A shocking new study released by the Pew Research Center on May 29 reported that women were the primary or sole source of income in 40 percent of U.S. households with children under the age of 18. That means they make more than their husbands, or that they are the only ones making money for the household either because their husbands don’t work or because they are single moms.

This record-breaking statistic is just one of many brought out in the report that outlines America’s rapidly changing demographics. In 1960, seven in ten families with children consisted of a father who was the breadwinner and a wife who was the homemaker. Today, barely three in ten have that setup. Families in America are shifting more and more from what was previously the accepted norm.

The idea of a husband being the primary supporter of the family is no longer the popular belief. Only 28 percent of adults believed it was better for a marriage if the husband earned more money than the wife. This is no surprise: In nearly a quarter of all marriages in the United States, the wife already makes more than her husband.

The report showed that when a married woman made more than her husband, the family income was about $2,000 more than that of families that had the husband as the primary breadwinner, and $10,000 more than that of families where couples made the same amount.

The report also showed that most Americans have no desire to go back to the traditional family: Seventy-nine percent of Americans rejected the idea that women need to return to their traditional roles. The majority of people don’t want to go back to the traditional family organization, yet at the same time will agree that this new family pattern isn’t making life easier. Though Americans have a less negative assessment of forsaking the traditional family than they did 15 years ago, people are still admitting that life is harder when the wife works outside the home: Seventy-four percent of the people interviewed agreed that it is harder to raise children and 50 percent agreed that it was harder to make a marriage successful.

And yet, even though people admit that life is harder without a mother at home, they don’t see it as a major issue. Today, 34 percent of Americans think that a child is just as well off if the mother works. They don’t think that a mother’s role at home is important. And apparently most mothers agree. The study showed that almost two thirds of mothers with children younger than 6 were either employed or looking for work. However, a lot of these would be single mothers who would have to work out of necessity.

But that of course raises another issue. There is also a growing lack of concern for the need for family at all. Only 64 percent of people think that the growing number of children born to unmarried mothers is a big problem. This is 7 percent less than what it was five years ago. But the trend is even more troubling when you consider that it is the young people who are least concerned with this problem. Of the people polled ages 18 to 29, only 42 percent thought this was a big problem. The majority in this age category don’t see it as a big problem.

For years the Trumpet has been warning of the social upheavals in the world, particularly in America and American families. Few realize the importance of strong, stable, traditional families. In the March 2009 edition of the Trumpet, editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote,

History shows that the strength of any nation depends on the strength of its families. Family is the rock-solid foundation on which a country’s superstructure is erected. That was the case for both America and Britain. … Today, most people have rejected the law of cause and effect. We think we can discard marriage and family and suffer no consequences ….

In Isaiah 3, God foretold that in these present latter days, family breakdown and the rise of women leading the family would be the norm. Though it may be generally accepted today, God never intended women to be the chief providers in the family.

That may fly in the face of what many feminist say, but it is the simple truth of the Bible. God created the man to be the primary breadwinner of the home. In fact, God condemns those men who don’t provide for their families (1 Timothy 5:8). The woman was intended to be a help for her husband, keeping the home while he is at work (Titus 2:5). There is a set pattern in place that God established to preserve unity in a marriage and in a family. To understand more clearly just what the biblically defined role of a mother is, read our article “The Beautiful Role of a Mother.”