Men Adopt Kids More Than Women Do

by Genevieve

Statistics show that for every child adopted by a woman, two are “be-parented” by a man.

My immediate reaction: what does this say about gender norms? Is the stereotypically less-nurturing sex heading in droves to rescue poor orphans? Was Daddy Warbucks that inspiring?

Turns out, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the stats, doesn’t list the reasons why the figures are disparate. The report guesses that it’s from men adopting spouse’s children in second marriages, which seems to add up. According to Yahoo, 1.2 million men and 613,000 women had adopted children by 2002.

As for the Little Orphan Annie theory, 100,000 never-married women and 73,000 never-married men had adopted kids and presumably entered single parenthood. Either that, or a need for health insurance hadn’t yet forced the adopters to legally wed the life partners with whom they are raising kids.

I wonder how the legalization of gay marriage in California will influence these figures in the future, if at all. Here’s a handy guide to learning where gay adoption is and isn’t legal.