Marketers are increasingly interested in single-parent households because of the rapid growth of this category. Most are headed by a female with no husband present (more than 12 percent of all households), but there is also growth in the number of male householders with children and no wife present. Women without husbands is highest among black family households, at about 48 percent of all black family households, but the rate of growth slowed during the past decade to 3.8 percent per year. Meanwhile