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American Morning

Over Decade, Families 79 Percent More Likely to Be Headed by Working Single Mothers With College Degrees

Aired May 16, 2001 - 09:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: More and more college-educated women are choosing to work and raise children on their own.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Interestingly, the numbers are not rising nearly as fast, though, among women who only completed high school and stayed home to have children.

CNN Boston bureau chief Bill Delaney reports on the new look of the work force.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Jodi Delibertis (ph) and her five-year-old daughter Caitlin (ph) reunite late each afternoon, they're part of a way of life 79 percent more common than 15 years ago: single mothers with college degrees who work.

I think the biggest challenge is the schedule. You've always got some responsibility that's waiting, so there's not a lot of downtime.

DELANEY: There is a lot of company. An administrator with a nice, regular schedule at Boston's Simmons College, Delibertis is one of 938,000 women with bachelor's degrees raising children alone.

I had thought of going to law school, and I don't think I would do that now. The hours that lawyers work, I just don't see them working as a single parent.

DELANEY: Single mother households increased at a rate five times greater in the 1990s than traditional two-parent families.

In much of the business world, though, availability, long hours, and facetime still count, big time.

DEBORAH MERRIL-SANDERS, SIMMONS COLLEGE: You keep coming up against at that norm. That's particularly difficult, obviously, for single parents, who have to have a hard stop at the end of the day, and a hard beginning at the early part of the day.

DELANEY: Maybe the sheer rate of increase of highly educated single mothers may yet change the workplace. (on camera): Another dynamic at play here is that while the number of single mothers with college degrees, like Jodi Delibertis, has gone up dramatically, the number of single mothers who only completed high school has gone up much less.

(voice-over): Just 6 percent in 15 years, compared to that 79 percent upswing of working women, like Jodi Delibertis -- whose next- door neighbor is another college-educated single mom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that every single parent should hook up with another single parent, make two families, and help each other.

DELANEY: Changing faces of who is in the workplace. The question is how much the workplace can change too.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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