First we'll look at US census statistics on single parent households where the single parent is a female.
US Census table C3
Single mothers are separated into 5 categories which indicate how the became single mothers.
Married spouse absent, which makes up about 6% of the housholds
Widowed, 4% of the households
Divorced, 31% of the households
Separated, 16% of households
and Never married, 44% of the households
These categories aren't perfectly lucid the census defines them in this way
Abstract and Methodology
Why are these statistics important? Because Women who divorce their husbands willfully become single mothers and put their kids at risk. 70% of divorces are initiated by women in general while in couples where both husband and wife are college educated women initiate divorces 90% of the time.
But why do they divorce? Well a few studies says because of economic incentives to do so.
"Our results are consistent with our hypothesis that filing behavior is driven by self-interest at the time of divorce. Individuals file for divorce when there are marital assets that may be appropriated through divorce, as in the case of leaving when they have received the benefit of educational investments such as advanced degrees. However, individuals may also file when they are being exploited within the marriage, as when the other party commits a major violation of the marriage contract, such as cruelty. Interestingly, though, cruelty amounts to only 6% of all divorce filings in Virginia. We have found that who gets the children is by far the most important component in deciding who files for divorce, particularly when there is little quarrel about property, as when the separation is long."
Source Here
Because of no fault divorce claims of abuse and infidelity can't be trusted because neither have to be proved in court for a divorce to occur. No fault divorce simply means that your contractual obligation "marriage" is completely nonbinding and useless. More so the definition of abuse has been expanded in some states to somethings like disagreeing with your spouse, wife. For our purposes we'll use the 6% statistic in the citation above.
So lets say of the single mother who are divorced 31% and separated 16%, 94% of them divorce for frivolous reasons that leaves 44% choosing to be single mothers rather then being forced out due to things like abuse.
The category "married spouse absent" isn't clear on the will of the absent spouse or the single mother.
The "never married" category is the one of interest here lie the men that left their women which is comparable to the rate at which women willfully remove the father from the child's life such as divorce. Both are estimated at 44%
So are these women who are abandoned by their children's father completely innocent, is pregnancy something a man does to a woman, do women have agency in reproduction. Reasonable people might say its 50/50 but really responsibility for the pregnancy and birth of the child are completely in the mothers control. If a baby is born it is at the complete volition of the mother and the father has zero bearing. Women have numerous forms of convenient contraceptives, if those fail they can get an abortion, if not they can put their child in a safe haven or give it up for adoption.
Why would a mother give birth to a child without support of a father? Well women are independent these days and if not they don't need a man they can have the state fund their child rearing or get money through child support.
Combined that means that women are choosing to be single mothers 88% of the time.
