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Single mothers in society
Essays on single mothers
Essays on single mothers
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Single Mothers Reflection
Being a single mother is a challenge, but is it an advantage or disadvantage? Since a few years ago the number of single mothers has been increasing rapidly. According to the Census Bureau of the United States, between 1985 and 2015 the number of single mothers increased by 10 million, but considering the total amount of families with children younger than 18 years old single mother households represent the 30 percent of them (Sandberg 122). It is clear that being a single mother should no longer be seen as something negative. Any woman can go through this situation regardless of her culture, education, or country. During the last few years, single mothers have faced several social and political challenges, and many
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Companies should offer more job opportunities to single mothers. A study realized in 2015 by the United States Census indicates that there are around 5.2 million of stay-at-home moms in married couple families; however, 9.9 million women are single mothers, and they cannot choose to stay at home or go to work. For that reason, most of the single mothers are obligated to work because they are the breadwinners and the only household support. Considering this, companies should promote single mothers for senior positions earlier than women and men without responsibilities. In the book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg explains that many women hold themselves back for fear of having more obligations (149).Consequently, single mothers are included in this group of individuals who evade high-level jobs for apprehension of not fulfilling the requirements that the job requires. Nonetheless, single mothers should not be concerned because, according to Sandberg, “Parents have to make adjustments, compromises, and sacrifices every day” (122). Adaptation is the clue to succeed in a new job, and single mothers can easily learn to balance their time …show more content…
Among some of the laws in favor of women are the Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA"), which protects women against domestic abuse, Child Support Law, which protects children after parents ' divorce or separation, and some more. However, the United States laws are not perfect; some laws in the legal system do not help single mothers. As an illustration, there is not a law to protect single mothers’ goals; this means, single mothers are obligated to deal with their children 's father until those children become 18 years old. During this time, many single mothers are harassed by the father of their children; others have to follow instructions from their ex-partner because, according to the law, the father has to know and approve everything related with the child, so the life of the mother turns into a nightmare most of the time. Kristin Leong wrote about her experience in a viewpoint essay, and on it Kristin said that there was an incident when her ex-partner abandoned her two years old son by her house 's front door, all beaten. Then, he despaired. Since Kristin wanted an explanation, she tried to contact the child 's father, but he never answered. Hence, Kristin reported the event to the authorities, but "the judge said he couldn 't determine if the injuries were caused by abuse or neglect," then he added, "I 'm sorry," but, "neglect is not illegal in this state" (Leong). Like Kristin, many other
This book is a study of the personal tales of many single mothers, with intentions to understand why single mothers from poor urban neighborhoods are increasingly having children out of wedlock at a young age and without promise of marrying their fathers. The authors chose to research their study in Philadelphia’s eight most devastated neighborhoods, where oppression and danger are high and substantial job opportunities are rare. They provide an excellent education against the myth that poor young urban women are having children due to a lack of education on birth control or because they intend to work the welfare system. Instead, having children is their best and perhaps only means of obtaining the purpose, validation and companionship that is otherwise difficult to find in the areas in which they live. For many of them, their child is the biggest promise they have to a better future. They also believe that though their life may not have been what they want, they want their child to have more and better opportunities and make it their life’s work to provide that.
What is a single parent? Is it one who destroys their child’s life? Is it one who ultimately cannot raise a minor on their own? Or is it one who dedicates their lives to the well being of their kid? Imagine a parent, and for whatever reason they were left alone to raise a child. That parent you imagined has to work long hours just to put a meal on the table. That parent has to play the role of the mother and father. That parent has no financial support. Unfortunately, in our society, this image of a single parent is looked down upon. There are people that don’t realize how much a single parent goes through to give their child a better life.
Over the past three decades these ideals, although they are still recognizable, have been drastically modified across all social classes. Women have joined the paid labor force in great numbers stimulated both by economic need and a new belief in their capabilities and right to pursue opportunities. Americans in 1992 are far more likely than in earlier times to postpone marriage. Single parent families--typically consisting of a mother with no adult male and very often no other adult person present-have become common. Today at least half of all marriages end in divorce (Gembrowski 3). Most adults no longer believe that couples should stay married because divorce might harm their children. Of course, these contemporary realities have great consequential impact on mother-ch...
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
This research paper will explore primarily the impact of African American single-parent households on the children that live in these environments. This is a very important issue and more awareness is needed. Research has provided evidence that single-parent households are one of many risk factors that can negatively affect a child’s educational outcome, emotional health and social behavior. Although not all single-parent family households have disadvantages, the focus of his study is to shed more light on the issues and offer solutions. For example, more policies are needed to reinforce fathers to pay child support. This alone will provide mothers with more money to help them better raise their children.
In today’s society, the amounts of single-parent households are increasing and this is another reason for the existence of childhood poverty. Statistics show that children living in single-parent homes are five times more likely to be poor. More people are getting divorced and are also having children outside of wedlock. It has also been said that women rather than men head about 90% of single-parent families. One of the
In the trajectory of humanity, single parenting has become a concept internationally accepted by most modern cultures. What exactly causes single parenthood? Well there are many factors in which could result in a single parent household. Death of a partner, divorce, and unintended pregnancy are just some of the causes of single parenthood. Based on this worldwide acknowledgement and understanding, single parenthood is usually aided by monetary help from the government or unions. Although financial help is available, the psychological effects a child goes through could never be fixed by any type of cash value. These psychological traumas and mental changes could affect the parent raising the child as well. Even with some financial help, single parents sometimes struggle to make ends meet. A study featured in Time magazine informed Americans that middle to lower class single parents will work 40+ hour weeks at minimum wage to provide for their child. If the parent is so busy at work, who's watching the child? Sometimes, the single parent might still have connection with their own families. Grandma and grandpa have to raise the child since the parent is hard at labor to provide for their offspring. Occasionally, some of our elderly folk do not have the competence to watch over a child. It might even be that the child is too energetic and could wear out the seniors. The child will then resort to the television, street, friends, etc to learn and grow. These influences might be negative for the child especially if they're not coming from the mother or father. An investigation of single parenting leads to the affirmation that raising a child by yourself is very difficult and must be approached very leniently and effectively.
Almost half of all children in the US by the age of 15 will have lived with a single parent (Anderson cited in Barajas 13). In fact, father absent homes have a greater effect on boys than on girls (Mandara, Murry; Sigle-Rushton &McLanahan, cited in Barajas 13). Those teenage boys that are raised in single mother households in low income areas are more likely to participate in criminal activity because they receive less supervision, are surrounded by crime in their neighborhoods, and receive low education levels.
Stone (2007) conducted “extensive, in depth interviews with 54 women in a variety of professions-law, medicine, business, publishing, management consulting, nonprofit administration, and the like- living in major metropolitan areas across the country, half of them in their 30’s, half in their 40’s” (p. 15). Keep in mind these women Stone (2007) focuses on are “highly educated, affluent, mostly white, married women with children who had previously worked as professionals or managers whose husbands could support their being at home” (p. 14). Her findings revealed women are strongly influenced by two factors: workplace push and motherhood pull. “Many workplaces claimed to be “family friendly” and offered a variety of supports. But for women who could take advantage of them, flexible work schedules (which usually meant working part time) carried significant penalties” (Stone, 2007, p. 16). This quote represents the workplace push, where women are feeling encouraged to continue their rigorous careers with little to no family flexibility being offered from workplaces. The motherhood pull is a term used to describe the way mothers feel when they face the pressure of staying home to raise their children while still expected to maintain a steady job. “Motherhood influenced women 's decision to quit as they came to see the rhythms and
The reduced earnings of women have an impact on 7.4 million households run by single working women. Over two point one million families consisting of working single mothers were considered poor. An added two point four million working single mothers were severely struggling to barely make ends meet. They were falling between 100 and 200 pe...
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.
Single parenthood culture seems appealing to many married people. However, married individuals are forced to battle with elements like faithfulness and life-long commitment to one individual, which may be boring in some cases. However, single parents, especially single mothers encounter serious challenges related to parenting. Single parenting is a succession of constant mental torture because of ineptness, self-scrutiny, and remorse. At some point, single parents will often encounter serious psychological problems some graduating to stress and eventual depression. Again, there are far-reaching problems that force single mothers to a set of economic or social hardships. Social hardships are evident as address in this research.
About 75 percent of the 68 million women working in the United States will become pregnant at some point in their careers. Women with children are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. labor force. In 1975, 47% of women with children under the age of 18 were employed; by 2008, this number grew to a notable 71% (Miner et al. 60). Compared to other workers, mothers are often viewed as less competent, less productive, and less committed to their job, which is assumed to result in increased absenteeism and resignation (Byron and Roscigno 5). Also, employers may doubt a mother’s ability to balance their work and home lives (Nunenmacher and Schnepf 172). A study conducted by Shelley Correll, Stephen Benard, and In Paik found that mothers were 79% less likely to be hired, 50% less likely to be promoted, and offered $11,000 less in salary than identical women without children. In the study, the subjects revealed that they assumed the mothers to be inherently less competent and less committed (Williams and Cuddy 96). Given these statistics, discrimination against mothers is one of the strongest forms of gender bias.
The workforce can be a hard place, but for single mothers, it seems to be a much more threatening area. Women have been turned down from a job for being a single mother and some women have even been fired from a job for being pregnant without a husband to help support the baby. Single mothers have also been bullied at their work. Coworkers will taunt them about having spouses and a relaxed family to go home to that is run by two adults. Once single mothers get a job, they have a risk of losing it. They have no one to take care of her chil...
For my mid term paper I 'm going to talk about single parent children and how it affect them in all aspects of life and how it forces the child to grow up faster than other children that have 2 parents.