WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- The number of American families where the mother is the sole or primary breadwinner nearly quadrupled in a half-century, a study indicated.
Women were the main providers in 40 percent of U.S. households in 2011, up from just 11 percent in 1960, the Pew Research Center reported this week.
The "breadwinner moms" were overwhelmingly single, Pew found.
About 63 percent, or 8.6 million, were single mothers and 37 percent, or 5.1 million, were married women who earned more than their husbands.
The income gap between the two groups was significant. In households where the wife earned more than her husband, the median total family income was $80,000, the study said. In families headed by a single mother, the median income was $23,000.
The report was based on Pew's analysis of Census Bureau data and a Pew survey conducted in April of 1,003 adults in the continental United States.
