Single Father's Day

July 2, 2001 · Magazine, David Popenoe

THIS FATHER’S DAY, THE STORIES in the national press had a curious twist. They featured almost exclusively one relatively small group of dads: single fathers. A perusal of newspapers ranging from the New York Times and the Washington Post to the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the…

MURPHY BROWN, REDUX

July 27, 1998 · Magazine, David Popenoe

IN 1992, AFTER DAN QUAYLE GAVE HIS "Murphy Brown" speech, the cultural elite went apoplectic. Quayle had maintained that there was evidence to show that single motherhood harms children. But who was Quayle -- or anyone else, for that matter -- to say that single moms can't do the job? The last…