Marriage promotion

Marriage promotion is a policy aiming to produce "strong families" for the purposes of social security; as found in 21st-century American maternalism.[1]

The George W. Bush Administration had focused on government marriage promotion as the solution to the high poverty rates experienced by single-parent families, diverting to marriage promotion tens of millions of dollars appropriated by Congress for other purposes, and successfully lobbying Congress to establish a federal marriage promotion program.[2] These programs seek to get unmarried parents to marry and to deter separation or divorce.[2]

United States politics

This promotion has its roots in the roots in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.[3]

Childbirth with marriage is supported along with the marriage promotion as two people can raise a baby better than an unwed mother or father.[4] Marriage was promoted in the 1990s in order to promote family values. Rising divorce rates in the 1980s and 1990s in addition to plummeting marriage rates,[4] however, allowed then U.S. President George W. Bush to pass a nationwide marriage promotion law in the 2000s.

A major impetus behind marriage promotion is increasing father involvement.[5] Low-income fathers are forced to take more responsibility for childrearing and their relationships with female partners.[5] From a starting point of underfunded schools, poverty and family chaos, they often do poorly in school and drop out.[5] Fathers are urged to marry the women they impregnate so that they can establish traditional families, according to the Alliance for Marriage.[6]

Marriage promotion may also lead to discrimination against single-parent families that actually increases their poverty and hardship.[2] Some marriage promotion supporters advocate promoting marriage by excluding single-parent families from some public benefits.[2] Marriage promotion also teaches women to be dependent on a spouse instead of being economically independent.[2]

One randomized controlled study reported that the most effective marriage promotion program simply provided assistance for job stability.[7]

References
  1. "Not Just Maternalism: Marriage and Fatherhood in American Welfare Policy". Oxford Journals. Archived from the original on 2013-04-15. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  2. "Legal Momentum: What is Marriage Promotion". Legal Momentum. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
  3. "Marriage Promotion". Dollars and Sense. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  4. Nock, Steven L., Laura Ann Sanchez, and James D. Wright. Covenant Marriage: The Movement to Reclaim Tradition in America: Rutgers University Press, 2008. UNC-CH Online Library. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uncch/docDetail.action?docID=10275489>.
  5. "Marriage promotion: a simplistic fix?". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  6. Karen S. Peterson, Man Behind the Marriage Amendment, USA Today, US News, April 12, 2004
  7. One Day, Two Dollars
  • Long, George (1875). "Lex Papia Poppaea". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities: 691–692.

See also
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