Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Strategies for Change

2. MARRIAGE AND FATHERHOOD IN THE LIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN

Chapter 2 MARRIAGE AND FATHERHOOD IN THE LIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN STEVEN L. NOCK Marriage and fatherhood are important aspects of most men’s lives, and they typically lead to predictable changes, especially when the two occur together. For example, research on fatherhood outside of marriage found that it has many of the same consequences for men five to ten years later in their lives that motherhood outside of marriage has for women. Men who become fathers outside of marriage go on to have lower incomes, less education, work fewer weeks per year, and have higher rates of poverty (Lerman and Ooms 1993; Moore 1995; Nock 1998a). Since unmarried men do not typically live with their children, why would premarital fatherhood have such consequences? The simplest answer appears to be that unmarried fathers have much lower marriage rates than comparable men who are not fathers (unmarried mothers, likewise, have lower marriage rates than women who do not bear children outside of marriage). That is, once they become fathers they are less likely to marry than are comparable men who do not become fathers. The implication is that a failure to marry might explain some of the negative consequences of unmarried fatherhood. Indeed, research shows that the major reason premarital fatherhood affects men’s futures is because it makes them less likely to ever get married and more likely to cohabit instead. Men who became fathers before marriage but who subsequently married someone (the mother of their child, or someone else) resembled men who did not become fathers before marriage. In other words, marriage erased most of the negative consequences of premarital fatherhood (Nock 1998a; Waite and Lillard 1991). 30 Even if the failure to marry is the primary reason that unmarried fatherhood jeopardizes men’s futures, we are still left to explain why marriage has such effects. Marriage in Men’s Lives (Nock 1998b) was an attempt to identify why marriage is generally beneficial for men. Some conclusions from that work set the stage for the following discussion: • Both sexes gain from marriage, but men are the greater beneficiaries. • Marriage improves men’s economic, emotional, and physical well-being. • Anything that separates men from marriage is likely to limit their futures. • The benefits of marriage are greater when children are born to the couple. Marriage alone improves men’s lives, but not as much as marriage combined with fatherhood. Fatherhood alone is likely to be costly to men unless it is preceded or at least followed by marriage. Unfortunately , men who become unwed fathers are less likely ever to marry. As a result, they are less likely to enjoy the benefits of marriage. Marriage occupies a less conspicuous role in black men’s lives today than in the past. As William Wilson (1980, 1990) and Elijah Anderson (1990) have noted, fewer black men now marry. U.S. census figures (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1978, 1988, 1998, 2000) show that in 1977, seven in ten (69 percent) black men aged 40 to 44 were married and living with their wives. Ten years later, in 1987, the figure had dropped by thirteen percentage points, to 56 percent. In 1997, the figure had dropped another thirteen percentage points, when 43 percent of black men that age were married and living with their wives (in 2000 the figure climbed slightly, to 45 percent). Given the high rates of divorce and separation among African Americans, another perspective on the role of marriage is gained by considering the percentage of men who have ever married. Approximately one in ten black men (9 percent) is currently married but not living with his wife. Another 16 percent are divorced. In all, seven in ten (70 percent) black men between the ages of forty and forty-four have been or are currently married. Alternatively, one in three (29 percent ) men this age have never married (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2000). As these figures show, marriage is the norm among African MARRIAGE AND FATHERHOOD 31 32 BLACK FATHERS IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SOCIETY American men this age, although high rates of divorce and separation mean that large numbers are not currently living with their wives. EXPLAINING THE BENEFITS OF MARRIAGE FOR MEN There are notable differences between married and never-married men. On a range of important dimensions married black men do better than never-married black men. The 1995 March...