ISSUES  > Welfare > Marriage Promotion


Marriage Promotion

Marriage is a fundamental social institution, deeply rooted in all societies, that has been tested and reaffirmed over thousands of years. The erosion of the institution of marriage over the past four decades has had large-scale negative effects on children and adults and lies at the heart of many social problems with which government is currently grappling. The beneficial effects of marriage, both for individuals and for society, are beyond reasonable dispute. There is a broad and growing consensus that government policy should promote rather than discourage healthy marriage.

 

January 27, 2010
Marriage, Parentage, and the Constitution of the Family
By Chuck Donovan
(WebMemo #2783)
Policymakers should adopt reforms to strengthen families and rebuild civil society as the engine of the greatest human goods.

 

September 18, 2009
ENDA and the Path to Same-Sex Marriage
By Thomas M. Messner
(Backgrounder #2317)
A significant body of evidence suggests that sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) can function as important incremental steps toward same-sex ...

 

September 18, 2009
Executive Summary: ENDA and the Path to Same-Sex Marriage
By Thomas M. Messner
(Executive Summary #2317)
A significant body of evidence suggests that sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) can function as important incremental steps toward same-sex ...

 

July 24, 2009
The Case for Maintaining Abstinence Education Funding
By Katherine Bradley and Christine C. Kim
(WebMemo #2562)
Before cutting federal funding for abstinence education programs, policymakers should consider all of the evidence that indicates its effectiveness.

 

January 13, 2009
Reducing Poverty by Revitalizing Marriage in Low-Income Communities: A Memo to President-elect Obama
By Robert Rector
(Special Report #45)
President-elect Obama, the collapse of marriage is the most important social problem facing the nation. When the War on Poverty began in the 1960s, 7 ...

 

January 13, 2009
Defending Marriage: A Memo to President-elect Obama
By Thomas M. Messner and Jennifer A. Marshall
(Special Report #46)
President-elect Obama, you have stated on more than one occasion that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman.  You have also explained ...

 

August 24, 2004
Two Americas: One Rich, One Poor? Understanding Income Inequality in the United States
By Robert Rector and Rea Hederman, Jr.
(Backgrounder #1791)
The top fifth of U.S. households perform a third of all labor, contain the best educated and most productive workers, provide a disproportionate share of ...

 

March 30, 2004
Reducing Domestic Violence: How the Healthy Marriage Initiative Can Help
By Melissa G. Pardue and Robert Rector
(Backgrounder #1744)
The President's Healthy Marriage Initiative seeks to prevent the isolation and poverty of welfare mothers by intervening before a pattern of broken relationships and welfare ...

 

March 26, 2004
Understanding the President's Healthy Marriage Initiative
By Robert E. Rector and Melissa G. Pardue
(Backgrounder #1741)
The current welfare system financially penalizes unmarried parents who wish to wed, despite the fact that an increased marriage rate among welfare recipients is both ...

 

March 9, 2004
Marriage: Still the Safest Place For Women and Children
By Robert E. Rector, Patrick F. Fagan, and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1732)
Social science data clearly show that mothers and children are safest and thrive best in a married family. For example, the incidence of spousal, boyfriend, ...

 

August 22, 2003
"Marriage Plus": Sabotaging the President's Efforts to Promote Healthy Marriage
By Robert E. Rector, Melissa G. Pardue, Lauren R. Noyes
(Backgrounder #1677)
Opponents of President Bush's pilot initiative to fund innovative marriage-promotion programs have proposed an alternative strategy termed "marriage plus."

 

May 20, 2003
Increasing Marriage Would Dramatically Reduce Child Poverty
By Robert E. Rector, Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., Patrick F. Fagan, and Lauren R. Noyes
(Center for Data Analysis Report #03-06)
In 2001, 1.35 million children were born outside marriage. This represents 33.5 percent of all children born in the United States in that year. Children ...

 

January 29, 2003
The Role of Parental Work in Child Poverty
By Robert E. Rector and Rea S. Hederman, Jr.
(Center for Data Analysis Report #03-01)
The analysis presented in this paper indicates that child poverty is more often the result of low levels of parental work than of parents' low ...

 

October 25, 2002
Marriage and Welfare Reform: The Overwhelming Evidence that Marriage Education Works
By Patrick F. Fagan, Robert W. Patterson, and Robert E. Rector
(Backgrounder #1606)
Marriage is good for everyone in society. Children born and reared in married families are much less likely to be impoverished or to live on ...

 

August 2, 2002
The Effects of Marriage and Maternal Education in Reducing Child Poverty
By Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
(Center for Data Analysis Report #02-05)
Both marriage and maternal education can play a significant role in reducing child poverty. The most effective public policy to reduce child poverty would encourage ...

 

April 15, 2002
The Effect of Marriage on Child Poverty
By Robert Rector, Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., and Patrick F. Fagan
(Center for Data Analysis Report #02-04)
The lack of progress in reducing child poverty since 1965 can be explained in part by the erosion of marriage and the growth of poverty-prone ...

 

April 10, 2002
Marriage: The Safest Place for Women and Children
By Patrick F. Fagan and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1535)
Social science data clearly show that mothers and children are safest and thrive best in a married family. It is time for the government to ...

 

March 22, 2002
Let Them Eat Their Words ? Marriage Reduces Poverty
By Jennifer Garrett
(WebMemo #88)
Welfare reform's priorities should be the reduction of dependency and poverty through work and marriage. We must face the impact of deteriorating marriage forthrightly. There ...

 

May 22, 2001
The Federal and State Governments, Welfare and Marriage Issues
By Patrick F. Fagan
(Testimony )
To help Congress in its deliberations for the last round of Welfare Reform The Heritage Foundation reviewed the literature on the effects of out of ...

 

June 5, 2000
The Effects of Divorce on America
By Patrick F. Fagan and Robert E. Rector
(Backgrounder #1373)
The foundation of society (marriage and the family) is growing weaker, with fewer adults entering into marriage, more adults leaving it in divorce, and more ...

 

October 5, 1999
The Fathers Count Act of 1999
By Robert E. Rector
(Testimony )
Marriage in our society is dying. Today, a third of all births occur outside of wedlock.

 

September 29, 1999
On the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization
By Patrick F. Fagan
(Testimony )
To understand the rise in domestic violence, it is necessary to see the bigger picture, the change in our national culture, the change in us ...

 

September 6, 1995
Kicking America's Welfare Habit: Politics, Illegitimacy, and Personal Responsibility
By The Honorable Pete Wilson
(Heritage Lecture #540)
Congress must have the courage to fix the welfare problem for the benefit of the entire country.

 

 
 
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