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|  FINDINGS A recent US Census report concludes that nearly one-quarter of the nation's never-married women have become mothers - a 60% increase over the past decade. The largest increases are among white women and college educated women, particularly those with professional and managerial jobs. The report finds that for the first time, the majority of "first births" - someone's first child - were either conceived by or born to an unmarried woman. A TREND? Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell and Jodie Foster have done it. Dan Quayle attacked television character Murphy Brown for it. With the increase of "spouse-free pregnancies" and women choosing to have children on their own, moral and ethical questions emerge. Is having a child, without a man, selfish? Is it a political choice? Is it a threat to the family structure? Social critic Lisa Shiffren: "You can only sympathize with a woman who wants a child, especially when she doesn't have a husband. But the bottom line is the child and what's good for the child... There is a tremendous narcissistic element to making the decision to bring a child into the world without a father." Feminist Gloria Steinem: "It isn't a big number of women who are choosing to have children on their own... it's just that [the] lack of shame and positive choice is new... It would be okay if those women had been cast aside... if they had been left, if they had been widowed, if they had been divorced... It's okay for women to be victims. It's not okay for us to affirmatively choose what we want to do." THE DADDY DEBATE Nearly one-third of babies born in the US are children of unmarried mothers. Some analysts predict that by the year 2001 that number may rise to 40 percent. How will these children fare without fathers? What determines a child's well being - the number of parents in the home or the quality of parenting that the child experiences? "Children growing up without fathers are more likely to fail at school or to drop out, engage in early sexual activity, develop drug and alcohol problems, and experience or perpetrate violence." Wade F. Horn, Ph.D. President of the National Fatherhood Initiative Some studies have proven to the contrary. (See "Confronting the Myths of Single Parenting" by Loanda Cullen, M.A.) "Parenting is a job, it requires certain skills and the maturity to carry them out - it is not something that comes with a marriage license or male genes." Jane Mattes, C.S.W.
Founder and Director of Single Mothers By Choice | |