WSJ: As empowering as it is, in a way, to see women “doing everything” and succeeding, does the “end of men” have the power to destabilize societies in the poorer and middle-classes?
HANNA ROSIN: That’s what we’ve already seen with urban black America. When William Julius Wilson wrote the book “When Work Disappears” [in 1996], he was describing a world in which the urban, manufacturing economy collapses, people loose their jobs and basically the civil society comes apart. We’ve already been down this road, and I think it would be safe to say that the inner-city, African-American culture is a matriarchy. In the sense that social welfare flows to mothers, mothers get housing vouchers…In a sense, that’s our first American matriarchy we’ve been working through the past forty years. You have a Latino version of that now, a white version of that now.
So yes, it does have the potential to destabilize society as we’ve already seen happen once. Part of my hope here is that people open their eyes to that and put a stop to it.
Oh, so NOW you get it.
People already have their eyes open. Black folk have been crying out for help for decades. Start with the Moynihan Report and you will see that fatherless homes have been a problem for decades. A slow and steady shift towards matriarchy in the black community has not worked out very well. It seems the trend towards a ‘new normal’ of single mother homes is starting to effect the rest of American society. Do we really want to travel down the same road the black community has already seen?
The above quote was from an interview on the Wall Street Journal Online. Hanna Rosin was pretty insightful. Her new book The End of Men is causing quite a stir. I feel she is peeling back layers of reality that some chose to ignore.
The facts are disturbing.
- 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average.
- 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.
- 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Center for Disease Control)
- 80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes –14 times the average. (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)
- 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (National Principals Association Report)
According to 2009 U.S. Census Bureau data, over 24 million children live apart from their biological fathers. That is 1 out of every 3 (33%) children in America. Nearly 2 in 3 (64%) African American children live in father-absent homes. One in three (34%) Hispanic children, and 1 in 4 (25%) white children live in father-absent homes.
In 1960, only 11% of children lived in father-absent homes.
The Consequences
Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents to:
- Be poor
- Use drugs
- Experience educational problems
- Experience health problems
- Experience emotional problems
- Experience behavioral problems
- Be victims of child abuse
- Engage in criminal behavior
(from the National Fatherhood Initiative)
We all can put a stop to the problem if we start being honest with ourselves. Widespread fatherlessness has far-reaching consequences and is possibly the most significant cultural problem of our time.