Blog post co-authored by Ines de Pierola, David Rothwell, and Eileen Chanti.
On November 17, 2025, our Family Policy Group welcomed Catherine (Katie) Bolzendahl, sociology professor and director of the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University. Dr. Bolzendahl introduced her forthcoming book, Recount: Additions, Subtractions, and Divisions in Americans’ Definitions of Family and Views on Gender and Sexuality, co-authored with Claudia Geist (University of Utah) and Brian Powell (Indiana University).
The book explores how Americans’ understandings of family have expanded, contracted, and become increasingly divided over the past two decades. Drawing on twenty years of nationally representative surveys, Dr. Bolzendahl highlighted key trends:
- Growing inclusivity: More Americans now count same-sex couples and single parents as family and believe same-sex parents raise children as well as different-sex couples.
- Persistent divides: These expansions have sparked pushback, particularly around religious-based service refusals and transgender rights. Beliefs about fairness, harm, and business freedom create sharp cultural and political fault lines.
- Experimental findings: Vignette studies show that support for denying services depends on factors like religion, business context, and couple type. Attitudes toward transgender people vary by age, appearance, and gender identity, with little change from 2017 to 2023.
Overall, family definitions continue to broaden, but acceptance remains uneven. New cultural battlegrounds—especially around religious freedom and transgender inclusion—are reshaping who “counts” as family in contemporary America.
Why Definitions Matter for Policy
Dr. Bolzendahl’s talk underscores a critical question for social policy: How do we define family? These definitions influence eligibility for benefits, program design, and even how researchers interpret data. Two examples illustrate why this matters:
- Poverty Measurement: The Official Poverty Measure (OPM) defines family narrowly—only people related by birth, marriage, or adoption who live together. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) expands this to include cohabiting partners and foster children, reflecting modern family structures and altering poverty statistics.
- Family Leave Policy: Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), spouses—including same-sex spouses since 2015—are eligible for leave. Oregon’s Paid Leave program goes further, covering domestic partners and offering broader definitions of child and parent. These inclusive definitions extend benefits to more households.
| Category | Paid Leave Oregon (OPL) | Federal FMLA |
| Spouse | Yes (includes domestic partner) | Yes (includes same-sex spouse after 2015 rule change) |
| Child | Yes: biological, adopted, foster, stepchild, spouse/domestic partner’s child, and their spouse/domestic partner | Yes: biological, adopted, foster, stepchild, or child for whom employee stands in loco parentis |
| Parent | Yes: biological, adoptive, stepparent, foster parent, legal guardian, spouse/domestic partner’s parent | Yes: biological or someone who stood in loco parentis when employee was a child |
| Grandparent | Yes | No |
| Grandchild | Yes | No |
| Sibling | Yes (including stepsibling and their spouse/domestic partner) | No |
| Affinity Clause | Yes: ‘Any person you are connected to like a family member’ | No (except for military caregiver leave: next of kin) |
| Military Leave | Covered under OPL for family members listed above | Includes spouse, child, parent, and next of kin of a covered servicemember |
Sources: https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla
https://paidleave.oregon.gov/employees/applying-for-family-leave.html
Across these examples, we see a trend toward inclusivity—but policy often lags behind social change.
Key Takeaways
- Family structures are diversifying faster than policy definitions.
Public attitudes increasingly recognize same-sex couples and single parents as family. Yet many federal policies still rely on narrow definitions, affecting benefit eligibility and research on family well-being.
- Cultural and political divisions shape family-related policy debates.
Expanding definitions intersect with conflicts over religious exemptions, LGBTQ rights, and transgender inclusion. Policies like Paid Leave Oregon broaden family definitions, but such inclusivity is uneven across states, creating a patchwork of supports influenced by political climate.