Current public debate in the United States over the definition of the family appears polarized between conservative and progressive feminist movements. Both sides agree that the conventional or nuclear family is in serious disarray-an agreement bolstered by current census data reporting that" half of US children live in non-traditional settings" outside of nuclear family forms.'For the right, the response has been a call to revive" family values" which depend upon women returning to their" proper" place in the home. This call has a strong appeal in a society stripped of supporting institutions, where the family can seem the one last place for nurture and moral formation.

Progressive, particularly feminist, movements have had difficulty provid ing an alternative to conservatively defined family values. For some femi nists, women need to" evacuate" a family form that serves only to maintain the subordination of women. 2 For many of us, however, the notion of family evokes contradictory emotions. We may wish to affirm the caring and mutu ality possible in family relations, which has been the special work of women. Those of us from working-class backgrounds or from racial or ethnic back grounds outside the mainstream may especially wish to maintain the heri