When family magistrate Tyrone Chin told a recent meeting about a case of a man who fathered 13 children by multiple mothers, it drew expressions of horror from those who said it made a mockery of parenting.

But for a family charity it was just an extreme example of an age-old phenomenon.

For Single Parents in Action director Althea Iris, whose group is currently helping people struggling to bring up children alone, the problem is culturally ingrained. ?Why are families having so many babies? It?s a domino affect.

?We have inherited a lot of bad behaviour from our forefathers that the guy?s place is in the bar, the woman?s place is in the house.

?The men have women and babies in Somerset, the middle and St. George?s. Years later you find that out. Children imitate the role modelling. There is corruption in the family.?

She said the historic perception that there was more women than men on the Island had led to desperate tactics from some females. ?People say I will pick a married man. People don?t care today. When I was coming up it was okay socially for men to sow their wild oats. It was expected of them even, to have more women.?

She said white men for centuries had more hope and were careful not to get financial burdens which could impede their progress. But this contrasted with the those who were less optimistic about their prospects.

She urged parenting classes and promotion of condoms and planned parenthood. ?That should go to the schools.

?A lot of this stuff is not common sense knowledge. We are doing self gratification.

?We have the answers. The system is not changing. We need to re-educate. The newspapers and TV are good places to get information out there. We need to change behaviour.

?We need to start honouring men, we don?t do that enough. That?s one of the problems. Men feel like dogs, they act like dogs, they are going to be dogs. We have judgment issues.?

Coalition for the Protection of Children chairwoman Sheelagh Cooper said the roots of the phenomenon dated back to slavery and even to African society.

She said: ?It?s always been a matriarchal society in the black community. When the slaves are owned here someone would own the woman and her offspring. Someone else would own the man. The man and woman were used for other types of work but never lived together. They never had that option. This was the way things were.

?When people talk about the breakdown of the family that?s just nonsense. The family never lived like a nuclear family. Largely it was the fault of the slave owners.

?If you are going to lay blame, you might lay it there.

?Those patterns were largely rooted from a sense you had to prove you were fertile.

?In any matriarchal society you will see those patterns.

?Up until recently the men didn?t really have any financial responsibility for those children so there was no reason why they wouldn?t go around procreating so there was a certain egotism attached to it.

?When you have a disenfranchised group they search for other ways of nurturing their egos. That was certainly true in the black male community in Bermuda. Where else are you going to feel special or important or strong or virile except by producing children if you are in a society which locks you out of the main stream of the economy?

?Or at least that?s the way they perceive themselves to be.?

She said the women went along with the single parent scenario because they always saw themselves as providers.

?They are not looking at these men as providers. They would love to see it happen. But they are not surprised when it doesn?t.?

Because of this women were selecting partners chiefly on criteria other than solvency or trustworthiness. ?They might select for other things like being good at sport, good at music or good-looking. The result is you have a few good-looking guys out there who will be selected.

?Obviously those guys would be obviously procreating more than the other guys and there is nothing to stop that because you don?t have the union that would create a sense of loyalty.

?I actually think many of these things are economically based.

?When you lock out a big chunk of your community and they are feeling disenfranchised and rejected then they will behave in these sorts of ways.?

She said a lot of factors caused the phenomenon, not least historical and economic ones. She said one of her male clients also had 13 children.

?I don?t care even if they are with one woman ,how do you ever give them all what they need? If they are with five or six women it?s mind boggling.?

Girls needed to be empowered at early and middle schools to have dreams beyond those of their mothers and grandmothers said Ms Cooper.

?If they can see the connection between getting a good education and deferring child birth they would then realise the connection between that and success and economic freedom.?

While black women are now joining international businesses in increasing numbers, Ms Cooper said many did it after having a couple of children and then going back to school.

She said it was commendable they had got the education but she said they had delayed.

?Who am I to judge that? As long as you have children who are nurtured and looked after and have some connection with their fathers. It?s been going on for centuries and its part of the country. But when you have 13 kids by several different mothers??

She said the rate of growth out of wedlock had remained around 33 percent for decades in Bermuda but was much higher in the black community.

She believes there is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor with a growing underclass. ?It?s got all the makings for increased violence. In criminalogical terms it?s just as predictable as you can get. We are seeing the effects of that. We have no reason to think that it?s going to change unless we address the economic and social issues.?