Luis Lujan
Professor J. Vetter
English 101A
May 21, 2014
The United States is a country that embraces people with disabilities, it welcomes immigrants from other countries with open arms, it provides safe houses for abused women, racism is not tolerated and we constantly seek equal rights for everyone. Yet, there is one group that is constantly pushed and forced to live on the margins of society, the single father. The single father is much different from the “dead beat dad” who makes the baby, then leaves without any sense of responsibility. The single father loves his children, yet because of the stigma of the “dead beat dad”, the single father is marginalized. This paper will prove how the single father is adversely treated by his employer, the judicial system and society in general.
After conducting several interviews with single fathers in the Bay Area, one father stated that while fighting for custody of his children, he called his employer to ask for a day of because he would be in court all day, the employer stated “ugh, you and those kids, when are you going to get rid of them” (Nunez 2014). An employer would not make a comment like this to a single mother, but because of the negative stereotype that is placed on single fathers the comment by the employer was acceptable.
In today’s economy one’s livelihood is extremely important. Employers depend on their employees to show up for work on time, and give 100% effort to the tasks at hand. Typically when the employer is aware that the employee is a single mother, there is a certain amount of tolerance when she calls in to miss a day of work due to an emergency with her child(ren). However, the tolerance for missed days of work for the single father is not present, an...
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...s do not stop at the restroom, when Mr. Harris went to rent an apartment for himself and his three children, he was asked by the apartment manager to provide custody documents from the court. Mr. Harris related in his interview, “if I had been a woman, she never would have asked me for that…” (Harris 2014) Stories like Mr. Harris’ and are not isolated and are more common than one would believe, but most people are not made aware since they are not in this position. Gender discrimination is illegal in the United States, yet the apartment manager did not hesitate to ask for custody papers from Mr. Harris. Single mothers are never questioned when seeking housing or any other service for themselves and their children.
In today’s age and in today’s society racism and discrimination have come a long way but there is still a distance to go regarding he single father
The concepts that Kathleen Genson discusses reinforces the analysis Kramer presented in Chapter 4 “The Family and Intimate Relationships” of The Sociology of Gender. First and foremost, both authors would agree that family is a structure that institutionalizes and maintains gender norms. Both authors would also agree that “families tend to be organized around factors that the individual members cannot control.” In Genson’s chapter “Dilemmas of Involved Fatherhood,” the most prominent forces are the economy and social expectations, both listed and explained by Kramer. Genson’s explanation of how it is unfeasible for men to withdraw from the workforce and focus more time and energy on being involved fathers is an example of the economic factors.
"Father absence and the welfare of children." Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage: A risk and resiliency perspective (1999): 117-145.
Erkulwater, Jennifer L. Disability Rights and the American Social Safety Net. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Thus, men and women share equal responsibility in the acts that conceive children. However, men do not have the same options women do (Why). Despite this, DCS hunts men down as if they are the answer to all of society’s problems, treating men like criminals until they lay a golden egg. Some men never lay the golden egg, and these are the truly “dead broke” dads (Miller; Deadbeat). Ultimately, the question that we have to ask ourselves is, should we prosecute “dead-beat” dads?
One of the issues that demonstrated how sexism and heterosexism shape social welfare policy is the plight of single mothers. The well-being of single-parents, especially single mothers has been an important issue for the United States given that at least 50 percent of children who are currently growing up in the country will spend part of or their entire childhood in a single-parent family (Casey & Maldonado, 2012). As compared to other countries, single-parent families in the United States are worst off with high unemployment rates and poverty rates. This issue demonstrates how sexism and heterosexism influence social welfare policy since it has been the basis of establishment of various regulations to address the problem. The issue has been the basis of the implementation of TANF to deal with the high unemployment and poverty rates of single mothers. However, this policy has been ineffective since it makes people become more independent and does not meet the needs of women effectively. Therefore, it continues to be the basis for policy considerations to help single
Sex and gender inequality is one of the many issues handled in this book. This has always been a social problem in America and other nations. Sex and gender are different terms, where sex refers to the biological difference between men and women while gender refers to the differences between females and males that the society constructs between the two. These inequalities therefore, are society-created where men and women are treated differently not because of what they can do but who they are. The author dedication to portrayal of America as a society that disregarded their rights is therefore, in an attempt to create a society with gender equity and equality where a woman and man will be treated equally in work stations and other public places. The physical characteristics of women and their position as child bearers gave the men a convenience to use, exploit people who were their sex mates, companions and guardians of their children.
Men at work, fathers at home: uncovering the masculine face of caregiver discrimination. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 253. Farbstein, S. H. (2013). The 'Stand Justice Ginsburg's international perspective. Harvard Law Review, 429.
In David Blankenhorn’s book written in 1995, he brings to light what he calls “America’s fundamental problem”: our culture of fatherlessness. Our modern day view of fathers is that they are unnecessary both in society and in the upbringing of a child. Blankenhorn argues the contrary: the only way to solve the multitude of social problems present in America is to address the common denominator, the decline of fathers and the shrinking importance of fatherhood. Blankenhorn’s book is split into three parts: Part I: Fatherlessness, Part II: The Cultural Script and Part III: Fatherhood. In Fatherlessness, he provides the history of fatherhood and includes statistics that help to illustrate the transition of the father from head of the household to being “almost entirely a Sunday institution” (pg. 15).
It is estimated that 50 percent of all American marriages end in divorce, and that 22 million children in the United States alone live without a father. My parents added to these numbers in 2002, when I was only 5 years old. My mother raised me solely. When I was young, I spent every other weekend traveling eight hours round trip to see my father, but for the past five years I’ve only seen him sparsely — maybe three or four times annually.
The news may try to present facts related to single parents that may show them in a negative light, or a drama (such as a soap opera) may have a single parent character that is poor, aggressive and look down upon by the other characters for "not looking as good as everyone else" (Appendix vii) helps to reinforce the views of the other respondents. However, it is the response of the final interviewee that begins to somewhat take a deeper understanding of why the media portrays single parents as they do stating “In general, single parents get portrayed negatively but every so often single parents seems to be forced into a hero like or martyr roles. It’s normally a single mum battling a corrupt system or organisation and sometimes single dads for just being single dads. Generally, only lesser amounts of positive stories are a very fluff piece like. But as a demographic, they are portrayed as a drain on the system.” (Appendix ix). These results suggest that those who were interviewed believe that the media is somewhat responsible for the stigma that single parents face as the majority of the time they are negatively labelled supporting Hillary Land’s 1978 study 39 years
The Family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. With higher percentages of marriage ending in divorce, and higher rates of childbearing out of wedlock, single parent families are increasing rapidly. “Seventy percent of all the children will spend all or part of their lives in a single-parent household.” (Dowd) Studies have shown that the children of these families are affected dramatically, both negatively and positively. Women head the majority of single- parent families and as a result, children experience many social problems from growing up without a father. Some of these problems include lack of financial support, and various emotional problems by not having a father around, which may contribute to problems later in life. At the same time, children of single-parent homes become more independent because they learn to take care of themselves, and rely on others to do things for them.
Bringing a new baby into the world is one life changing experience. The lives of both the mother and the father are changed tremendously as they begin to learn to raise a child by trial and error. Maternity leave for mothers of newborns is never disagreeable; when it comes to paternity leave, however, it becomes one of the most controversial topics of the workforce. Reasons for maternity leaves and paternity leaves are both justifiable. Men should have the opportunity to take paternity leave from their jobs so that they can be a helping hand to the mother, have a chance to bond with their newborn child, and help bridge the gap in gender equality in the workplace without the stigma and criticism. After the birth of the child, women can become emotionally and physically fatigued, so men take an important role as care giver and supporter, especially in the first few weeks. If a father has an opportunity to stay home for the first couple of weeks, to care for both the mother and his new child, it will make a big impact for the family.
For all the talk about our inclusive society, there are still areas where inaccurate and harmful stereotypes get a green light from the media and politicians. Teenage parents must seem like the gift that keeps on giving for certain sections of the tabloid press, who leap at the chance to tie up all single parents in the same lazy caricature of feckless welfare spongers. But those who work directly with single parents know that these unjust stereotypes can be hugely damaging to young women or men taking their first steps into parenthood. Young single parents regularly tell us that the stigma they face is one of the most challenging aspects of becoming a parent at a young age.
One of the hardest issues to survive in, as a single parent, is an overwhelming emotion that you should complete the role of both mother and father. This feeling evolves and will be more intense if the other single parent is not portraying a role that is active with the children.
Every day in America, a woman loses a job to a man, a homosexual high school student suffers from harassment, and someone with a physical or mental disability is looked down upon. People with disabilities make up the world’s largest and most disadvantaged minority, with about 56.7 million people living with disabilities in the United States today (Barlow). In every region of the country, people with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived of some of life’s fundamental experiences. They have little hope of inclusion within education, getting a job, or having their own home (Cox). Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed in life, but discrimination is limiting opportunities and treating people badly because of their disability.