Almost half of all babies born in the U.S. in 2019 were born to unmarried mothers, a dramatic increase since 1960, when only 5% of births were to unmarried mothers.
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The economist Melissa Kearney has been both vilified and praised for her new book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind.
In the book, released last month, Kearney points out a rather obvious fact: Children raised by two parents have a much higher chance of success than those raised by one. Yet she goes even further to argue that whether parents are married or not impacts their children’s success.
Her argument goes against the trend in the U.S.; American children are increasingly being born and raised by single mothers. The U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study. Almost a quarter, or 23% of U.S. children under age 18, live with one parent and no other adults.
Kearney finds that this arrangement hurts children, widens inequality and ultimately damages society. She is ringing the alarm bells, and she wants people to hear them and start thinking of solutions. Judging by the book’s reception, she has managed to achieve at least the first part of that.
“I’ve done exactly what I wanted, which was to start a conversation,” Kearney tells NPR. “But I get frustrated that a lot of the initial reaction is an initial knee jerk reaction.”
Kearney’s argument that children who grow up in unmarried households are fighting the odds has progressives miffed and accusing Kearney of stigmatizing single mothers. Conservatives are celebrating her findings as validating their support of marriage.
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