Nationalist white supremacy organizations, and their gentler counterparts in the U.S., sometimes argue that non-white women are having more children than white women. The result is a shift in the national demographic (that they don’t like).
This month the Pew Research Center released a report on the changing demographics of American motherhood (discovered thanks to a tip by Michael Kimmel). Under “Mother’s Race,” we see that there has been a 12 percentage point decrease in the share of births to white women between 1990 and 2008. In contrast, births to Asian and, especially, Hispanic women have increased (a combined 13 percentage points):
The share of births to native versus foreign born women has also shifted, with a quarter of births now to women who have immigrated to the U.S.:
They summarize:
White women made up 53% of mothers of newborns in 2008, down from 65% in 1990. The share of births to Hispanic women has grown dramatically, to one-in-four.
So, whether you agree with the national white supremacists’ evaluation of the data or not (I assume you do not), they’re right about the data.
UPDATE: Sabrina, in the comments, rightly points out that my comments assume that the father’s race matches the mother’s.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 8
SocImages: The Changing Demographics of Motherhood « Karl Bakeman — May 17, 2010
[...] 17, 2010 · Leave a Comment This morning, Lisa at SocImages highlights data from a new Pew study on the number of children born in the United States based on [...]
Neefer — May 17, 2010
How do they know if a woman is married?
I know that at least one survey in California assumed that all women who had a different last name from the father and child were unmarried.
Perhaps I shall read the report for the answer.
Sabrina — May 17, 2010
This only takes into account the mother's race, which begs the question about the assumption of the father's race. Is it assumed that babies born to white mothers have white fathers? Granted, I'm sure this makes little difference to the white supremacists, but the consideration of interracial parents is ignored by the information presented here by not taking into account the race of the fathers.
Similarly, the number of native-born versus foreign born mothers does not accurately reflect the number of children who may have a native-born mother and a foreign born father or vice-versa.
I was born to a white mother and a first-generation immigrant Asian father. Technically under this study, that makes me white and born to a native born, which ignores the fact that I am technically a visible minority.
Food for thought.
Anon — May 19, 2010
Since when, exactly, is "Hispanic" considered a race?
Totally valid question.
The Graying of American Mothers » Sociological Images — June 24, 2010
[...] more from this report, see our post on race trends in motherhood. var object = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title:'The Graying of American Mothers', url: [...]