ABSTRACT
During the three decades since 1970, if the workplace has seen radical change, so too has the family. Families are smaller, apparently increasingly fragile and, more than ever, contested terrain. This chapter looks at some of the statistical information behind the debates, at its uses and misuses, and at family law and the Family Court and the ways in which both have become flashpoints embodying these fears. While many of the most telling debates focus on a media-fuelled divide between mothers in the waged labour force and those who prefer to be full time mothers, the subtext of these debates is linked with concern at falling fertility rates and the alleged 'selfishness' and 'individualism' of those who postpone or decline motherhood. During the same period, marriage rates have fallen substantially and it is clear that, on average, the age at first marriage is increasing and that the marriage rate is falling in absolute terms.
