Is A Good (Black) Man Still Hard To Find? The US “Marriageable Male” Pool, 1950-2020

• In Event: 50666 - The Demography of Family Inequality and Wellbeing (Co-sponsored by Section on Sociology of Population)

Abstract

Over the last 70 years, there has been an overall decline in US marriage, however, there are large racial disparities, with heterosexual Black people marrying at lower rates than White people. An enduring explanation for lower Black marriage proposed by Wilson and Neckerman in 1987 is that Black women face smaller pools of “marriageable men” compared to White women. They defined “marriageable men” as those who are employed, non-incarcerated and unmarried. However the past several decades have seen dramatic economic, incarceration, marital and premature mortality transformations with racially differential impacts, potentially contributing to both a widening and narrowing racial gap in the pool of marriageable men. Drawing on US Census (1950-2000) and American Community Survey (2010-2020) data, this paper examines trends in the male marriageable pool between 1950-2020 for White and Black populations, as well as how these trends vary by state.

Authors

• Sanyu A. Mojola, Princeton University

• Jolene Tan, Princeton University