How Unwed Mothers Feel About Being Unwed Mothers

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http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/03/how-unwed-mothers-feel-about-being-unwed-mothers/274301/




The latest numbers on unmarried parenting are out. The National Marriage Project reports that 58 percent of first births in lower-middle-class households and 40 percent of all U.S. births are to unwed mothers. Like clockwork, society has turned its collective gaze to the social and economic crises facing the single mother. And like clockwork, we mothers these statistics represent brace ourselves for the public's moral scrutiny and fiscal concern. We become like specters; we may be at the center of national conversation, but we don't often see much of our real lives reflected in it. Everyone's asking around us; few people are speaking to us.

The Wall Street Journal's recent piece, "The New Unmarried Mom" speculates that, for the under-educated, single parenthood takes the place of college graduation and career advancement as an essential "rite of adulthood."

But John Halpin of ThinkProgress insists that unmarried mothers desperately want higher-wage jobs, and the creation of more well-paid positions should be a top priority for progressives.

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson even asserts that technological advances like Lunchables and washing machines are making single motherhood easier.