Demonizing the Single-Mother Family: The Path to Welfare Reform

Author(s):  
Joel F. Handler ◽  
Yeheskel Hasenfeld
2017 ◽  
pp. 171-194
Author(s):  
Karin Kurz ◽  
Sten Becker

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Irvin ◽  
Farhan Fahim ◽  
Saeed Alshehri ◽  
Panagiota Kitsantas

This study assessed children’s unmet health-care needs within different family types (two-parent biological/adoptive, two-parent stepfamily, and single-mother family type) using data from the 2011/2012 National Survey of Children’s Health. Findings indicate that 10.4% of children in single-mother family types had unmet health-care needs compared to 8.7% of children from a two-parent stepfamily and 5.3% for those from two-parent biological/adoptive families. Further analyses revealed racial/ethnic disparities with Black children from two parent-biological/adoptive families being 1.54 (95% confidence interval 1.13, 2.05) times more likely to have unmet health-care needs, while Hispanic children were less likely to have unmet health-care needs relative to their white counterparts. Children from lower income two-parent families had a higher likelihood of unmet health-care needs. The noncontinuous insurance coverage was a risk factor for increasing unmet health-care needs across all three different family types. These findings show major differences in unmet health-care needs among children living in different family structure types. It is recommended that interventions for increasing access to care need to be tailored differently across various family types in order to achieve continuous and sufficient health-care services for our children.


Author(s):  
Jana Marguerite Bennett

Single parenting vastly affects women (divorced, widowed, and military spouses, among others). Single parents are caught between contemporary parenting wars (including welfare reform wars) and the need to be self-sufficient. Single parents suffer from never quite living up to parenting ideals, thereby being utterly un-self-sufficient. Christians, especially, emphasize perfect parenting as a means of discipleship. Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was a single mother because she decided to baptize her daughter, and become a Christian herself. She discusses the importance of Christian community in parenting, and narrates how, for Christians, family means more than biological ties. Day helps all Christians understand the need to be family for each other and to loosen the stranglehold that sufficiency has on parenting in Christian life.


2001 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivyan Adair

In this article, Vivyan Adair argues that educators committed to fostering social and economic equity through education must challenge themselves to understand how crucial postsecondary education is to low-income single mothers, to recognize that this student population is increasingly "at risk," and to work against legislation that at best discourages, and at worst prohibits, these students from entering into and successfully completing postsecondary degree programs. Integrated into her discussion of recent welfare reform legislation are findings from her research. She presents data from interviews, in which students describe their desire to further their education and the frustrating obstacles that make this endeavor difficult and often impossible. Adair demonstrates that low-income, single-mother students experience dramatic and enduring benefits from completing college degrees, but that the opportunity and support required to do so is increasingly limited. She concludes that we must take steps toward ensuring that education remains a truly democratic project that has the potential for enacting social change and fostering economic equity. (pp. 217–239)


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Nor Ismah

<p class="p17">A number of novel remaja, which mean young adult novels, written by women writers from Indonesia and Malaysia have been published. Writing competitions held by book publishers and language centers have also encouraged the production of the novels. However, since they address youth as their readers and tend to consider the characters, issues, language, and values that appeal to the modern young adult; therefore, some critics say that the novels only respond to the demands of the reader market and they are less creative and lack of quality. In this paper I demonstrate the value of Indonesian and Malaysian novel remaja by examining four novels which are Siti Zaleha M. Hashim’s Biarkan Kupu-Kupu Terbang (“Let the Butterfly Fly”), Rumah Cinta Kelana (“The Love House of Kelana”), written by Sofie Dewayani, Nisah Haron’s Mencari Locus Standi (“Finding the Defense Locus”), and Jadilah Purnamaku Ning written by Khilma Anis. I argue that those novels do not only explore young adults’ feelings, including romance, fear, sadness, happiness, and challenges, but they also describe important themes which may inspire young readers, such as how young Muslim women deal with their identity formation, living in a single mother family, and polygamy.</p><p class="p0"> </p><p><em>Novel-novel remaja karya penulis perempuan banyak diterbitkan di Indonesia dan Malaysia. Lomba menulis yang diadakan oleh penerbit buku dan pusat bahasa juga mendorong banyaknya produksi novel-novel tersebut. Namun, karena novel remaja menyasar remaja</em><em> </em><em>sebagai pembacanya, novel tersebut ditulis dengan mempertimbangkan karakter, isu, bahasa, dan nilai-nilai yang menarik bagi remaja modern. Sehingga, beberapa kritikus mengatakan bahwa novel remaja hanya menjawab tuntutan pasar pembaca dan kurang kreatif serta berkualitas. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menunjukkan nilai positif novel remaja yang terbit di Indonesia dan Malaysia dengan menelaah empat novel. Yaitu, Biarkan Kupu-Kupu Terbang karya Siti Zaleha M. Hashim, Rumah Cinta Kelana yang ditulis oleh Sofie Dewayani, Mencari Locus Standi karya Nisah Haron, dan Jadilah Purnamaku Ning ­yang ditulis oleh Khilma Anis. Saya berpendapat bahwa novel-novel tersebut tidak hanya mengeksplorasi perasaan remaja, termasuk percintaan, ketakutan, kesedihan, kebahagiaan, dan tantangan hidup, tetapi juga menggambarkan tema-tema penting</em><em> </em><em>yang dapat menginspirasi pembaca remaja. Misalnya, tema tentang bagaimana remaja Muslim perempuan menjalani proses pembentukan jati diri, hidup bersama keluarga dengan ibu tunggal, dan poligami, bahkan juga mengkritisi ketimpangan posisi perempuan di dalam masyarakat</em><em>.</em><em></em></p>


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