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Single Mothers Organizing Against Prejudice
from: Karlie BestlerIt is evident that in America the one big thing that can undermine your financial success is not divorce, death or illness but rather being a single mother. Single mothers may land in this category through divorce, death or an incapacitated spouse, but these are not the essential reasons why a single mother loses earning power. She loses earning power because of an inherent bias and prejudice in American business that stereotypes single mothers and discriminates against them.
Many single mothers have been too exhausted and too overworked to notice, but now this is becoming a major issue in the fight for women's rights. We live in a society that demands that in order to succeed we must play the corporate game, get better jobs, better pay so we can put our children into better educational institutions. However, this only works if you are married.
If you are a single mother, the perception is that you are a business risk. In many states like New Jersey, it is legal to ask the marital status and number of children of a job applicant. Business owners claim this allows them to refuse to hire single mothers and pay health care costs for their dependents, or if they do choose to hire them, to deliberately pay them less to make up for perceived health care expenses. Because it is legal, this is not seen as discrimination. That this inequality exists and is legal in our society has many single mothers absolutely fuming.
Single mothers were asked to get off welfare and go back into the workforce, but the workforce is decidedly biased against them. Many single mothers work over 40 hours a week to support their children with minimal help from the state or deadbeat dads. They are hired at lower wages than single women or married women if they are hired at all. They have minimal support and must hire someone to care for the children when they are working. If they get sick, the situation becomes desperate both in terms of income and childcare.
In 2006 the census estimates that over 10 million Americans are single mothers. Many of these single mothers are starting to band together in local organizations to help other single mothers. Babysitting clubs, financial and social services are a few of the benefits these clubs provide. Other single mothers are petitioning their public officials to change laws that make it legal to ask a mother's marital status and number of children.
There is a very big grassroots movement of single mothers rising after they have taken care of their children. Now they are looking out for other single mothers like themselves and trying to help them up the ladder to success.
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