esDivorce and separation lead to family structure changes. The decline of the two parent household has occurred in conjunction with the growth of female-headed households. There are two major problems with female-headed households: Females earn less money than males (even for the same job with same skills), and females are more likely to work in lower wage jobs (female sex-typical occupations).Racial differences are an important factor in family structure today. This is in contrast to the past. Prior to 1950, blacks and whites had similar percentages of ever-married persons. But since the 1950's and more significantly since the 1960's the racial gap in marriage patterns has grown (Wilson 1987). Black women today are more likely to either delay marriage or postpone it indefinitely. In addition, while black marital fertility, along with white marital fertility, has dropped since the baby boom of the 1950's and early 1960's black nonmarital fertility has not (Wilson 1987). Thus, this has led to an increase in never-married or female-headed families.The economic transformation of the 1970's led to shifts in the economy from a manufacturing base to a service base. With this shift much employment dislocation took place as the skills of workers became mismatched with the jobs available (especially the high paying jobs). Many men were unable to fulfill their "bread-winner role" and the result was the tremendous increase in female-headed families. This link between economic changes and the growth of the female-headed family is the main focus of this paper. The link is important because of the potentially harmful effects female-headed families can have on children in terms of poverty. Return to Table of ContentsData and MethodsThis study uses data from the Urban Underclass Database developed by Kasarda at the University of North Carolina. The database contains data from 1960-1990 compiled from various sources on the largest 100 cities (in 1980) b...
