AbstractMarriage promotion is a controversial US antipoverty policy that emerged as part of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which sought to end dependence on government benefits by promoting marriage and self‐sufficiency and making work‐related activities mandatory to receive aid. Marriage education and promotion activities have been supported by federal welfare funds through the Healthy Marriage Initiative (2002–2011) and the Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Innovation Fund (2011–2015). Supporters of this policy argue that single parenthood is a cause of poverty and that encouraging and strengthening marriage through relationship education services is a plausible poverty‐reduction strategy. Critics argue that marriage promotion is an ideologically driven policy that obscures the structural causes of poverty and diverts funds from programs that directly benefit families living in poverty. Marriage promotion activities are being funded through 2015. Their longevity suggests that they have become established public policy.
