The Future of Family: Insights from Nancy Pearcey

Jan 20, 2024

In the second of our two-part interview with author and academic Nancy Pearcey, we explore solutions found in her recent book, The Toxic War on Masculinity. The full discussion, which emphasises the role of marriage in stable societies, is available here.

Pearcey begins by highlighting how “men benefit from being more engaged fathers”. She points out that recent research has shown men gain a “biochemical boost” from interacting with their children, something that was previously thought to be unique to mothers.

Focusing on the sanctity of marriage, Pearcey reaffirms that “biological married parents are the gold standard”. She emphasises the transformative role of fatherhood, with a compelling statement, “we’re not going to have a better class of men until we have a better class of fathers”.

Exploring the concept of pre-political rights, Pearcey says the State has overreached in redefining marriage. She argues that a State’s acceptance of same-sex marriage is to declare that “we’re not going to acknowledge biology anymore”. This leads to us “losing rights”, because, she warns, “most of our pre-political rights are based on biology”.

At C4M we support and promote the importance of real marriage, the role of parents, not least fathers, and the impact these can have on societal change and family dynamics.