The National Center for Health Statistics published a report earlier this week about the increase in unwed mothers having children in the United States. The Washington Post covered the story and included some sociological commentary…
The number of children being born out of wedlock has risen sharply in recent years, driven primarily by women in their 20s and 30s opting to have children without getting married. Nearly four out of every 10 births are now to unmarried women.
“It’s been a huge increase — a dramatic increase,” said Stephanie J. Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics, which documented the shift in detail yesterday for the first time, based on an analysis of birth certificates nationwide. “It’s quite striking.”
Although the report did not examine the reasons for the increase, Ventura and other experts cite a confluence of factors, including a lessening of the social stigma associated with unmarried motherhood, an increase in couples delaying or forgoing marriage, and growing numbers of financially independent women and older and single women deciding to have children on their own after delaying childbearing.
One sociologist weighs in…
“I think this is the tipping point,” said Rosanna Hertz, a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wellesley College. “This is becoming increasingly the norm. The old adage that ‘first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage’ just no longer holds true.”
“Women can have children on their own, and it’s not going to destroy your employment, and it’s not going to mean that you’ll be made a pariah by the community,” Hertz said. “It’s much more socially acceptable.”
And another….
Other couples today feel less compelled to marry just because they are having a child.
“It seems to be more wrong to be in a marriage with someone who you don’t love and consider to be your best friend than not to be in a marriage at all,” said Barbara Katz Rothman, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York. “It’s not that people care less about marriage. In some ways, it’s because they care more.”
Comments 1
LAD — July 25, 2009
Everywhere you go these days there are young woman with children and no husbands. People these days may accept this, but I have to say that there are some serious consequences down the road for the mother, the child, and for tax dollars on providing health care and support for all these babies. Whatever happened to the structured home environment for the child with married parents? All we see are young woman between ages of 20 and 29 pregnant and moving back home with mom and dad because they have no money, oodles of credit card debt, and little or no education to support themselves. What ever happened to self-respect by not putting yourself in the position of getting pregnant in the first place? Babies are beautiful gifts from above, but they never ask to be brought into the middle of a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship that has no intentions of commitment.