Single Mothers

For Better or Worse, Not So Much. The lack of opportunities for a beneficial marriage (I’m aware of the absence here of discussing the connection of marriage to love and romance) is obviously a challenging issue for single mothers. In spite of the reshaping of our cultural sand piles about love, sex, and relationships, the legal and emotional ties of marriage still play significant roles in the well being of children. A marriage, for all of its shortcomings, can offer at least the possibility of a more stable family life. Consider that more than 40 percent of single-mother families are poor compared to only 6 percent of married couples with children. The marriage first, baby carriage later as life events in a timing sequence isn’t a workable plan for many women. Jill Filipovic, writing in The Guardian summed up the conflicting issue of marriage for women who aren’t living the American Dream: “For women for whom college isn't a possibility or was never on their radar – a reality for many

Kay Hymowitz, in her article, The Single-Mom Catastrophe, says, “Knowing that women are now expected to be able to raise children on their own, unskilled men lose much of the incentive to work, especially at the sometimes disagreeable jobs that tend to be the ones they can get. Scholars consistently find that unmarried men work fewer hours, make less money and get fewer promotions than do married men.” On that same topic of men and marriage, a study by Donna Ginther and Madeline Zavodny examined men who'd had “shotgun marriages” and, therefore, hadn't been planning to tie the knot. Their research found that those reluctant husbands “nevertheless earned more than their single peers did.” In short, depending on the situation, marriage can have benefits in terms of a stable family life for low-income men as it does low income