Understanding Single Mothers

Albert Kim Professor Hester Eisenstein
Soc. 245: Women and work
Understanding the Burdens of Single Mothers When the topic of welfare programs and government assistance comes up, the common conservative thinking of pulling oneself by the bootstrap has been a common theme for those opposed to the program and even some in the general public. There has been bias coverage in the media regarding those on welfare as being exaggerations of overweight individuals doing nothing but staying home and watching television. Many individuals who work and are taxed may also go as far as to say that individuals in the welfare programs are leeches of society. The
The inability for single mothers to break through into a job with steady pay and hours is further demystified by the fact that during 1993 “40% of all working women had been employed in service occupations. In contrast, managerial and professional positions are held by 26.9 % of all women workers in the U.S.; only 3.2 % in a particular study”. (pg. 530, Brooks and Buckner) Far more women were at the time able to work in the service industry than at high level manager/professional position. Female parents as females are at a disadvantage because “wages of women between 30 and 64 years are less than that of men”. (pg. 526, Brooks, Buckner) Single mothers also carry the heavy burden of having to deal with domestic expenses such as child care and work related expenses such as transportation and clothing. The pay of jobs that single mothers find is so low and the expenses are so high that working seems to be less cost effective the option of just receiving welfare or government assistance. This conflict is even more reinforced by the study in Chicago by Edin and Jencks where “ woman working 35 hours a week for 47 weeks a year at the minimum wage of $4.50/hour will not earn more than $7,403 prior to taxes. Yearly work expenses are estimated at $2,800… a minimum-wage job will net $1,865 less than the $6,468 mother with two children receives in AFDC benefits in
Many individuals, who are opponents of welfare or are ignorant of the complex problems that single mothers face, end up assuming that laziness comes into play. These individuals assume that single mothers apply for welfare and government assistance whenever they feel like they want to or a slight financial problem occurs. Single mothers often make decisions that are vital to their own household’s economic survival in society. Single mothers apply different economic survival strategies to their different economic situations such as if they were on welfare and government assistance or working a job. In light of the lifetime limit of 5 years on government assistance where “mothers who fail to sustain their families with their wages will, after a lifetime limit of five years, have no government safety net to fall on”, (p. 253, Edin, Lein) many single mothers fear most, the lack of money in the family during this transition. On paper, single mothers technically should not be able to support a household through the income from welfare income nor through the low-wage incomes. But somehow, single mothers who relied on welfare and government assistance were able to survive and pay bills to a certain extent. There are three categories of work that many single mother welfare recipients do, reported work, unreported work, and