Surfacing Family Privilege and Supremacy in Family Science: Toward Justice for All

Abstract

In family science, a great deal of scholarly work has focused on marginalized and disadvantaged families with stated goals of improving family outcomes and well‐being. Yet little attention has been paid to family privilege and the ways in which the advantages of privileged families are maintained within a White heteronormative hegemonic society to the continued disadvantage of others. In this article, I define family privilege and consider how it intersects with other privileges (e.g., White privilege) to maintain the supremacy of the Standard North American Family. I theorize how family privilege is masked yet perpetuated and instantiated in the field of family science. I conclude with a discussion of approaches that family scientists can employ to surface and redress family privilege in the self, family privilege in family theories and methods, and the mechanisms that perpetuate family privilege and the maintenance of advantage. This work is critical to advancing family equality and social justice.