Single Mothers Are Surging Into the Work Force

Booming economy? More like I better work another job to keep my head above water.

There are some extraordinary mixed messages coming from Republican-dominated states. At the same time that they are encouraging women to get pregnant, even sometimes making birth control more difficult and, of course, limiting access to abortion services, these states are also making it more difficult to actually make it through life as a mother. They have in many cases not adopted the ACA and the Medicare expansion, they have not increased minimum wages or passed laws on family leave. They have not made day care more available or any of the other positive developments noted in the article. I humble ask those Republican-dominated states to decide what you want. Because one day your are passing laws trying to ensure that more babies are born (even to women who don't want them). And the next day you are passing laws making a mother's life tougher - or refusing to pass laws to make her life easier. I understand that you want two-parent families and all that, but please, in addition to refusing to allow a woman to end a pregnancy, don't make it financial impossible for her to end a bad marriage as well!

The sad thing is that they are single. Its been proven over and over that kids do better with two parents and not one.

Knowing your daycare workers better than you know your mother means that the greatest influence on a child's life is not going to be a parent, but someone your mother doesn't even know all that well. If we deprive women of the choice to not have children, we punish the children as much as their mothers.

"It's such a gift to have babies I can't afford and no financial or parental help from their non-existent father." - said no single mother anywhere Why aren't the father's rights to his body taken away so he can't have another child?

NYT, please do a series of articles about fathers who do not live with their children. These "single mother," do not usually produce children without a father somewhere. Where are the statistics about how many men are not supporting there children. Lets see some stories about the children whose fathers have abandoned them. Why do we talk about single mothers and not irresponsible fathers. And, yes, I know there are responsible fathers but there must be a heck of a lot that aren't since we get all these single mother stories.

Do we know anything about state- or regional-variation in this trend? Access to affordable child care and child care subsidy dollar amounts vary widely state-to-state. I am curious to know if some states are seeing more single mothers in the workforce than other states and if that trend can be tied to more generous child care subsidies and stronger state child care systems.

Pro life advocates know that the issue does not end with the birth of a child. A life long journey is just beginning. The advocates should be working hard to support policies that help the new mothers. Child care, health care, job assistance care, education care. This should be part of the bargain of being pro-life. But, many advocates don't care. For them, once the child is born, then it's the mother's problem.

I was born in 1951 - My mother was one of those women who graduated high school on Friday afternoon and went to work on Monday morning - as a secretary - (there was no such thing as an "Administrative Assistant" back then) -- Saddled with a husband with serious mental illness - for which the only treatment at that time was being sent to Bellevue Hospital - she continued to work in order to support herself and her two children - me and my sister -- We often had hot dogs or a can or Pork & Beans for dinner - because that was all she could afford after expenses - Back then - in the fifties - there was no talk of abortion rights - access to birth control - or women's health initiatives -- just work -- After divorcing my father - my mother continued to work - eventually entering into a second marriage - which was disastrous for different reasons -- Another divorce - grown children out on their own - and she continued to work -- this time for a county agency which helped women who were just coming out of prison find jobs and reconnect with society - My mother continued to work until she was forced to retire - around the age of seventy -- My mother was not a manager, a corporate executive - and would probably never be held up as a feminist role model in today's society -- If you ask me - (and yes, I am biased) - my mother was one of the most successful women I've ever known -- and I wish she were here today to make me a hot dog or a can of beans for dinner...

I am a 25+year spouse, disabled, whose abusive husband IMMEDIATELY removed my children from my care. You can ONLY enforce Spousal Support award if you have a Child Support award. Now I have to PAY Child Support, but I CANNOT enforce my Spousal Support (that's how the law works) which he flouts the court order despite my income of ZERO and his household income of $15,000 per month (that's him and TWO girlfriends). Judge: "Why don't you work?!" "I'm disabled." Abusive ex: "No she's not!" The judge believed HIM! He has no knowledge. I had to get a doctor's note, even though I walk with a cane and spend several days a week in bed. The last time I was in the courtroom, I was crippled by arthritis. Somehow, MY ACTUAL condition & testimony is "not credible," but my abuser is believed no matter HOW UN-credible is. His standard of proof is "his word." MY standard of proof is, "documentation" from authority figures like my doctor. Bank records are ignored, I MUST have an unaffordable high-priced lawyer at my side. HE doesn't require one, but I MUST HAVE ONE. Why do single women with children work? 1) You CANNOT enforce Spousal Support. Men flout the law. Judges don't care. Laws have no teeth. 2) Child Support is rarely well enforced. 3) The standard of proof for men is "their word." For women it is "a high priced lawyer" and heavy, authoritative documentation. Men are PRESUMED to be telling the truth. Women are presumed to lie. Courts STINK. We MUST do better!

Overlay the lack of access to abortion, and these numbers will change significantly, for the worse. As more single mothers enter the system due to lack of reproductive options, I can't help but feel that there will be increasing challenges across the board for the mothers, their children, caregivers, workplaces, and the economic and governmental systems that will need to change to accommodate those challenges. I can't help but feel the single mothers will come out on the short end of many of those sticks.

Critiquing single mothers certainly feels taboo in America. We must accept every choice of the single mother as rational or face being labeled misogynistic. Strict universal work policies solve this problem by limiting all forms of entitlement without specifically alluding to the behavior of single mothers.

As noted, the safety net is being shredded and the majority of single mothers do not have sufficient education and are taking low end jobs. Whether there is child care available is a serious problem and getting worse. Having health care available helps but as the data shows, the number of uninsured is now rising again. Unspoken is where are the men in this equation?

some unasked questions : how many of these single mothers are working but would rather not be how many of them are mothers but would rather not be how many have very precarious and unpaid childcare situations; a relative ,a neighbor how many are working at an underpaid job with no benefits

Surely there must be copious data on relevant factors such as race, economic status and urban/rural location that would have given further insights into this subject. Also, recent articles in the NYT and elsewhere have decried the lack and cost of child care in the US; however, as per this article, if more single mothers are working, where and how are they finding and affording child care?