Single-Parenthood
The "feminization of poverty" refers to the increasing proportion of poor people (especially children) living in households headed by a single woman. Single-parenthood is an important variable because it is deeply associated with poverty. While only one out of ten married-couple families live below the poverty line, more than two-thirds of families headed by never-married women (of any race or ethnicity) live in poverty.
The rate of single-parenthood among black inner-city families has grown alarmingly in the last forty years. In Chicago's ghetto areas, for instance, more than five out of six parents (aged 18-44) are single. Nationally, more than two-thirds of African Americans babies are now born to single mothers. Over half of all black families are now headed by women, half of whom have never been married.
Single-parenthood is both a cause and an effect of poverty.
- Most obviously, single-parenthood means that there is only one breadwinner in the family.
- That one breadwinner is usually a woman, and women's work pays less well than men's work.
- Among black women, single-parenthood is associated with lower levels of education, which results in even poorer paying jobs.
- Childcare becomes an overwhelming issue. It is simply not possible to pay for childcare costs that would consume more than one third of a poverty-level income.17
Why is the rate of single-parenthood so high among poor, inner-city African Americans? There is debate about this question, and no clear consensus has arisen. Although there are some factors that are specific to poor, urban black people,
society-wide forces have also played a large part.
- Nationally, the birth rate outside of marriage has soared in the last two decades, although whites have largely accounted for the increase. From 1980 to 1992, for instance, the rate of births outside of marriage increased among whites by 94%, among blacks by only 9%.
- Social mores have changed considerably. The social pressures throughout society to marry and stay married have decreased dramatically.
- Men have felt freer to leave their families (and studies show that most men pay no child support or less than agreed upon).
- A woman now has the "right to reproduce" under any conditions she chooses; well over 90% of single women who carry pregnancy to completion take the baby home.
- There is a general increase in sexual activity among young people and the pregnancy rates among teenagers have increased.
These society-wide factors influence especially the poor because their impact is multiplied by causes of single-parenthood that are especially intense in the ghetto.
Footnotes
17 Although costs vary greatly, the average cost of childcare, according to the Children's Defense Fund, is $3,400 per year per child. Childcare expenses consume from 18 to 21 percent of the income from poor and near-poor families. (Reported in
The Youngest Minds by Ann and Richard Barnet, p. 255.)
