While the New York Times recently ran a piece focused on the
economic disaster single mothers occasionally face, University
of Massachusetts professor Nancy Folbre decided to look at a
different aspect of the growing problem—unmarried fathers who
abandon mothers. The Times piece surmised that single mothers
are more likely to be uneducated, insinuating to some that these
women are too naïve to find men that won’t abandon them, but
Folbre believes these stereotypes are incorrectly focused.
“Most discussions of single mothers focus on their choices,
faulting them for deciding to raise a child without a secure
commitment from a father,” she says. “This argument, combined
with the widespread misperception that most single mothers are
Black, helps explain why policies in the United States are so
much less supportive of single parents than those in other
countries.”  In her piece, which ran in the Sunday addition of
the Times, she believes many men actually want the children they
have, but are discouraged by the f