Barbara LeBey

In the following viewpoint, Barbara LeBey argues that the pursuit of personal satisfaction that originated in the 1960s had many positive outcomes but also led to four factors that fractured the traditional family: the sexual revolution, women’s liberation, divorce, and increased mobility. LeBey maintains that the sexual revolution and the women’s liberation movement freed women to pursue education and career goals, but in doing so the movements changed traditional notions of motherhood and family that put children first. Moreover, marriage changed from a necessity to a choice, and attitudes toward divorce became more lenient. Finally, technological innovations in transportation and telecommunications, and corporate relocation, scattered family members across the world. LeBey is the author of Family Estrangements: How They Begin, How to Mend Them, How to Cope with Them.

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