ABSTRACT
Social science literature suggests marriage is an important and necessary pathway in determining the economic context for and predictor of women’s class status. This chapter raises important questions about the presumption of marriage as a route to the middle class for women of color. Using 1980, 1990, 2000 IPUMS and ACS data for 2010 and 2014, we derive a middle-class index (MCi) based on education, homeownership, per person income, and occupational prestige. By 2014, for Asian women and Latinas their share of single and living alone (SALA) household slightly increased. Black female SALA middle-class households still comprise the highest percentage of their middle-class than other racial/ethnic groups. Foreign-born women comprise a smaller share of SALA households relative to native born.
