Single Mothers: The Gender Gap In The United States

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.

Simultaneously, the gender pay gap has financial effects not just on the women, yet their families too. Studies have shown that American families with children count on a women’s earnings as a massive part of their family’s income, and many are the head of the household. Data demonstrates that “seventy percent of mothers with children under 18 participate in the labor force, with over 75 percent employed full-time. Mothers are the primary or sole earners for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960. Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has climbed since WWII: from 32.7 percent in 1948 to 56.8 percent in 2016” (Dewolf). Now women make up more than half of the U.S. workforce, the gap in earning deciphers to $7968 per year in median earnings for a high school graduate, $11,616 for a college graduate, and $19,360 for a professional school graduate. By and large, this gap effects hundreds of millions of women and their families, and lag them back hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout their life.

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

In the U.S., families headed by just a single mothers represent the largest amount of poor families. Today, women receive 77 cents on the dollar when compared to men with the same skills and experience (Macionis 2013:56). How could one expect a woman or a single mother to support themselves making roughly three-quarters of the pay of men with the same capabilities and skill? Women are also less likely to be hired for a job when compared to a man and are less likely to go to college. With setbacks like these, it is hard for women not to be poor. Women are more likely to be poor than men, but single mothers face the highest probability of becoming poor. Like women, minorities also face a lack of opportunity and

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.

Access to child-care, financial aid support and a close networks of significant others on low-income single mothers' access

According to statistics, employment in never married mothers increased nearly 50%, single mothers who HS dropouts increased by 2/3, young single mothers nearly doubled (Karger et al., 2007). But the problem is, are these jobs sufficient enough to get these people out of poverty? There are issues with employment of individuals. These issues include a lack of work experience and education as well as poor health (Urban Institute, 2014). Needing to work also impacts parent(s) and their duties for their children because of long hours, stressful commutes, ad stressful working conditions. These types of stress lead kids to take on the responsibilities of their parents to take care of their younger siblings (Boscia, 2010).

Family structure is a critical factor for a progressive society. If gender gap must be reduced significantly in New Mexico, the size of single mother families must be reduced. This has the added advantage of reducing poverty and allowing more women to participate effectively in the labor force. Outreach programs should be broadened to identify young single mothers at the grassroots level and not to single them out for social stigmatization but to support them develop skills that will empower them. In addition, girls should be engaged through various programs to catch them young. These approaches will help to define the problem of single mothers as economic rather than a moral one. Thus, it becomes easier to leverage public support by the stakeholders

Since single mothers are parenting on their own, they often struggle to help or provide for their family, especially with the pay they get at their job. Single Mother Guide states that 83% of families are single mother families, meaning the women are raising children on their own. Single Mother Guide also states that by closing the wage gap, women could have the opportunity of paying the average or median of rent, and have $700 to spare. Single Mother Guide also

The number of mothers and fathers who have a college degree and who have not finished high school is drastically different from 2-3% to 42-43%. Many of the fathers who have not been paying child support but are required to pay are institutionalized (2001). Many of the poor mothers who aren’t receiving some type of formal child support are more likely to rely on other cash assistance from the government (2001).

Women in the work force suffer a great deal with multiple consequences for not only being a woman, but for being a mother as well, either married or unmarried. Research shows that mothers pay substantial wage penalties for having children. The average penalty one study found is 5% to 10% per child among women in their 20s and 30s (Anderson et al., 2003; Budig & England, 2001; Waldfogel, 1997). The motherhood penalty differs with race and ethnicity. Studies show that white women pay larger motherhood wage penalties than African Americans (Neumark & Korenman 1994; Waldfogel 1997). For African American mothers, only married mothers with more than two children will pay the wage penalty. African American mothers who have never been married do not pay a wage penalty. For White women, all mothers pay the wage penalty, married, never-married, and divorced, as long as they have at least one or two children (Glauber

According to The New York Times, U.S. Women on the Rise as Family Breadwinners, Catherine Rampell wrote that “four in 10 American households with children under 18 now include a mother who is either the sole or primary earner for her family the highest on record it has quadrupled since 1960”(2). The change of women being the

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

Single parent households are a sensitive topic that is highly debated today. This topic is one that has repercussions for both the parents and the children involved. However, regardless of the different consequences, these households continue to grow in the coming years. “In 1970, traditional two-parent married households dominated, making up 81 % of all households in the United States (US). By 2012 this number dropped to around 66 % … In 2012, approximately 21 million children, or 28 % of all children in the US, lived with one parent” (Kramer, 2015). It is interesting to look at the way the single parent households continue to grow throughout the years, all while being a hot topic for discussion on its consequences. When thinking about a book to read for this course, there was no real choice. I stumbled upon this book and knew right away that I could benefit from this book, as well as connect to it on a deeper level and relate to it personally.

Married couples make up 68% of all families with children under 18, compared to 93% in 1950 (US 2015 Census). This demonstrates that more and more children are living in households with single parents. Single parents have to deal with jobs and other sources of stress making it difficult to give their children the attention they need. Additionally, single parents are the only ones that are providing for the family so they have a lot on their plate. This can provide stress on the child because they can feel unloved or even hated. As the rate of single parents go up, so does the amount of children that are not receiving enough