Social Welfare and Single Mothers Karen Bridget Murray’s article, “Governing ‘Unwed Mothers’ in Toronto at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, is a valuable reference into the struggles and triumphs of social welfare for unwed mothers. For me the article highlighted how government ideologies influence social welfare, how important the change from religious reformers practices to social work was and finally how appalling it is that the struggles and barriers these women faced are still relevant to single mothers today. Murrays article highlights how Liberal governance ideologies, “assumed... that individuals could and would adapt to the machinations of the market...[and] illegitimate births [were] viewed largely as a individual problem” (Murphy, 2004, pg. 254) and because of this there were few social resources available. However, it was through this lack government initiative that there was a call of action to open religious maternity homes and I think it is important to note how even a lack of government involvement still influences social welfare. I also found it empowering ho...
Hendrick, H. (2005) Child welfare and social policy: an essential reader. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Hays, Sharon. (2003). Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. New
Many government and community organizations have worked to fill the need of its citizens through social welfare programs. In fact, the American welfare system was designed to benefit impoverished Americans or those affected by serious medical problems (Wikimedia, 2013). These important welfare systems among others have helped shape the American economy. In creating programs that encourage (or lawfully force) candidates to seek employment after a period, promotes economic growth and development. In the U.S there are two prominent social welfare programs: Social Security and Medicare (Krugman, 2007). These two programs have helped many Americans become secure in basic necessities such as healthcare, food and shelter. In order for change to come, there must be a need; where there is a need there is a community. In order for the welfare system to function and grow, important community organizing can be central to the birth of such systems. We will discuss how welfare systems aid, as well as how community organizing has helped bring about change in the welfare system.
Ideological, social, political, and economic factors of a given period play key roles in developing and maintaining any social welfare policies in which the area of child welfare is not an exception. Throughout the history of child welfare legislation in Canada, Acts have been passed and modified according to the changing concept of childhood and to the varying degree of societal atmosphere of each period.
It was not, until 1921, that the Catholic Women’s League, Montreal Local Council of Women and the Fédération National Saint-Jean Baptiste determined to gain Quebec women the right to vote and to disprove the theory that women were unfit for politics.25 Baptiste was able to promote a maternalism movement, meaning the ability to support their arguments with examples of maternity.26 It was also a way to differentiate those who promoted the maternal ideology as a positive aspect of women from the movements striving for equality.27 Although, Baptiste and new women’s committee wanted to change their strategy to support an education campaign, by demonstrating that the right to vote was not to “change their sphere of action in life, but rather to raise and ameliorate social life.”28 In this way, Quebec could see women implicating themselves within society and trying to positively influen...
The government’s neglect leads to the women turning in the wrong direction. As Stevenson writes, “we ban poor women and, inevitably, their children from receiving
The poor are everywhere it seems. They are on the street corner, in the local 7 Eleven, and in the plaza. Sometimes I get sick of them and even angry with them when they pester me for money. I ask myself, "Is the best way to deal with poor, to give them money from my pocket?" It's obvious that other people have given them money from their pockets at different times. If no one had ever given them money, then these people wouldn't be standing here asking for money. The fact is, many poor people ask for money because they know they can get money that way. For most of the last 70 years our government has indirectly given the poor money from our pockets, through taxes and welfare. Not surprisingly, people have continued to ask for money. For most of those 70 years welfare fed the mentality that the best way to get money was to ask. I believe welfare as it was first started, failed miserably and created millions of dependents in poverty instead of independents above poverty. The welfare reform of 1996, I believe has helped the poor escape from the trap of poverty and is a more beneficial way of dealing with the poor.
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) was set up to do two things; reduce dependency by putting single mothers to work, and to encourage marriage (Moffitt, 2008 p.29). After PRWORA was established in 1996 by the Federal Government (Livermore, Powers, Davis, and Lim, 2011), Single mothers on welfare receive benefits that sustained only a minimal quality of life
they got back on their feet. What it has become is a target for gluttonous
Despite the positive outcomes of Welfare reform there are some negative outcomes that have affected single mom’s well-being. These areas are overlooked and in some cases are the contributing factors as to why caseloads of welfare recipients’ increase and clients still remain in poverty and welfare dependent. The areas that have an impact on single mothers are: their mental health status, their substance abuse usage, their parenting, and experiences with domestic violence. Since TANF is the total opposite of the AFDC program these changes to Welfare has made a significant impact.
Welfare dependency here in America is an issue that numerous communities across the Nation are faced with and from my point of view it is one of the leading attributes to poverty here in America. My community has continuously lacked consistent income levels to sufficiently live above the poverty line and it has been a never ending cycle. How did so many communities succumb to such harsh living conditions in the most powerful country in the World? This is a question that is asked by many and the other would be how do we break the cycle? There are many attributing factors to this unforgiving reality for countless such as crime, drugs, lower educational outcomes, welfare dependency and the list goes on and on. I would like to zone in and analyze how welfare dependency plays a major role in the never ending cycle of poverty within my community.
Although currently we do not recognizing the increasingly important role of women in the economy. It is important to recognize the work that women exert especially single women and single mothers. Single women have an important contribution to the economy. Single mothers, in addition is playing a significant contribution in the professional , they use their time with effort and dedication to work in home , a work that results in the education of children, caring for household members , organization and address chores, provide food, cleaning and repair of housing, care of clothing and footwear , purchases and payments . The time spent in such work, is not being paid economically, often despised by society and because it takes much time and energy is difficult for a single mother and head of household to be be vulnerable to falling into poverty.
Social welfare is an expansive system proposed to maintain the well being of individuals within a society. This paper will explain the progression from the feudal system and church provisions for the poor before the Elizabethan Poor Law to the gradual assumption of the responsibility for the poor by the government. A responsibility assumed not out of humanity and concern for the poor, but as a process of standardizing the ways in which the poor were to be managed. The history of social welfare reflects differences in values as they relate to social responsibility in taking care of the needy. Our society has been influenced by values like Judeo-Christian humanitarianism and the economic doctrine of laissez faire. Our present social welfare structure is also influenced by these values.
Single parenthood culture seems appealing to many married people. However, married individuals are forced to battle with elements like faithfulness and life-long commitment to one individual, which may be boring in some cases. However, single parents, especially single mothers encounter serious challenges related to parenting. Single parenting is a succession of constant mental torture because of ineptness, self-scrutiny, and remorse. At some point, single parents will often encounter serious psychological problems some graduating to stress and eventual depression. Again, there are far-reaching problems that force single mothers to a set of economic or social hardships. Social hardships are evident as address in this research.
Women in today’s society face many adversities. In this essay I will discuss fact versus stereotypical perceptions about the various social and economic problems women must face everyday. I grew up on the Upper East Side in Manhattan mostly comprised of wealthy, socialite families. I attended The Convent of Sacred Heart, also one of the top, private, all girl schools in Manhattan. The majority of the students come from very privileged families and are, more often than not, very spoiled and naïve to the world around them. While I was attending High School, I found it very hard to make friends with some of the students that went to Sacred Heart. I hated the way “rich kids” thought. They always spoke about Welfare and made absurd comments about how it should not exist because the people feeding of their tax dollars were nothing but the bottom-feeders in the world. The people I was surrounded by could never move past the fallacies their parents would talk about. They never realized that many people on welfare struggled. These unfortunate people were not lazy; they weren’t all drug dealers and prostitutes that just kept getting pregnant so that the city would write them a check every month. The only thing they were guilty of was being born a minority and from birth, growing up in some of the worst conditions imaginable.