The promotion of marriage and two-parent families became an explicit public policy goal with the passage of the 1996 welfare reform bill. Marriage has the putative effect of reducing welfare dependency among single mothers, but only if they marry men with earnings sufficient to lift them and their children out of poverty. Newly released data from…

We apply marital search theory to examine whether out-of-wedlock childbearing affects mate selection patterns among American women. Using 1980-1995 CPS data, we apply probit models with selection to account for potential selection bias due to differences in "marriageability" between women in and not in unions. Compared to those without unmarried…

The promotion of marriage and two-parent families as a strategy to reduce welfare dependency continues to be a major public policy goal of the 1996 welfare reform. Based on the assumption that women will marry employed men and that their earnings will lift poor mothers and their children from public dependency, this objective raises important…

Changes in parenting behavior have led to the troubling situation called the "feminization of poverty." Families headed by divorced women are doing better than is commonly supposed. Families headed by never-married women are doing worse. Public policy should reflect the differing needs of these two groups. (VM)

Like the "scientific" approaches of craniometry and eugenics, Herrnstein and Murray's methods and arguments reveal an ideological position not only on African Americans but also on the role of women. Points out their focus on women in discussions of "illegitimacy," birth control, and parenting, and their targeting of poor…

Welfare work programs are a form of welfare fraud. They engender little change compared to the resources that go into them. The most promising policies for reducing welfare roles are the following: (1) support of children by absent parents; (2) tax credit systems; (3) improvements in public education; and (4) provision of health care. (VM)

Analyzes public policy strategies to support single parent families with children in Western European countries. Compares and contrasts with American policy. (FMW)

Although the vast majority of single mothers do not fit the description of an underclass, there is a small group of predominantly black single mothers concentrated in northern urban ghettos that is persistently weakly attached to the labor force, socially isolated, and reproducing itself. Although welfare programs are necessary for those who are…