By Julie Humberstone
The word poverty often brings to mind images of hungry children, families living in shantytowns, or people begging on the sides of roads. Poverty, however, is not just a problem of the developing world. The World Bank describes, "Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time."1
Millions of families in the United States experience hunger, live in substandard housing, lack access to affordable health care, send their children to underperforming schools, and struggle to find stable employment, particularly employment that will pay a living wage.
In the United States 10 percent of all families—7.6 million families—live in poverty.2 Even more families live above the official poverty line but still struggle to cover basic necessities. For instance, 75 percent of the 45.8 million Americans with no health insurance live above the poverty line. Employed workers and their children constitute the majority of those without insurance.3
POVERTY AND SINGLE MOTHERS
One type of family is more likely to be affected by poverty than any other: single-mother families. Today a single mother heads one out of every eight families in the United States. While only 10 percent of all families in the United States live in poverty, nearly 40 percent of single-mother families live in poverty. Single-mother families are five times more likely to live in poverty than two-parent families.4
Why do single-mothers families struggle so much more than other families? The vast majority of single moms work; however, single mothers often do not have the education or work experience needed to command a high salary.5 The average income for a single-mother family is only $26,000 a year, lower than the average income for a single-father family or a two-parent family.6 Single moms also often find it difficult to work long hours, since they must also care for their children.
In a recent focus group, single moms agreed that their two most pressing challenges are earning enough money to support their families and having enough time to spend with their children. Other challenges include:
They lack the time, funds, and support to obtain the additional education necessary to secure a better job.
They confront the ever-present dilemma of finding quality, affordable child care.
They lack the formal safety net to guard against an economic shock, leaving them one accident or illness away from losing everything.
One single mother works for a doctor during the day and then spends an extra hour after closing to clean the office—those sixty minutes help her financially but take a toll. She explains, "That hour is precious to me. It's either that extra time for me to sleep so I can feel like I'm a human, or it's a moment with my kids."
These challenges leave many single moms feeling trapped. As one expressed, "I'm struggling here to stay above water, and I know what I need to do, but I can't do it because I don't have the resources."
Preliminary results from a statewide survey of Utah's single mothers indicate that 75 percent of single mothers in Utah could maintain their families' current standard of living for less than a month if they had an interruption in their income. Thirty-five percent of Utah single mothers could not even maintain their families for one week if they lost their income.
The hardships faced by single mothers can lead to increased emotional stress. Many feel guilty or anxious because of the limited time they spend with their children. These challenges can also impact their children. The children of single parents are statistically less likely to finish high school and are more likely to have children as teenagers. These negative outcomes are largely due to the smaller income single moms are likely to have.7
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Topic: Single Mothers and Self-Reliance (Read 438 times)