Less marriage, more poverty.(the Digest: Summaries of important new research)("Marriage and Caste: America's Chief Source of Inequality?")(Brief article)

Kay Hymowitz, "Marriage and Caste: America's Chief Source of Inequality?" City Journal, Winter 2006 (city-journal.org)

After analyzing data on family structure, Kay Hymowitz of City Journal concludes that different attitudes toward marriage are a key factor separating the rich from the poor.

Statistics show that starting in the 1960s, women of all educational levels divorced, separated, and bore children out of wedlock at increasing rates. Then after 1980, the divorce rate of college-educated women declined, and the growth in their rate of illegitimacy slowed substantially. This has led to a marriage gap, with educated women mostly maintaining traditional families, and less well-educated women more likely to be single parents.

In 2000, about 10 percent of mothers with a college degree or higher were living without a husband, compared to 36 percent for non-college graduates.

The economic impact of this is significant. Only 6 percent of the nation's married families live below the poverty line, ...