Abstract

Marriage on the Mind

The notion that marriage can alleviate poverty and bring about positive social change has become the central justification for the United States President George W. Bush Administration's push for low-income women to get and stay married. If the Administration is really concerned about poverty and other social problems it claims are caused by divorce and singleness, why not tackle those ills directly? Instead, what the Administration calls the "Healthy Marriage Initiative" is an array of programs that promote the institution in its narrowest sense. While debate has centered on the proposal attached to the stalled welfare bill, which would allot $1.6 billion toward marriage-related projects over the next five years, the federal government has already committed more than $90 million to marriage-related projects since 2001, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy. The Bush marriage strategy can be broken into two parts: efforts to encourage single people to marry and those aimed at keeping married couples together. The theory underlying the first category, which includes pro-marriage media blitzes featuring billboards, posters, calendars and pamphlets as well as premarital classes for high school students, singles and unmarried couples, is that explaining the benefits of marriage will nudge people to the altar. Underlying the anxiety around marriage identity is real poverty that eats away at people's abilities to be supportive parents and life partners. Given the stresses of poverty, one might predict that direct income support would improve relationships. Yet the Bush Administration has said its marriage money cannot be used toward any efforts--whether income support like these, drug treatment or employment assistance programs--that do not directly address the issue of marriage. Programs encouraging low-income couples to get married are limited by the overwhelming problems of the populations they target.