Contrary to much popular commentary, these recent trends have little or nothing to do with an increase in teen pregnancy, which, in fact, has been steadily and sharply declining among all races for more than 20 years, with very little effect on rates of nonmarital births or child poverty or social mobility. The growth in unplanned pregnancies and non-marital births that I have described is concentrated among women aged 25–34.36 Of all unwed births in America nowadays, more than three quarters are to post-teen adults, and that share is growing.37 “Children having children” is a significant problem, but it is not the central challenge facing the working-class family in America.
After 1960, employment rates rose for all women, but the increase was faster and more substantial among college-educated women, so that in the era of two-tier families, college-educated mothers (70 percent) are more than twice as likely as high-school-educated moms (32 percent) to work outside the home.38 (See Figure 2.6.) College-educated moms are also more likely to have a male breadwinner in the household. The result is a substantial class disparity in the financial resources available for childrearing. Other things being equal, working mothers today spend less time with the kids than stay-at-home moms today, but working mothers today spend as much time with the kids as stay-at-home moms did in the 1970s, because today’s working mothers have cut back on other uses of their time.39