“It’s impressive,” said Ralph Richard Banks, a Stanford law professor who wrote about race, gender and family standards. “In a way, they are on the frontier of different aspects of American families and how they are changing.”
Some may say that they reflect where Americans are already. Today, the number of couples who are in an interracial marriage is about one in six, a number that, along with the number of interfaith marriages, has increased since 1967, according to Pew.
Mrs. Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, was brought up with Christian and Hindu practices, while her husband, who is white, grew up attending a Jewish summer camp. (At her wedding, Mrs. Harris participated in the Jewish ritual of breaking a glass.)
She was in her 40s when they got married; older than the average age of first marriage for women in this country, although that number continues to increase.
Emhoff was divorced, had two children from his previous marriage, causing his children to be among one in four who do not live with their biological parents, according to the Census Bureau. Mrs. Harris had no children. Many Americans do not, as fertility rates have reached record levels. She always said that being “Momala” for her stepchildren is the “most important” role for her.
“People have more options,” said Professor Banks. “This is a change across society, but it is often not so visible in positions of power.”
A large mixed family
In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, Ms. Harris spoke about her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an immigrant who came to California as a teenager with a dream of becoming a cancer researcher and raised Kamala and her sister , Maya, after she and her father divorced. For most of Mrs. Harris’s life, it was all three. When Maya became pregnant at the age of 17 with her daughter, Meena, she became four.