More Women Over 35 Are Having Kids Out of Marriage
Agrowing share of older unmarried women is having kids.
Newdata from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that birth rates amongunmarried women in the U.S. between the ages of 35 and 39 shot up 48% between2002 and 2012. For older women between 40 and 44 years old, this rate—whilevery low—rose 29% between 2007 and 2012.
Thatmeans for every 1,000 women 35 to 39 years old who are not married, there were31 births in 2012, compared with 29 births in 2007 and 21 births in 2002. Forunmarried women 40 to 44, this figure edged up from seven births in 2007 tonine births in 2012.
U.S.women are much more likely to have children out of wedlock than theyused to. Roughly four in 10 U.S. births are to unmarried women, a figure that peakedin 2009 and hasn’t budged much since, according to the CDC.
Therise of the unmarried mom in America has stirred concern for years. Marriedparents tend to be more stable and have higher household incomes, which benefitchildren. And a gap is growing betweenAmerica’s married parents, who tend to be better-educated and higher-earningand unmarried parents, who are likelier to be less-educated and lower-earning.This so-called marriage divide could fuel social and economic inequality.
Butthe CDC’s latest findings show that trends related to unmarried moms varygreatly by age: It’s becoming much more common for middle-aged, unmarried womento have kids, as taboos ease. At the same time, younger women aredelaying having children, to pursue career opportunities. Unwanted teen births,meanwhile, have plummeted, especially among black and Hispanic women.
Thephenomenon of non-marital childbearing rose steadily in the 1980s and thensharply in the mid-2000s. The recession, which began in late 2007, along withprogress reducing unwanted teen births, has recently pushed the numbers downslightly. Last year, there were 1.6 million births to unmarried women, down 7%from a peak of 1.7 million in 2008. This is still more than double the level of1980, probably due to the increased social acceptance of having kids out ofmarriage.
TheCDC’s data suggest the nature of non-marital childbearing is changing: Less andless does the stereotypical image of the single mother hold true.“Cohabiting ｕnions,” where two unmarried people have a romantic relationshipand live together, have increased, along with births within those ｕnions. Between2002 and the period from 2006-2010, the percentage of recent non-marital birthswithin cohabiting ｕnions jumped from 41% to 58%.
Someresearch shows measures of father involvement are very similar among marriedand cohabiting fathers. In other words, the increasing number and quality ofcohabiting ｕnions could mean the fabric of the American family—two parents, twoincomes, raising children—isn’t fraying as much as some researchers longfeared.
ArticleSource: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/08/13/more-middle-aged-women-are-having-kids-out-of-marriage/
ImageSource: https://dailyworth.cdn.speedyrails.net/images/working-mother_web.jpg
VOCABULARYWORDS:
1. Outof wedlock (idiom) ~ of parents not legally married to each other
2. Peak(v.) ~ to bring to a maximum of development, value, or intensity
3. Taboo(n.) ~ a ban resulting from social custom or emotional aversion
4. Plummet(v.) ~ to fall straight down
5. Stereotypical(adj.) ~ a conventional, oversimplified conception, opinion, or image
6. Cohabit(v.) ~ to live together in a sexual relationship, especially when not legallymarried
7. Fray(v.) ~ to alarm or frighten
QUESTIONSFORDISCUSSION:
1. Isit still taboo in your ｃountry to have a baby out of wedlock? Why do you thinkis that?
2. What is your personal opinion on unwedmothers?
3. Doyou think that the number of unwed mothers will increase in your ｃountry in thenear future? Discuss your answer.
