A nation’s growth is not just dependent on the economic and natural resources, instead it lies more in its children. It is they who will be the creators and shapers of a nation’s tomorrow. Compared to other countries, American society recognizes the future contributions of children as a private responsibility rather than public responsibility. The ethos of individualism is deeply embedded in our culture in that raising children’s cost and care is solely the private problem of the individual family. It typically affects mothers more. This makes raising children more difficult. In fact children should be considered a public responsibility. In this essay, the main argument is that America promotes the principle of individualism in raising children …show more content…
Especially mothers in America are at an economic disadvantage. With raising children as private responsibility and no net support from the society, the individuals will eventually end up in poverty. There are many countries that have adjust to the massive growth of women in the workforce over the past century by creating public policies to help accommodate work and family obligations. This paper will incorporate scholarly sources from Crittenden, Hays, Schulte, Coontz, Folbre, Stone and Lovejoy to back up the argument.
Individualism is deeply embedded in the American society but America was once dependence on others during the Colonial period. America puts high value of self-reliant in families. Much of the American economy has been built on mutual aid. Throughout history, dependence has never disappeared. Having the help from the government or others can give to those that are poor and underprivileged people a chance to survive periods of
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The article “Marriage, Poverty and Public Policy” written by Stephanie Coontz and Nancy Folbre, discusses the causes and effects of child poverty. “In Canada and France, single mothers and children in general are far less likely to live in poverty. Sweden and Denmark, which have higher rates of out of wedlock births, have much lower rates of child poverty and hunger than does the United States” (2010:191). Coontz also discusses about the primary causes of poverty are unemployment, poor education, and lack of affordable child care. This shows that two-parent families are not guaranteed to not be in economic stresses, and single parents do not inevitably lead to poverty. Also two parent families may be in poverty due to many reasons like the rising cost of raising children, childcare, being penalized for taking time away from job responsibilities to provide family care, lack of education, and less income assistance. Public policies toward marriage should be improved; eliminating the marriage penalty on taxes or benefit reductions on low-income couples and designing better public
... “ corporations have done little to accommodate the needs of working parents, and that the government has done little to prod them” ( ) Essentially Hochschild argues that change is possible but really only through government intervention and policy (re)formation. Although the economy was able to transform women it was not able to transform the rest of society. Thus it is up to the government and the corporate sector to do so. If the government were to create “a safer environment for the two-job family” and families in general, men would be drawn out of their gender roles into the lives of children. As a result, women would be greater supported and society as a whole would gear its culture towards a more family oriented atmosphere rather than a capitalistic one. ( )
Do you know what American Individualism means? Are you an individualist? Discussing these issues and topics are very important because individualism or collectivism is a lifestyle and depends directly how you look at it. American Individualism is a key term used today in our society. Today, people are turning individualism into collectivism, yet trying to hold on to both at the same time. Depending on who you are and what you believe, you will have your own idea on the positives and negatives of individualism, and where you stand. Despite the fact of the good and bad in American Individualism, without the freedom of standing alone, we are nothing.
Undisputedly poverty has been one of the major persistent social problems in the United States for hundreds of years. Poverty does not discriminate against Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, homosexuals, heterosexuals, age, gender, or persons with disabilities. Poverty can strike any population, community, ethnic group, and family. According to the U.S Census Bureau, 43.6 million people were in poverty in 2009 which was an increase from 2008. (Insert citation for website). There are multiple causes of why a family or individual can fall into poverty, which includes but not limited to, disability, unemployment, age, and recessions, as for which we have seen through the 2008 recession and the Great Depression. Throughout this paper I will address poverty as a social problem and its causes. I will also focus on how children and family households headed by single mothers are effected by poverty, and how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families came about to help children and families in poverty.
There are 15 million more people living in poverty than in the year 2000. Moreover, America has become a low-wage nation. The median paying job in the country now pays about $35,000 a year for a full-time job. It is barely more than it paid in 1973. With the salary being $35,000 it has people in America living in poverty because that amount of salary isn’t even enough to even live in a one bedroom house. It maybe is enough for one person, but for a person who has a family, it sure isn’t. In most cases in America, many families don’t have both parents. Single mothers were and are in trouble, with a poverty rate in excess of 40 percent. With this being said single mothers are the ones who are being affected and who are one of the cases that live in poverty. They live in poverty due to being the only ones that are bringing money into the households and with their salary being $35,000 is not enough to provide for themselves along with their children. Family structure plays a big role in poverty. “The poverty of single mothers with children at home, of all races, is the highest among demographic groups, higher than any minority or age group.” states Edelman, Peter. (2014). During the great recession when many single mothers were living off of food stamps and they soon destroyed the legal rights of benefits the Food stamp
However, social conditions made it less feasible for families to live this way. As the 1960s approached and consumption was in high demand, women were yet again, forced to join the work force; but only a quarter of the women joined the workforce, whereas in the 1990s about “two-thirds of women who had children were in the work force (Coontz 55). Coontz (1997) explains how by 1973, “real wages were falling for young families, and by the late 1970s, government effectiveness had decreased (Coontz 54). It was because of economic factors that the nuclear bread-winning family could only be a lifestyle a few can afford. Nonetheless, women joining the workforce created a new understanding of women-hood, changed women’s status in society, and created conflict within the household. Women did not have the time to complete all the household tasks which contributed to the increased divorce rates, but left women happier due to the fact that they had that ultimate
In America, poverty has been on the rise since the 1970's.(Poverty World Book 723). The family structure has been constantly changing. The presence of a father in the family effects the poverty rate. The presence of a father in the family was higher when the poverty rate was formed. The family is four times more likely not to have a father in it today than it was in the 1950's. (Report Ties 3). Without a father in the family the chance for children to become poor and eventual...
People in American society have their own views about individualism in our country. They choose who they are and what they want to become in the future. Because of this, there are some pros to American Individualism. For example, Edgar Allen Poe was a poet who expresses how he felt within his poetry. His poetry was kind of dark and twisted and is actually a little bit confusing to understand. This is a good example of Individualism because he showed what kind of man he was and troubles he was facing through his writing. In his day in age people were not use to authors writing in such a style that he did. He would get judged pretty harshly, but it did not stop him from writing. In one of Poe’s short stories, “The Raven” the man was grieving about his dead wife. He went into a deep darkness mourning about his wife; wondering, fearing, and doubting about what had happened to her (Poe468). This explains pros of Individualism because he expressed exactly how he felt about her dying. He got to express his feelings without being put down. Being an American citizen he got to use his right of having freedom of speech, which everyone should not be afraid of doing. This shows collectivism because it showed how he wasn’t afraid to express his individuality even when numerous people were making fun of him.
There has been much debate about the parenting style called “Free Range parenting.” It allows children to make decisions with minimal parental interference. There were two different articles I read “Kids’ Solo Playtime Unleashes ‘Free-Range’ Parenting Debate”, written by Jennifer Ludden and published February 18th, 2015 and “Maryland family under investigation for letting their kid’s walk home alone.” I do not agree with either of these two articles and do not agree with this parenting style.
Women throughout history have been considered to have an active role in the family life as the caretakers, while the men are considered the “breadwinners” of the family. However, a few women still have had to provide for their families throughout the years and as a result have sought employment in industries that “were highly segregated by sex” (Goldin 87). Women employm...
The changing of American families has left many families broken and struggling. Pauline Irit Erera, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, wrote the article “What is a Family?”. Erera has written extensively about family diversity, focusing on step-families, foster families, lesbian families, and noncustodial fathers. Rebecca M. Blank, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, where she has directed the Joint Center for Poverty Research, wrote the article “Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?”. She served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton administration. Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University wrote the article “The Origins of the Ambivalent Acceptance of Divorce”. She is also the author of several other books on the changing profiles of American family life. These three texts each talk about the relationship between the parent and the child of a single-parent household. They each discuss divorce, money/income they receive, and the worries that come with raising a child in a single-parent household.
The most compelling data that we have shows the change in our American family structure. Day there are alarming number of children with mental disorders and children being raised in single parent homes has increased. In both areas it is shown that we need more preventive care (Petersmeyer 1989). Other statistics are equally troubling: each day in the United States, 3,600 students drop out of high school, and 2,700 unwed teenage girls get pregnant (Petersmeyer 1989). As a society we have a responsibility to our youth to help them become strong adults. My grandmother was always telling me that it takes more then the immediate family to raise a child well, if a child is to be rear well it takes a whole community contribution.
There are nearly as many women as there are men working, yet, as it was discovered in 2011, on average, a woman will only earn seventy-seven cents for every dollar that a man earns. Women owned businesses make up for over a quarter of all national businesses and earn more than one point two trillion dollars (“Assessing the Past, Taking Stock of the Future” 6). Since many women are now becoming are the primary sources of income in the household, making less that a man does not only negatively affect families, but also the overall economy suffers as well. These women, among many others, are the ones who end up purchasing the supplies that go toward improving communities and stimulating the economy. There is no reason that the general public should stand for this. Women should be treated equally to men in today’s American society based on their biological compositions, psychological profiles and contributions to history.
During the Great War and the huge amount of men that were deployed created the need to employ women in hospitals, factories, and offices. When the war ended the women would return home or do more traditional jobs such as teaching or shop work. “Also in the 1920s the number of women working raised by fifty percent.” They usually didn’t work if they were married because they were still sticking to the role of being stay at home moms while the husband worked and took care of the family financially. But among the single women there was a huge increase in employment. “Women were still not getting payed near as equally as men and were expected to quit their jobs if they married or pregnant.” Although women were still not getting payed as equally it was still a huge change for the women's
In the late 1920s, this started to change for good. More and more woman was becoming educated and finding work outside of the home. Woman were earning money and doing many of the same jobs as men when the 19th Amendment to the constitution gave women these rights. This changed how modern Parent balance work and family time. Should Women have to work or staying home? “Over the past generation, home prices have risen twice as fast for couples with young children as for those without kids… The average couple with young children now shells out more than $127,000 for a home, up from $72,000 (adjusted for inflation) less than 20 years ago (“Why Women…Work”).” This shows that now days it’s expensive to have kid and for couple’s more adjustment that both support each other economically. Many women and solo parent neglect to stay home because they decide that the cost is just too high, and the choic...
noble, kenneth. "THE NATION; PRO & CON: HOW MUCH GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO FOR PARENTS." New York Times 1 may 1988, Print.