Father’s Day has come and gone for another year, but fatherlessness remains a critical societal problem that none of our political or religious leaders seems willing to address, and the media sweep it under the rug.
In Baltimore, a prototypically shattered American city run by Democrats, prospects of even alleviating violent crime and the collapse of civil society seem to be hopeless: Homicides have been rising to the mid-300s every year, while nonfatal violence, often unmeasurable, seems to be permanently out of control.
Equally devastating is the plague of intractable poverty and a failed education system. The only answers from politicians are more government social spending. Since the 1960s Great Society, government programs that attempted to replace the father have failed to solve the problem. In fact, they have made it worse. Despite clear evidence of the relationship between crime, gangs, poverty, and educational failure, politicians, religious leaders, and the media simply refuse to acknowledge, much less address, the primary cause: the breakdown of the family.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wrote in the Washington Times that data shows that “children living in married households are less likely to live in poverty … The facts are clear. Two-parent families are not only a moral imperative; they are an economic one, too. Children raised in households where fathers play a positive and active role are more likely to succeed.”
What is the formula to accomplish a major improvement in the quality of life and reduce violence, homicides, and poverty in America’s major cities? For starters, we must end the bizarre silence about the societal dysfunction of fatherlessness.
Major news sources generally will not discuss fatherlessness. There are consistent debates and discussions about homicide and violence increases but little about the root causes. What about what causes the poverty? Broken families, but newspapers may go years without their mention.
It may be politically incorrect to suggest it, but fathers play a number of critical roles in the success of their children. They can be a source of advice and discipline that a single mother alone cannot be. For too many boys, gangs substitute for missing fathers.
Fathers are the primary socializing factor for boys, enhancing school success, preventing boys from being recruited to gangs, and helping children avoid conflict involving interpersonal clashes with students, teachers, and law enforcement. Studies show that 73% of school dropouts and 85% of youth showing behavior disorders come from homes without a father, and twice as many fatherless boys end up in prison.
Fathers are the primary socializing factor for their children’s interactions with the opposite sex. Fathers are much better sources of advice and counsel than, say, gang members. Girls without fathers have a much higher incidence of pregnancy outside of marriage.
Fathers enhance the economic stability of the family, while fatherlessness is a root cause of poverty. As W. Bradford Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies puts it: “Since the 1970s, children in single-mother-headed families (who make up the clear majority of single-parent families) are over four times more likely to be poor, compared to children in married-parent families.”
How can two-parent families be incentivized? The first step for any problem is to identify it, talk about it, and develop a plan to address it. This calls for courageous leadership, and most cities are not awash in such leadership.
We challenge the media to stop hiding from the truth. Solving difficult issues requires guts.
Ellen Sauerbrey was head of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, was former Republican nominee for governor of Maryland, and is a member of the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame. Richard E. Vatz is professor of political communication at Towson University and has been political editor of USA Today Magazine since 1985; he is author of The Only Authentic Book of Persuasion: the Agenda-Spin Model (LAD Custom Publishing, 2021).
