• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Mothers now top earners in 4 in 10 US households

Erod

Erod

DP Veteran
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
15,483
Reaction score
8,227
Location
North Texas
Gender
Undisclosed
Political Leaning
Conservative
News from The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's working mothers are now the primary breadwinners in a record 40 percent of households with children - a milestone in the changing face of modern families, up from just 11 percent in 1960.
The findings by the Pew Research Center, released Wednesday, highlight the growing influence of "breadwinner moms" who keep their families afloat financially. While most are headed by single mothers, a growing number are families with married mothers who bring in more income than their husbands.

Demographers say the change is all but irreversible and is likely to bring added attention to child-care policies as well as government safety nets for vulnerable families. Still, the general public is not at all sure that having more working mothers is a good thing.
Click to expand...

Staggering is that 63 percent of these mothers are single, and that the income gap between a single working mother and married couples is enormous - $23K versus $80K.

This percentage is rising fast and will become an increasing burden on social welfare programs and entitlements in the future.
In all, 13.7 million U.S. households with children under age 18 now include mothers who are the main breadwinners. Of those, 5.1 million, or 37 percent, are married, while 8.6 million, or 63 percent, are single. The income gap between the families is large - $80,000 in median family income for married couples vs. $23,000 for single mothers.

Both groups of breadwinner moms - married and unmarried - have grown sharply.

Among all U.S. households with children, the share of married breadwinner moms has jumped from 4 percent in 1960 to 15 percent in 2011. For single mothers, the share has increased from 7 percent to 25 percent.
Click to expand...

I tell my daughters often that the single most important decision they will make in life is who they decide to marry and have children with. Marry well - meaning someone is who is responsible, committed to the marriage, and driven to provide - and life is relatively straightforward and easy to manage. Latch on to a loser, or get knocked up by a neanderthal, and life will be a difficult struggle to the end of their days.

Whether or not they work is irrelevant (my wife and I do, and my daughters are go-getters and probably will, too), and not the real point of this story, imo. It's about having two parents to tackle the daily needs and challenges of finances and raising children PROPERLY, not to mention the invaluable example of 'family' that is set for their kids.

This is exactly what is crippling America's black community and keeping it from participating in the American dream. And it is exactly what Democrats prey on for their voting base. Minorities, struggling single mothers, and the possible influx of suddenly legalized illegals, and the socialized state of America will be set in concrete. The numbers will be too great for the bootstrappers and real 'pillar' Americans to ever lead again.

What a sad, needy, dependent country this has become.
 
Shouldn't women be the top earner in 5/10 households?
 
ecofarm said:
Shouldn't women be the top earner in 5/10 households?
Click to expand...

Well it looks at households with kids, so no. Not all women have kids.
 
ecofarm said:
Shouldn't women be the top earner in 5/10 households?
Click to expand...

A lot of women choose or prefer to stay at home to raise their children, so no.
 
Erod said:
A lot of women choose or prefer to stay at home to raise their children, so no.
Click to expand...

Not where they're the top earner. My ex-wife made (and still does make) twice what I do. When one of us had to quit working for a short time, I did.
 
So, half the population should not be the higher wage 50% of the time? Nonsense. Learn math, people!
 
Just because a woman makes more than her husband doesn't mean he is a loser or a Neanderthal. Currently I am the breadwinning mother of my family. My husband works construction and when it slowed down our roles reversed and he stayed home with the baby and I provided. He is now working again though not getting 40 hours and I have moved up so I am making ok money but still more than him. Does not make us sad or needy and I will not be made to feel bad because I make more and I am a woman or that my husband isn't "driven to provide" because he makes less.
 
rocket88 said:
Not where they're the top earner. My ex-wife made (and still does make) twice what I do. When one of us had to quit working for a short time, I did.
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me. But it's not always true. Pretty sure most of us know somebody who was the top-earner but chucked it all.
 
ecofarm said:
So, half the population should not be the higher wage 50% of the time? Nonsense. Learn math, people!
Click to expand...

You learn math, and science. Until men start having babies (and developing nurturing motherly instincts), you're going to have a lot of stay-at-home moms.
 
Erod said:
You learn math, and science. Until men start having babies (and developing nurturing motherly instincts), you're going to have a lot of stay-at-home moms.
Click to expand...

And now that women have choices that their mothers or grandmothers did not, you're going to have a lot of women who choose to work too.
 
Erod said:
You learn math, and science. Until men start having babies (and developing nurturing motherly instincts), you're going to have a lot of stay-at-home moms.
Click to expand...

Math and science present a clear trend. Women should be 5/10, as they have gone from 1/10 to 4/10 over the last 50 years. Your personal opinions about women cannot stand in the face of real world statistics and empirical evidence.
 
Of course the OP turns this news into a way to **** on black people.
 
ecofarm said:
Shouldn't women be the top earner in 5/10 households?
Click to expand...

It would seem if you did not take into account having children. Women may take time off of work or pass up promotions which could lead to slower income growth because of children. That is not to mention the blatant sexism which has women being paid less than men fopr the same job on average. So it is not surprising they are not equal. Since they are the only ones who can give birth and things like pregnancy do take time away from your job they may never get to being fully equal simply because the genders are not the same.
 
americanwoman said:
Just because a woman makes more than her husband doesn't mean he is a loser or a Neanderthal. Currently I am the breadwinning mother of my family. My husband works construction and when it slowed down our roles reversed and he stayed home with the baby and I provided. He is now working again though not getting 40 hours and I have moved up so I am making ok money but still more than him. Does not make us sad or needy and I will not be made to feel bad because I make more and I am a woman or that my husband isn't "driven to provide" because he makes less.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to infer that at all. I'm talking about the "loser" leech, who refuses to work at all or contribute to the family in a productive way. You know the type, and that does not sound like your husband whatsoever. And by neanderthal, I was referring to the boyfriend or one-night mistake who gets you pregnant, then disappears to leave you to deal with the consequences.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the wife outearning the husband, so long as both are working equally as hard on the family as a whole.
 
Erod said:
I tell my daughters often that the single most important decision they will make in life is who they decide to marry and have children with. Marry well - meaning someone is who is responsible, committed to the marriage, and driven to provide - and life is relatively straightforward and easy to manage. Latch on to a loser, or get knocked up by a neanderthal, and life will be a difficult struggle to the end of their days.
Click to expand...

You do realize we live in the 21st century and not the 1800s right?
 
Erod said:
I tell my daughters often that the single most important decision they will make in life is who they decide to marry and have children with. Marry well - meaning someone is who is responsible, committed to the marriage, and driven to provide - and life is relatively straightforward and easy to manage. Latch on to a loser, or get knocked up by a neanderthal, and life will be a difficult struggle to the end of their days.

Whether or not they work is irrelevant (my wife and I do, and my daughters are go-getters and probably will, too), and not the real point of this story, imo. It's about having two parents to tackle the daily needs and challenges of finances and raising children PROPERLY, not to mention the invaluable example of 'family' that is set for their kids.

This is exactly what is crippling America's black community and keeping it from participating in the American dream. And it is exactly what Democrats prey on for their voting base. Minorities, struggling single mothers, and the possible influx of suddenly legalized illegals, and the socialized state of America will be set in concrete. The numbers will be too great for the bootstrappers and real 'pillar' Americans to ever lead again.

What a sad, needy, dependent country this has become.
Click to expand...

Good for you! Great post.
 
tererun said:
It would seem if you did not take into account having children. Women may take time off of work or pass up promotions which could lead to slower income growth because of children. That is not to mention the blatant sexism which has women being paid less than men fopr the same job on average. So it is not surprising they are not equal. Since they are the only ones who can give birth and things like pregnancy do take time away from your job they may never get to being fully equal simply because the genders are not the same.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see a little evidence that women are paid less for doing the same job as men "on average."
 
ThePlayDrive said:
Of course the OP turns this news into a way to **** on black people.
Click to expand...

Not meant to. But it is a stark reality, and perhaps one of the most difficult problems to solve in our society. Kids need fathers in their lives, and more specifically, they need those fathers at home with mom. It makes an enormous difference in what becomes of those kids, with very few exceptions.

There was a statistic here in Dallas. Four out of every five black children born here do not have a father listed on the birth certificate. Incomprehensible to me.

But this thread wasn't meant to be about that. Perhaps I should have left it out, but it's something that I find really sad and discouraging.
 
PeteEU said:
You do realize we live in the 21st century and not the 1800s right?
Click to expand...

Sure, he does--and he's speaking to practical facts.
 
PeteEU said:
You do realize we live in the 21st century and not the 1800s right?
Click to expand...

This is universal to any time. Who you decide to have children with has a great deal to do with what the rest of your life will be. How can you possibly argue with that?
 
nota bene said:
I'd like to see a little evidence that women are paid less for doing the same job as men "on average."
Click to expand...

That's true (last I saw a study), and there's the glass ceiling.
 
Erod said:
Not meant to. But it is a stark reality, and perhaps one of the most difficult problems to solve in our society. Kids need fathers in their lives, and more specifically, they need those fathers at home with mom. It makes an enormous difference in what becomes of those kids, with very few exceptions.

There was a statistic here in Dallas. Four out of every five black children born here do not have a father listed on the birth certificate. Incomprehensible to me.

But this thread wasn't meant to be about that. Perhaps I should have left it out, but it's something that I find really sad and discouraging.
Click to expand...

It is sad and discouraging. Our inner-city poor (black/white, doesn't make a lot of difference) are family-berift. Women picking gang-bangers to have children with, not caring if they have jobs, not even wanting a partner, babies by various babies' daddies. These women are idiots.

Prediction: Thread degrades to accusations of racism in 5...4...3...2...1!
 
nota bene said:
Sure, he does--and he's speaking to practical facts.
Click to expand...

So the only thing women should think about is finding a man to provide and protect them and start producing babies?
 
ecofarm said:
Math and science present a clear trend. Women should be 5/10, as they have gone from 1/10 to 4/10 over the last 50 years. Your personal opinions about women cannot stand in the face of real world statistics and empirical evidence.
Click to expand...

They went from 1/10 to 4/10 because of the dramatic increase in single mothers. If those 63 percent weren't unmarried mothers, that 4/10 would drop considerably.
 
Erod said:
They went from 1/10 to 4/10 because of the dramatic increase in single mothers. If those 63 percent weren't unmarried mothers, that 4/10 would drop considerably.
Click to expand...

How can single mothers be the "top earner" in a household, wouldn't they be the "only earner"?


The findings by the Pew Research Center, released Wednesday, highlight the growing influence of "breadwinner moms" who keep their families afloat financially. While most are headed by single mothers, a growing number are families with married mothers who bring in more income than their husbands.
Click to expand...

It seems that two stats are mixed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom