It is apparent that as time progresses marriage is on the demise. The decline of marriage is having a negative effect on children. Those children, who are born into single parent families often get into drugs, perform poorly in school, suffer from abuse and have emotional problems. The big question becomes why. According to James Q. Wilson there are two possible explanations, money and culture. The welfare systems of today support unmarried mothers. It allows them to receive housing, food and clothing without having to work. Simply put it makes it much easier to live without a husband or father. Women may actually prefer to live with babies and not with husbands. There was a study done which proved that because of welfare it is twelve percent more likely for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock before the age of 22! AFDC began in 1935, in the 60’s most women on welfare was widows or separated from their husband. Today this is not the case, two-thirds of children on welfare have an unmarried mom and only a very small percentage of them are children of widows. Money does not explain this dramatic change, culture does. Wilson says, “The Enlightenment made human reason the measure of all things, throwing off ancient rules is they fell short…what tradition once required was to be set aside in the name of scientific knowledge and personal self-discovery”. Although the Enlightenment has given us many wonderful freedoms it has had some negative affects as well. There was a time when people were looked down upon for getting a divorce or being on welfare. Today this is no longer the case. It is easier to get out of a divorce today than it is to get out of a mortgage. Even the Supreme Courts view of marriage has changed. In the past the Supreme Court referred to marriage as a “sacred obligation”. By 1965 it became nothing more than, “an association of two individuals”. Unfortunately there is not much we can do to change this. None of us want to give up all of the freedoms we have gained. Wilson puts it best when he says, “the right and best way for a culture to restore itself is for it to be rebuilt, not from the top down by government policies, but from the bottom up by personal decisions”.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Single mothers challenge the norm ideology of a nuclear family. A nuclear family viewed as having full responsibility of their own well-being. Historically, the men were the head of the household and were financially responsibility for all needs of the nuclear family. Single mother families challenged this ideology and were seen as deviant and problematic. Because single mothers have no male, the question was then who is financially responsible for her and the children. To address who was financially responsible the elite categorized single mothers into two categories deserving and undeserving. Only single mothers who gained status by widowed were deserving of welfare called Mothers Allowance. Single mothers who gained status out of wedlock or abandonment were undeserving and did not receive welfare. Eventually, all women who cared for children and had no other form of income became eligible for welfare. However, with assistance and the implementation of the snitch line, fraud task force their lives became scrutinized and policed to determine if they were deserving of assistance. Questioning their sexuality and if truly were single was a key part of labeling their eligibility. Extreme measures of the scrutiny included termination of benefits if any male belongings were in the home (Reitsma- Street & Keck, 1996).…
- 1352 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Post-WWII, life in America seemed to be returning to normal. America overcame the Great Depression, and the daily life was what it once was. Men were returning home, women were returning to their previous duties, and the economy was back on track. On the topic of women and family, marriages and birth rates were skyrocketing in the 1950s. However, this means that divorce was becoming more common as well. It was not a drastic jump, but more of a slow and steady increase, by about 10,000 in the decade. Domestic life solidified during this decade, but unfortunately the marriage life wasn’t. As known in society, money has always been a common issue in marriages. The economy boomed during and post-WWII (following the Great Depression) which possibly made women consider more whether or not to leave their spouse.…
- 546 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
A big factor changing marriage rates is the changing role of women in society. Many households are now becoming more matrifocal than before. Women’s improvement in their economic position has made them less financially dependent on men and they therefore do not have a greater pressure to marry. Girls’ greater success in education has helped them achieve better-paid jobs than previous generations and the availability of welfare benefits means that they can support themselves without needing a husband to do so. Allan and Crow argue that ‘marriage is less embedded within the economic system’ now which means that the family is no longer a unit of production – proving another reason why there has been such a decrease in them. The fact that women have become so independent and less reliant on men justifies how marriage rates have decreased from 400,000 to 248,000 in the last 40 years. Marriage also now takes place between couples as an act of love rather than practicality. With changing positions of women in the last 40 years, it is not so expected for women to focus on settling down and marrying, they can allow themselves to choose other options such…
- 918 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
xvi. Interrelated or interactive categories of social experience that affect all aspects of human life…
- 1759 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Welfare is nothing new to the citizens of this country. It is a concept that arose over a century ago. Welfare was made famous by Bill Clinton, in 1996, and it has brought up much controversy. Arguments suggest the welfare system is highly abused by its members while others believe it is the answer to the nation’s poverty. Although the welfare system is state regulated, many people believe it is taken advantage of by underserving people. Often, people with nasty habits, sale their food stamp cards for extra cash, cigarettes, and drugs. Most of the time, these people have children that have to go without because their parent puts their government assistance towards unhealthy addictions.…
- 1145 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
The welfare system in the United States began when the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC) (Rector par.2), the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) program and the Emergency Assistance (EA) program with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) (Office par. 1). The highlights of TANF are that recipients are required to participate in work activities such as unsubsidized or subsidized employment, on-the-job training, work experience, and community service for so many hours a week in order to receive benefits and that a person can only receive federal aid for a total of five years in his or her adult lifetime (Office). The three goals of TANF were “(1) to reduce welfare dependence and increase employment; (2) to reduce child poverty; and (3) to reduce illegitimacy and strengthen marriage” (Rector par. 2). Sidonie Squire, the director of the Department of Health and Human Resources, says the number of families on welfare (caseloads) has decreased from 4.41 million families in August 1996 to 1.76 million families in September 2006. 1.6 million fewer children were living in poverty in 2005 than in 1996 (Squire), and the illegitimacy rate only rose one-fourth as fast from 1996 to 2003 as it did before welfare reform (Rector par.38). However, the welfare system hasn’t been effective.…
- 1898 Words
- 8 Pages
Good Essays -
The average number of marriages has declined since the 1950’s for various reasons that scholars have tried to explain through their research (Vanorman & Scommegna, 2016). Even with the legalization of same sex marriage, there has been a decline in the number of married adults in the United States. In 1960, about three-quarters of all American adults were married, compared to 2014 where the number had decreased to about half of all American adults being married (Vanorman & Scommegna, 2016). The United States’s marriage trend has been influenced by factors such as cohabitation, delayed marriage, an increase in divorce with a decrease in remarriage, and the increase of having children out of wedlock (Vanorman & Scommegna, 2016).…
- 388 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 had three main purposes and several different opinions on whether they were going to work or not. The main purposes of the Welfare Reform Act were to reduce welfare dependence and increase employment, to reduce child poverty, and to reduce illegitimacy and strengthen marriage (Rector, R., & Fagan, P. F., February 6, 2003). Due to the abundance of opinions and opposing facts it is hard to tell whether or not which positive and negative facts are true when it comes to how effective these purposes were after the Welfare Reform Act was implemented.…
- 831 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
On the other hand, Liberals describe the 1996 welfare reform as an ineffective policy which only results in more hardship and poverty for many poor families, especially mothers and children in financial distress. They maintain that those individuals who have left the welfare, as a result, ended up with low waged jobs, which eventually left them in destitution and homeless. Furthermore, liberals argue that the reform has reduced welfare assistance, thus providing inadequate safety nets to low income individuals and those who are unemployed; whether due to illness or old age. According to them, the reform was “blaming the victim”…
- 387 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Welfare dependency is when a person or household is reliant on government welfare benefits. They use welfare benefits for their income for a long period of time, and without the benefits they would not be able to pay for things for daily living. Some individuals may use this benefit even though they make more than an individual who may need the benefits more than they do. This benefit is supposed to help families with low income, but many people take advantage of this benefit to get what they want. I do not think it is right to abuse the system and take advantage of something that is supposed to help others who really need it. When people use benefits that they do not need it leaves the people who do need it with nothing. Welfare dependency…
- 1292 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Poverty, the lack of money, goods, and support, has been a major problem for many people. There are millions of people in America living in poverty today. There are those that really need help, and there are those who can support themselves but choose not to. Where there is poverty, there is welfare. The financial help of people in need, welfare, has been around for quite some time. Some of the basic programs offered for those who apply for a welfare program in America are health care, food stamps, child care assistance, cash aid, and housing assistance. Many people living in poverty are on one, if not all, of those welfare programs. Welfare programs have a negative effect on America by sustaining the high poverty rate. “That is because the…
- 1495 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Welfare began during the great depression in the 1930’s then, just like now, there were many families that needed help from the government, and that is why they introduced welfare. In our world today there is social welfare, corporate welfare, child welfare, and many others that one can apply for. Other welfare programs, such as TANF and WIC, have truly made a difference in the lives of American families. Families are kept together, children are healthier and often times, recipients are able to use the welfare to help them as they find a new job. In some cases, welfare might even save lives. But, of course, the system has its flaws, and many argue that tax payer dollars are being wasted. Some citizens believe that recipients of welfare should undergo mandatory drug testing.…
- 834 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Welfare was able to dig its roots into America during the time of the Great Depression. At that time, the local and state governments, along with private charities were being overwhelmed with individuals and families seeking the necessities to live. Necessities these families could no longer afford themselves. This is the main point when welfare,…
- 1647 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
The debate over Welfare has been a hot topic in the U.S for many years now. Welfare in the U.S. started long before the government welfare programs that we know today. Welfare started in the early days when the U.S. colonies imported the British Laws. The laws made were established for those unable to work because of their age or physical health and those able to work just unemployed. When the Great Depression began, nearly 18 million elderly, disabled, and single mothers already lived at the bare subsistence level. Welfare does not benefit everyone, but who does it benefit? Welfare is meant to help the unemployed and also help is extended to the poor through programs that include Medicaid, called the Woman, Children, and Infants Program. Welfare…
- 806 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
When President Clinton signed the Personal Responsible & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in August of 1996, it ended welfare as we know it. Under this reform, wages and earnings replaced welfare, but many critics felt only problems arose from this program. Welfare to work forces poor and single parents into jobs that do not supply sufficient living wages (Albelda 1). These single parents can never work enough hours to support their families because the jobs are often inflexible which is not a match for a single parent. Chances are employers who hire low wage workers do not want workers to come in late because there was no child care or miss days because the child was sick. Welfare to work fails to realize parents probably should not put their low wage jobs before the needs of their children. The jobs provided somehow seem to have the least benefits. Things like vacations, sick days, and health care that go hand in hand with a regular job are not as available in these low wage jobs (Albelda 1).Transportation and location are other huge problems that welfare to work does not accommodate all to well. In suburban and rural areas where buses are not that accessible, the workers have to get on "work vans" to travel long distances. Either parents then have to pay more money to sitters or the kids are spending even more time without their parents. ; thus creating more problems than solutions. In the film Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore shows us where the welfare to work program goes wrong. In a rural area of Flint, Michigan a…
- 998 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays