The Changing Shape of the American Family

To pique your interest in the online chat with sociologist Rosanna Hertz I’m hosting tomorrow night, I wanted to share some statistics she sent me about the changing shape of the American family.

• Less than 25% of all families consist of a married, opposite-sex couple living with their own (biological or adopted) children—down from 40% in 1970.
• While most children do live with two parents today (including stepparents), most will also at some point live with only one parent.
• One third of all births are to women who are not married. Half of them are not teen mothers, but rather women over the age of 20. This number doesn’t distinguish between those cohabitating with a partner and those living alone— regardless, it shows that marriage and family are no longer the coterminous institutions they once were. (The one third also does not include women who adopt, since we do not know how many women adopt on their own.)
• For women over 30 years old, 8% birthed children on their own in 1970, but today the proportion has jumped to 12%.
• Finally, a figure pointing to the continued need for childcare: “Among children living with single parents, 69% have an employed parent. . . . The women in these families are not selfish careerists, as they have often been (and still are) characterized. Women seek employment for the same reasons men do: they need a paycheck, they want personal rewards, and they wish to do meaningful work.” (From Hertz and Marshall, Working Families.)

Join us here tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. EDT to learn more about these demographic and social changes and to discuss practical advice for single moms and others.