Share the good news of marriage with your friends by forwarding this newsletter to them!

Campus Corner Blurb

Podcast blurb

Lutheran Public Radio: Dr. J is usually on live on Tuesdays from 2-2:15 p.m. Pacific Time (Click the link to listen live or find a station near you.)

April 16: "The Institution Formerly Known as Marriage: An Economist's Lament," University of Dallas

Miss an issue of the newsletter? Check out the archives here.

Do you need advice on how to improve your marriage or relationship, or on how to find the right person for you? Expert Dr. J is here for you. Click here to ask your question, which may be featured anonymously in this newsletter for the benefit of all.

Read past questions and answers here.

Need help with your marriage? You can also check out Dr. J's "101 Tips for a Happier Marriage!"

• To prevent mailbox filters from deleting mailings from The Ruth Institute, add jmorse@ruthinstitute.org to your address book

Again the question is: What percentage of African American children were born to married parents in 1970? What percentage of African American children were born to married parents in 2008?

A. African American families used to be no different from the general population, but they started to diverge after 1970. Around 90% of African American children were born to married parents in 1970 and now that percentage is around one third.

B. Close to two-thirds, or 62%, of African American children were born to married parents in 1970, vs. 28% in 2008.

C. The African American family has never been very stable. About 50% of African American children were born to married parents in 1970, and that number is now down to around 30%.

Correct answer: B. The African American family, while different from the general population, was historically more stable than people sometimes suppose. Nearly two-thirds of African American children were born to married parents in 1970, while nearly three-quarters were born to unmarried mothers by 2008.

As a point of comparison, 89% of children in the general population were born to married parents in 1970, while 60% were born to married parents in 2008. So the percent of children born to married parents declined in the general population by 29 percentage points. The percent of children born to married parents in the African American community declined by 34 percentage points, and they were starting from a lower percentage to begin with.

Since they have a higher incidence of poverty, African American families are more vulnerable to the incentive structures created by anti-poverty programs. It seems safe to say, then, that the combination of perverse incentives created by the welfare state and the weakening social disapproval of out-of-wedlock childbearing has been particularly devastating to the African American community.
This information is based on The Marriage Index, published by the Institute for American Values, available at www.americanvalues.org. Regular Ruth Readers will recognize Professor Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia on the list of coauthors of this report. Prof. Wilcox lectured at our first It Takes a Family conference. You may also recognize Mr. Chuck Stetson, one of our featured Friends of Ruth, as the person acknowledged whose financial support made the Marriage Index possible!

Can we judge the status of a woman by her paypacket? Have women arrived when they have half the seats in the legislature and their husbands do half the chores at home? This is Part I of a symposium by Mercatornet.com on improving the status of women by 2020.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse's take on the situation:

Motherhood within marriage is a worthy choice

I have a radical idea for promoting the dignity of women: the idea that giving birth to children inside marriage is good and worthy use of one’s time and talent. This idea has come under assault from many directions.

We hear that intelligent women should use their minds, by giving priority to career. Taking care of children is for losers with nothing better to do.

We hear that independent women should not rely on men financially. It is better to have a child alone, or to be childless, than to be financially interdependent with the child’s father.

We hear there is no urgency to having children. If you haven’t found a husband, if you haven’t made the time to become a mother naturally, you can always use artificial insemination with donor sperm, to become a mother at the time of your own choosing.

If we accept these ideas, we lose essential features of being a female human: an appreciation of woman’s natural life-giving powers, of woman’s desire for lasting relationships, and of woman’s intrinsic delight in bringing forth new life.

Male and female are two different ways of being human. Without women being women, men too, are diminished. The uniquely feminine becomes obscured to us all, much to the loss of woman’s intrinsic dignity.

Support Ruth