For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Out of Wedlock

New York Times ^ | February 17, 2012 | JASON DePARLE and SABRINA TAVERNISE

[reaganaut1]

LORAIN, Ohio — It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.

Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.

Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.

One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.

“Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

The shift is affecting children’s lives. Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.

[goat granny]

Easy solution, men keep it in your pants, women, quit spreading your legs for every thug that comes along.. Those women aren’t having babies without some guy not keeping it in their pants....both are immoral....I just don’t want to pay for their offspring..

[DNA.2012]

As a man, I subscribe to the “men are basically pigs” theory. Not that they should be or have to behave as pigs, but just that we naturally are pigs when left to our own devices.

Quick to sell out all men, aren't you? As you believe this, and you are a man, it must describe you, but it is not the nature of men in general.

First, mothers tried to instill some sense of honor and restraint and chivalry by raising them right

Your cluelessness is stunning. Communities in which single motherhood is the default are incredibly morally degenerate.

[DNA.2012]

Odd, that's how women were treated for ages.

Society was not the train wreck that it is now when men were in charge.

Now the tables are turned.

Gollum had that same view when he got the ring.

[DNA.2012]

And how will you convince people of that?

[thecodont]

We need to once again make it both economically feasible and socially acceptable for people to marry and start families in their late teens or early twenties which is what the human race is biologically programmed for.

Very good idea!

[wita]

As Rush says, what you subsidize, you get more of. Is there a better example? To hear those in positions to apply more money to the problem, we are not doing enough yet.

[kearnyirish2]

While he needs a lot of distractions to win, I don’t see him doing a war along the lines of Iraq or Afghanistan. We don’t have the resources, and after our midnight retreat from Iraq we don’t have the will.

You’re spot on that this election is critical, not just because of what the Kenyan Pirate is doing to this country but also because it will show how many Americans are willing to let him do it.

[Bigg Red]

It already is if you include abortions which you MUST to make this an honest evaluation the problem which is unwed PREGNANCIES

&&&&

Good point.

Actually, though, the problem is a lack of moral compass in many of these young women, which leads to sleeping around.

Time was when a young woman saved herself for marriage. There were always a few exceptions. Now, the minority number has flipped to the opposite direction.

[Grizzled Bear]

It is not just the parasitical females, it is also the disgusting, verminous males that spread their seed and assume that the productive members of society will take care of their progeny.

A lot of these girls reject decent guys who want to raise a family. They prefer to be used by thugs.

[free me]

I agree.

[AC86UT89]

“Honestly, the man can’t afford marriage. The woman has everything to gain from marriage, the man everything to lose. Since we treat women like legal children, they can seize control of a mans assets at will.”

Bingo. Not enough attention is being paid to why an increasing number of people, especially men, do not want to get married. I have built a small business and saved a considerable amount to take care of myself and my retirement. I can’t risk my life savings in an institution with a greater than 50% failure rate. In the event of a divorce there is a high chance that my financial security will become financial ruin.