The Intentional Conversation | The thought process of Robbie Shreffler

 So the question we need to ask today is… Why? It’s about to sound like a four year old up on this blog, so get ready! We determined that single mothers are oppressed by poverty at a higher rate than most everyone else, now we ask why is that?

But… before I get into the social justice meat, let’s think about why women become single mothers.

The obvious reason is that they have at least one child and they are raising that child on their own (I told you it was obvious!). perhaps the better question is why are they raising their child(ren) on their own. I would say that there are three main reasons.

First (and these aren’t in any type of order), perhaps the children’s father died. I’ve stated before that single mothers are the modern day equivalent to the bible’s widows. In some cases they are in reality; widows.

Second, the father leaves. In our day and time divorce rates hover around 50% but that only accounts for married partners. Marriage in our society is not such a binding legal/ moral force that some advocates would have you believe. Some people have children while not being married. Regardless of the reason the father leaves, leaving the established family behind.

The third reason is similar to the second but under slightly different circumstances, the father leaves prior to the birth. Generally this situation will happen to unmarried couples in which the level of commitment at conception is less than desirable for long term commitment. Luckily we are not here to judge, we are here to deal with the realities of our day. This can happen to couples that are not ready for children, casual sexual encounters, more unfortunate sexual encounters including rape and incest. Children are born and the mother is left to fend for herself.

Moving further, the obvious reasons for single mothers and their families being in poverty at a higher rate than any other family group are all out there for us. Women make less money than men, the more family members we have the higher the poverty line goes, the younger a person is the less money they make… the list goes on and on and it’s a sociologists basic check list to poverty. Check, check and check!

So women make less money than men, is that an issue of social justice? In the instance of single motherhood it is an issue. The reason why single mothers get more airtime than single fathers is closely tied to this reason (also the fact that women inherit the children of a split relationship at a much higher rate). Single fathers annual income is substantially higher than that of their female counterparts and therefore do not fall into poverty  at the same rate. It’s not even close. So the answer is yes the fact that woman make less than men is an issue of social justice.

Youth makes a difference in the amount of money that you are paid. Obviously, we make more money in our jobs with more experience. This is an issue with to take into consideration when we think about single motherhood. Many of these mothers are having children at an age in which they are not steeped in experience and are therefore on the low end of the pay scale. There is actually more to this as many of you parents already know. Having children takes up a lot of time and for an aspiring ladder climber, having children can put a big dent in the amount of progress you can make… but we’ll get back to this in a little while.

These are just two reasons why this is considered a social justice issue. Ask yourself, is it fair that these women are left to fend for themselves and their children? Is it fair that women in general make less money and therefore it is more difficult for them to provide for their families? Here’s another question for you… What should the church do about it? Is it up to the church to help these mothers?

Think about it and let me know what you come up with…