Award from the Council on Contemporary Families.
Coontz studies the history of American families, marriage, and changes in gender roles. Her bookThe Way We Never Were argues against several common myths about families of the past, including the idea that the 1950s family was traditional or the notion that families used to rely solely on their own resources. Her book,Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage, traces the history of marriage fromMark Antony andCleopatra (not a love story, she argues) to debates over same-sex marriage. Her newest book, about the wives and daughters of "The Greatest Generation," isA Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s.
Coontz has appeared on national television and radio programs, includingOprah, theToday Show,The Colbert Report and dozens ofNPR shows. In addition, her work has been featured in newspapers and magazines, as well as in many academic and professional journals. She has testified about her research before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families and addressed audiences across America, Europe, and Japan.
In the landmarkUnited States Supreme Court caseObergefell v. Hodges,Associate JusticeAnthony Kennedy cited Coontz's bookMarriage, A History in its decision to grant marriage equality to same-sex couples.[4]
