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Racial, Ethnic
Diversity in Female-Headed Households What
are “female-headed” households? Most studies consider them to be households in
which there is no adult male, or households in which adult males rely on the female
breadwinner for support, such as an adult child of a single mother.
“Female-headed” does not mean that the woman earns more money (which is the case
in only a quarter of households) or is responsible for the family finances. In fact, women
and children in female-headed households are more likely to live in poverty than women and
children in most other household situations, where there are more potential workers.
In the graph on this page, a female-headed household with children is a special type of female-headed
household in which the household head lives with one or more related children. About 12 percent of American
households can be categorized as female-headed households with children. As the graph
shows, the percentage of households headed by women with children varies by race and ethnicity.
In 1998, about 5 percent of non-Hispanic white and Asian households were headed by women
with children. In contrast, women with kids accounted for almost a quarter of all black
households. The percentage of Hispanic households headed by women with kids falls in
between these two estimates, at about 15 percent. Over the past 30 years, the percentage
of female-headed households with children has increased most rapidly among blacks, but
this trend appears to have slowed or even reversed in recent years. |
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