Wait until the focus on the family types get wind of the news that 51% of women are now living without a spouse. Consider the numbers - up from 35% in 1950, and 49% in 2000. Married couples became the minority of US households for the first time last year. A few savory bits from the article:
- 30 percent of African American women are living without a spouse, compared to 55 percent of non-hispanic white women, and 60 percent of Asian women;
- 53 percent of men are married and living with their spouse;
- Only 58 percent of 25-to-34-year old women are married, down from a high of 82% in 1950
Rather than seeing this as the death of the traditional family, others consider that the changing structures could mean a shift in how benefits and social polices are created in the United States.
From the article:
“For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage. Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with nonmarried partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ era.†- William H. Frey, the Brookings Institution
“Although we can help people ‘do’ marriage better, it is simply delusional to construct social policy or make personal life decisions on the basis that you can count on people spending most of their adult lives in marriage,†- Prof. Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage
