Is it a mystery?

The Atlantic has an article entitled

The Mysterious and Alarming Rise of Single Parenthood in America.

In it we learn that

Single parents have more than tripled as a share of American households since 1960. It's a huge problem without an easy explanation.

We also learn that

In fact, single moms account for precisely one-quarter of U.S. households. Single dads make up another 6 percent.

Vox at Alpha Game read the Atlantic article and wrote,

This is not a mystery at all. Women have been taught to believe that marriage is oppressive, stifling, and akin to slavery. They've been taught that they have to go to university and spend their prime fertile years in college and getting their career established. They've been told they need men like fish need bicycles.

Men, on the other hand, have been told that they have to wait until they are nearly 30 before a woman will tire of riding the carousel and be willing to settle down and marry them. They've also been informed that if they do marry a woman and she doesn't want to be married anymore, they will still be responsible for supporting her financially after the end of the marriage.

And both sexes have been told that marriage is nothing more than two people, of any sex, race, or religion, who happen to want to tell other people that they are temporarily committed to each other in some fashion that may, or may not, involve sexual monogamy.

Frankly, taking all these factors into account, the only mystery is that single parents - or more precisely, single mothers - haven't increased by more than a mere factor of three.