The economic status of single parent households with children under the age of 18 is a critical societal need. In fact, single mothers are more likely to be in poverty than single fathers. Dr. Carol Greinder of John Hopkins School of Medicine, recently shared statistical findings that of the nearly 10 million single mother households the median income was roughly $26,000 which equates to less than one third the income of a married couple (Krawczyk, 2017). The barriers that produce low incomes for single mothers include factors such as education, low work experience, health issues, lack of transportation and child care. Many studies concluded that most welfare recipients lacked the education skill set required by most employers. Furthermore, rural and inner city areas often do not have enough employment opportunities that require little skill set. Finally, single mothers were unable to focus on employment due to the lack of affordable housing available in communities where job availability is higher. With the lack of employment opportunities for single mothers, we now have to look at redefining the earning capacity by giving them an opportunity to gain critical skills for better employment, which will then offer them the ability to live a healthier lifestyle out of poverty.
Redefining Single Mothers Earning Capacity
Based on human capital theory, a recent study revealed that a contributing factor to the disparity of single mother poverty is that single mothers were
Did you know that more than one fourth of all children in the United States live with only one parent? Single parenting has become more common today than in the 1800s, when it was sometimes frowned upon. As the years have gone by, it has become easier and easier for women to become single parents. In the 1800’s if husbands died or abandoned their families, women had no choice but to work for extremely low and unfair wages. Today, most men and women are treated equal and receive equal wages making it easier for women to be single parents. This concept is shown in Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer through Aunt Polly in the 19th century, single parenting is also common today.
It is surprising that 42 million women and 28 million children who accompany these mothers in the United States face the financial hardhips that Gilbert faces. Gilbert’s hardships in every sector of her life portray how single- mothers lack adequate support. Good and affordable childcare is hard to find. Obtaining government assistance for education, health insurance, and subsistence programs are also hard to find. I believe that the government or legislators should take into account the hardships that low-income and/or single- parent households face and provide better assistance and resources.
Imagine a single mother who has has the task of taking care of multiple children, all on a minimum wage budget. This mother’s mind is overwhelmed with worries. Will she be able to pay next month's rent? WIll she be able to put food on the table for all of her children. The single mother lives each and every day with this anxiety, and even with government assistance: Is it enough to live comfortably?
About four in every ten children born in America in 2008 were born outside of marriage, and they are disproportionately minority and poor. “Only about 6 percent of college-educated mothers’ births are nonmarital versus 60 percent of those of high school dropouts” (5). Scholars responded to this by studying single-parent families.
Access to child-care, financial aid support and a close networks of significant others on low-income single mothers' access
The effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill helped declined caseloads on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. Although, the welfare reform was documented for making several positive changes such as reducing poverty rates, lowering the out of-wedlock childbearing, and formulated a better family structure, it is undeniable that poverty remained high among single mothers and their children. The reality of the matter was that most welfare recipients experienced serious barriers to maintain a stable employment due to their lack of skills, not having anyone available to take care of their young children when they leave for work as well as not gaining long-time employment with decent pay to help foster the family. As a result, most poor women and children were faced with the instability of economic and social future as welfare eligibility exhausted their efforts of supporting their families.
By making improvements to the Welfare System in America has become a way of life that has entrapped so many single and married households across the country. Statistics show that there were 108,592,000 people who are recipients of one or more means of the government benefit programs. The Census Bureau recorded by surveys over 101, 716,000 people who worked full time year around in 2011 which only allowed one member of the family to work year round. The system is meant to help low income families, however; they don’t want to be not allowed to grow by becoming more independent and have opportunities to rise above poverty. The quest to change the welfare system is to ensure the welfare and the rights of children, their parents and
Edin and Lein wanted to discover the surviving strategies of single mothers who are on welfare or work on a low-waged job. They argue “neither welfare nor low wage work gives single mothers enough income to meet their families’ expenses” (253). To find out the set of survival strategies of single mothers to make ends meet Edin and Lein interviewed 379 low income single mothers. They chose their interviewees from different cities, different aged group, and different ethnic background. Most mothers who are on welfare wanted to find a job and be out of the welfare but the primary problem that single mothers face was that “family economics”. With the minimum wage income it was impossible for the single mothers to bring the ends meet. Neither working nor being on welfare was enough to survive therefore mothers who are on welfare supported their budget by generating substantial supplementary income. Edin and Lein states that “welfare recipients generated extra income by working at side jobs, obtaining cash from network members, community groups and local charities”. They also get cash help from the family members, child’s fathers, and from a boyfriend. Because they were afraid to lose welfare benefits they did not tell anyone about the extra income they have. To survive they needed both the welfare benefits and the extra income. It was very difficult to establish a trust with the interviewees in the beginning because they were afraid if they talk about it they might lose the
Due to the increase in single parenting, there has been an increase in child poverty. Potential ways to make single parents successful are to get them into
They do not have a significant other 37 percent of single-parents families lack self sufficiency and are officially poor compared with 7 percent of married-couple families (Rector). Welfare can help the underachieving single parents that do not have a stable income. This proves and shows that some individuals can and want to be
Poverty in the world is a big problem. In the 1960s, food banks were located in 18 major cities, and one of them was Detroit. A man named Van Hengel started volunteering at a local soup kitchen when a lady with two kids told him that there should be place for homeless to go and get food almost like a bank.Van Hengel was the person who created food banks in America.Today there are more than 200 food banks in the U.S and 60,000 meal pantries. Each year the number of meal pantries and food banks increases.Food banks are still important today because there are many homeless and hungry children, and pets. The politics behind food banks in America is the governor of the state will decide if there is enough money in the budget to create food banks
According to Sowmya, all staff should be rewarded equally without any discrimination. The writer argues that rewarding one staff and leaving the others unrewarded may demotivate the others. I do not agree with him. If all staff is rewarded equally, then it would lead to demotivation of the hardworking staff. A high reward for the hard working staff, then each would always go the extra mile to get the reward DeVries & Kets, 2004).
Single parent families, especially those headed by a female, differ greatly from married couple families in their characteristics. Single parent families are more likely to be poor, receive welfare, and contain young children. In 1990 female-headed households had a poverty rate of 33.4 percent while poverty rates for married couple and male-headed households were 5.7 and 12.0, respectively. (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1991a). As reflected by their higher poverty rate, the earnings power of women heading households is far less than that of married couples or male only
Can perfect people make up a perfect world? As society advances towards a better future, scientists are coming up with new ways to eradicate and lessen the spread of genetic diseases. One field of study is HGE, or human genetic engineering: altering one’s DNA before they are born to eliminate any chance of a genetic disease. Although these advancements can benefit various people, it also opens a dangerous window of opportunity for parents to alter other qualities in their unborn child. Soon, technology will pave a path for “Designer Babies:” children whose entire characteristics are predetermined by their parents to create the best possible child. However, because of possible genetic hazards, change of attitudes toward children, and the creation
What use to be an environment with one simple concept to improve fitness and health has