Race Matters: Change, Choice, and Family at the Millennium - Twila L. Perry

As an initial matter, for many Black people, choosing to enter into even the most traditional and conservative structure for adult intimate relationships-- formal marriage--can be problematic. A major source of difficulty is the sheer disparity in numbers between Black women and Black men at the optimum ages for marriage. At the present time, there is a numerical excess of women over men at every age group in the marriageable years.14 This means that assuming that most Black women are seeking Black partners for marriage, a substantial number of Black women will probably never marry. In 1997, 17.5 percent of white women over the age of eighteen had never been married. The figure for Black women was 37.2 percent.15

A second critical factor affecting the rates of marriage for Black people is the precarious economic situation of many Black men. In this country, Black men are disproportionately unemployed, underemployed, and undereducated.16 Rates of entanglement with the criminal justice system, poor health, and early death are also substantially higher for Black men than they are for white men of similar ages.17 These fundamental demographic realities should not be thought of as only constraining marriage choices for Black women--they also constrain the ability of Black men to marry. Although as this century closes, remaining single has gained acceptance as a permanent lifestyle rather than a temporary state, for some people, the realization that marriage is simply not a viable option can be a substantial source of unhappiness. Of all the women in this country, Black women are the least likely to marry, the most likely to be divorced, and the least likely to remarry.18

*465 The state of affairs described above affects other choices Black women may make about family life. Sociologists have drawn a correlation between the availability of potential mates for marriage and the number of Black families headed by single women.19 The decision to bear a child outside of marriage, for example, may represent a particular woman's personal political stance against marriage or a desire to rebel against traditional mores or expectations. But what is often not recognized is that such a division may simply represent a woman's practical response to demographic realities.20

Beginning in the early 1970s, many states began to move from a system in which proof of fault was a requirement for divorce, to a system characterized by no-fault.21 By making divorce less costly, no-fault has certainly made divorce a more realistic option for people of limited economic means. The alleged downside of no-fault, that it has hurt women economically,22 clearly has less relevance to the lives of Black women than it does to the lives of white women. Black couples typically have less economic wealth to divide than white couples do, and fewer Black men than white men have the kind of jobs that would make generous alimony awards even a remote possibility.23

In this country, the divorce rate for Black couples is higher than it is for white couples.24 Does this mean that Black couples are more likely to “““choose” divorce than white couples, and if so, why is this the case? In thinking about the question of why Blacks divorce more often than whites, attention must be paid to the frank reality that race is a factor which makes marriage an even more fragile institution for Blacks than it is for whites. For Black couples, the normal stresses  *466 associated with marriage are multiplied exponentially by the factor of race.

The fragile economic status of many Black men once again is a factor. In a world in which the male is still traditionally expected to be the major breadwinner and greater economic power in a family, the man who cannot fulfill this role is likely to feel diminished, and these feelings almost inevitably lead to marital stress. Although gender roles within marriage are less distinct than was true in the past, the power of patriarchy as a cultural norm in this country should not be underestimated. The fact that many Black men are unable to meet society's cultural expectations about the role of men in marriage undoubtedly contributes to a higher divorce rate among Black couples.