Tag Archive for "single mothers"

Posts Tagged single mothers

Conservative commentator blames single moms and “women’s lib” for police violence

As I mentioned yesterday, it was probably only a matter of time before someone found a way to blame feminism for the police violence that’s taken center stage in the national conversation in the last few weeks. Conservative commentator Dr. Ben Carson’s attempt to tie the murders of black men at the hands of the police back to the “women’s lib movement” and the “Me generation” of the ’60s in an interview on American Family Radio’s “Today’s Issues” is truly a sight to behold.

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

How the value put on two-parent families is dangerous for domestic violence survivors

After studying domestic violence services for a couple years, public health researcher Sara Shoener realized that one of the biggest barriers to survivors safety is the widespread cultural belief that two-parent homes are best–no matter what. She writes the New York Times:

I began my research in 2011, the year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than one-third of American women are assaulted by an intimate partner during their lives. I talked to women in communities that ranged from a small rural mining town to a large global city, in police stations, criminal courts, emergency shelters, job placement centers and custody proceedings. I found that almost all of the women with ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Chart of the Day: Blame US policies, not single mothers, for child poverty

Single mothers in the US are disproportionately likely to be poor — a fact that some like to point to explain why we have such god awful rates of child poverty. The US ranks 34 out of 35 developed countries in terms of number of children living in poverty, which should be a national scandal but isn’t. Conservatives — who like to wring their hands about the plight of single mothers without actually asking them what they need (like, maybe health insurance?) — think marriage is the magic bullet. The federal government has spent nearly one billion dollars since 2001 on marriage promotion — a colossal waste of money. Just recently, a Heritage Foundation panel said ...

Single mothers in the US are disproportionately likely to be poor — a fact that some like to point to explain why we have such god awful rates of child poverty. The US ranks 34 out of ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 10 years ago

“Paycheck to Paycheck” documentary puts a human face to the treadmill of poverty in the US

“Alis Volat Propilus…It means ‘I fly with my own wings.’ I don’t need anyone else to hold me up.” Katrina Gilbert looks into the camera fingering the tattoo of a bird just above her breast. The ink is a reminder and totem. It is our first introduction to Gilbert, whose story in the documentary Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert becomes the visual embodiment of the Shriver Report released earlier this year. Gilbert is one of 42 million American women who live at or below the poverty line. It is only a short moment later in the film that we become acutely aware that Gilbert may very well have her own wings, but it is ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Chart of the Day: Mothers are the sole or primary breadwinner in 40 percent of US households

According to a new Pew Research Center report, a record 40 percent of households now have a mother who is the sole or primary source of income for their families.

This figure includes two very different groups of women: 63 percent are single mothers and 37 percent are women who are married and have a higher income than their spouses. As Bryce Covert notes at Think Progress, the former group is sitting pretty–at nearly $80,000 in 2011, their family income tends to be much higher than the national median. The single mothers, on the other hand, are earning just $23,000.

And, as a recent Legal Momentum report shows, the US is the worst place–no really, the actual worst ...

According to a new Pew Research Center report, a record 40 percent of households now have a mother who is the sole or primary source of income for their families.

This figure includes two very ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Acceptance is not the goal

Gallup just released the results of its annual poll surveying Americans’ moral views on a number of hot topics, from adultery to polygamy to birth control. In general, respondents seem to have grown more progressive. According to Gallup, 59% of Americans believe gay and lesbian relationships are “morally acceptable,” up from 40% in 2001, when the annual questionnaire was first administered. Sixty-three percent of 2013 respondents are alright with teens having sex, compared to 32% 12 years ago. While only 45% of those polled in ’01 “personally believe[d] that in general it is morally acceptable” to have a baby out of marriage, now 60% do. Birth control got the “meh, ok” from 91%.

This is good news. In a ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Quick Hit: Stacia L. Brown’s advocacy for the voices of single mothers

Writer Stacia L. Brown is changing the conversation around single motherhood within communities of color and beyond. Brown rightly highlights the glaring omission in recent trend pieces reporting exploring the rise of single parenting in America.

“The latest numbers on unmarried parenting are out. The National Marriage Project reports that 58 percent of first births in lower-middle-class households and 40 percent of all U.S. births are to unwed mothers. Like clockwork, society has turned its collective gaze to the social and economic crises facing the single mother. And like clockwork, we mothers these statistics represent brace ourselves for the public’s moral scrutiny and fiscal concern. We become like specters; we may be at the center of national conversation, ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Melissa Harris-Perry discusses single mothers, gun violence, and Obama’s “daddy issues”

I don’t know if y’all heard Melissa Harris-Perry’s critique of President Obama’s speech on gun violence in Chicago last Friday. Watch it:

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This. All of this. No, seriously…MHP effectively deconstructs this false narrative of personal responsiblity and marriage as the balm to all ...

I don’t know if y’all heard Melissa Harris-Perry’s critique of President Obama’s speech on gun violence in Chicago last Friday. Watch it: