The reason? For many young women, the Government is a proxy for the Husband—as far as providing is concerned anyway. And the Government Husband is a lot less bother.
The Wall Street Journal just did a super article on this. There’s now a culture gap between upper and lower classes, starting really in the 1960s. If you’re upper middle class or higher, you are college educated, you marry college educated, only 5% have kids out of wedlock, 80%+ of men work and live in neighborhoods of the same. If you’re lower class, you have a high school degree but rarely trade school, only 15-20% married, 70-90% illegitimate births (from sometimes marrying after 2-3 kids), men far less likely to be in the workforce.
Here’s the article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577170733817181646.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel_1