Single parent
In the United States, 83% of single parents are mothers. Among this percentage of single mothers: 45% of single mothers are currently divorced or separated, 1.7% are widowed, 34% of single mothers never have been married. Although decades ago, having a child outside of marriage and/or being a single mother was not prominent. Census information from 1960 tells us that in that year, only nine percent of children lived in single parent families. Today four out of every ten children are born to an unwed mother.
Workforce
As of 2010 in the United States, 123 million women age 16 years and over have worked in the U.S., 72 million, or 58.6 percent, were working or looking for work. Women are projected to account for 51% of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018. As of 2010 Women make up 47% of the total U.S. labor force. 66 million women were employed in the U.S. 73% of employed women worked on full-time jobs, while the remainder 27% worked part time. The different career paths women work in were: 40.6% management, professional, and related occupations, 32% worked in sales and office occupations, 21.3% in service occupations, 5.2% in production, transportation, and material moving occupations, and 0.9% in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations. The largest percentage of employed Asian 46.1%, white 40.6%, and black women 33.8%. Hispanic women showed their strongest attachment to service occupations at 33.2%. The unemployment rate for women was 8.6%. Among female race/ethnic groups, Asian women continue to have the lowest unemployment rate of 7.5%. For white women, it was 7.7%, Hispanic women 12.3%, and black women, 13.8 percent.