Working‑class husband market collapse

The decline in marriage and childbearing in the U.S. is driven not by college‑educated women opting out but by rising instability and mismatch among non‑college men: fewer reliable partners, lower wages, and changing gender expectations have hollowed the traditional working‑class husband role. Policies and debates that focus on educated women's tradeoffs miss this core demographic and labor‑market problem. — Shifting the narrative to the working‑class marriage market reframes family policy, labor policy, and fertility debates toward male labor-market stability and social integration rather than blaming women’s career choices.