The first thing that comes to my mind is that it’s just damn hard to be a parent, even as a committed couple. Needing to do it with less support as a single parent isn’t something many people will choose if they can avoid it.

That being said, there definitely is institutionalized and societal discrimination against single mothers, and much of it stems from misogyny. Just off the top of my head there’s the “slut shaming” aspect of initial judgment, a woman’s earning potential being less, the expectation that she directly cares for her child full time even though it’s also clear that she must work full-time if not more just to keep the child fed and housed. There’s the conservative/misogynist myth and social stigma that a single mother asking for social assistance is just freeloading and doesn’t deserve help from public funds - she should have been smarter and not gotten pregnant if she couldn’t handle motherhood after all.

There’s probably a bunch of facts and analysis I’m missing here but I’m not feeling too coherent and this isn’t my lived experience as a man.

I also wonder about the language in this quote. I get the sense that being in a committed long term relationship without getting married is becoming more common, so just because a woman isn’t married doesn’t necessarily mean she’s single. Including that nuance probably doesn’t change the overall story these numbers tell though.