In Roiphe’s article, “In Defense of Single Motherhood”, she defines the ideal family, and the effects it has on the children. Throughout Roiphe’s article, she defends single motherhood to people who create stereotypes about single mothers based on statistics and she believes are unreliable. Roiphe attempts to persuade her audience into not believing statistics and she points out the differences and her personal story to convince the audience. In the beginning of the essay, Roiphe starts her article off with statistics that show what people think of single mothers. She quotes americans that have a shared idea that “single mothers are bad.” and states that 70% of americans say that single mothers are bad for our society (pg. 58). Roiphe brings …show more content…
Afterwards, she brings in the topic about how single mothers “are irresponsible and dangerous to the general order of things” (pg. 59). She admitted that she is not a huge fan of studies because they tend to be a bad representation “of actual lived experience”, but these studies help her argue over people blasting single mothers (pg. 59). Studies can be biased, and most of the time they are. Nobody wants to admitted their challenges and difficulties, similar to what Roiphe explains at the end of the …show more content…
The idea of this article is to help out all the single mothers that raise healthy and strong children. She fights against these stereotypes and studies that say that single mothers are bad and raise bad children. All families are different, which Roiphe explains too, and so many outside factors come into play when raising a bad child and a good child. These studies do not show those, and she sheds light onto them. She compares and contrasts the conservative and liberal views to divide the readers in which one they stand, so then they can understand her whole
This book is a study of the personal tales of many single mothers, with intentions to understand why single mothers from poor urban neighborhoods are increasingly having children out of wedlock at a young age and without promise of marrying their fathers. The authors chose to research their study in Philadelphia’s eight most devastated neighborhoods, where oppression and danger are high and substantial job opportunities are rare. They provide an excellent education against the myth that poor young urban women are having children due to a lack of education on birth control or because they intend to work the welfare system. Instead, having children is their best and perhaps only means of obtaining the purpose, validation and companionship that is otherwise difficult to find in the areas in which they live. For many of them, their child is the biggest promise they have to a better future. They also believe that though their life may not have been what they want, they want their child to have more and better opportunities and make it their life’s work to provide that.
Sometimes, when the reader reads a story or an essay, they think, “Wow that had a lot of meaning into it”. That was the same for me “In Defense of Single Motherhood”. This essay appeals to all modes of persuasion: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The author of the essay, Katie Roiphe, is credible person. She is a notable author of several books over the past two decades. She wrote this essay in 2012 which was published in the New York Times. Roiphe emphasizes logos throughout the essay the majority of the time through the use of studies and reports, mostly to persuade the reader to her side, but she also emphasizes ethos and pathos, just not as much as logos. The audience of the argument is most readers of the New York Times to emphasize her point on single motherhood. Roiphe claims single motherhood is not bad like everyone says it is.
People are judged for being single parents, struggling to help their kids, but in reality being a single parent can be a good thing. Children that have both parents that work most of the time feel neglected and lonely which could lead to depression or acting out and rebellion later on in life. One of my family’s long times friends had this same exact problem. The family was in excellent financial shape because both parents worked. They had high level jobs working as doctors at the same hospital, but they never really made time for their children. The parents worked constantly away from home, and now the family is very dysfunctional. The children who are now adults never visit or talk to their parents. It shows that money is not everything, and that a stay at home mom is not just a suppressing stereotype it’s a beneficial tool to your children’s happiness and
In today’s society, the amounts of single-parent households are increasing and this is another reason for the existence of childhood poverty. Statistics show that children living in single-parent homes are five times more likely to be poor. More people are getting divorced and are also having children outside of wedlock. It has also been said that women rather than men head about 90% of single-parent families. One of the
The changing of American families has left many families broken and struggling. Pauline Irit Erera, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, wrote the article “What is a Family?”. Erera has written extensively about family diversity, focusing on step-families, foster families, lesbian families, and noncustodial fathers. Rebecca M. Blank, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, where she has directed the Joint Center for Poverty Research, wrote the article “Absent Fathers: Why Don't We Ever Talk About the Unmarried Men?”. She served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton administration. Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University wrote the article “The Origins of the Ambivalent Acceptance of Divorce”. She is also the author of several other books on the changing profiles of American family life. These three texts each talk about the relationship between the parent and the child of a single-parent household. They each discuss divorce, money/income they receive, and the worries that come with raising a child in a single-parent household.
There is much debate on what constitutes as a family today. However, Ball (2002) states, “The concept of the traditional family…is not an immutable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture” (pp. 68). There is a growing diversity of families today including the commonality of sole-parenting. In order to explore aspects of sole-parenthood objectively, I need to reflect and put aside my personal experience of growing up in sole-parent household. Furthermore, this essay will explore the historical origins, cultural aspects discussing the influences and implications of gender identity, and social structures of sole-parent families, as well as consider the implications in midwifery by applying the sociological imagination. Mills (2000/1959) describes the sociological imagination as “…a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger social realities” (pp.15). In other words, the sociological imagination involves the ability to consider the relationships between personal experiences and those within society as a whole.
For many years, children growing up in a single parent family have been viewed as different. Being raised by only one parent seems impossible to many yet over the decades it has become more prevalent. In today’s society many children have grown up to become emotionally stable and successful whether they had one or two parents to show them the rocky path that life bestows upon all human beings. The problem lies in the difference of children raised by single parents versus children raised by both a mother and a father. Does a child need both parents? Does a young boy need a father figure around? Does the government provide help for single parents? What role do step-parents and step-siblings play? With much speculation, this topic has become a very intriguing argument. What people must understand is that properly raising a child does not rely on the structure of a family but should be more focused on the process
The struggles Cecelia faced as a single mother working to complete a degree and support herself and her son did strike a familiar tone with me. Although I did raise my daughter as a single mother in California for almost six years, unlike Cecelia I was well employed, had completed my bachelor’s degree, and was in my thirties. Even so I also struggled more than occasionally with bias against my status as a single mother, albeit a successful professional, and the unanticipated ways this affected my daughter. There were clear biases evinced by teachers, child care workers, doctors, childless friends and coworkers, who all believed that they had not only the right to judge my d...
What is a single parent? Is it one who destroys their child’s life? Is it one who ultimately cannot raise a minor on their own? Or is it one who dedicates their lives to the well being of their kid? Imagine a parent, and for whatever reason they were left alone to raise a child. That parent you imagined has to work long hours just to put a meal on the table. That parent has to play the role of the mother and father. That parent has no financial support. Unfortunately, in our society, this image of a single parent is looked down upon. There are people that don’t realize how much a single parent goes through to give their child a better life.
The reduced earnings of women have an impact on 7.4 million households run by single working women. Over two point one million families consisting of working single mothers were considered poor. An added two point four million working single mothers were severely struggling to barely make ends meet. They were falling between 100 and 200 pe...
Nonetheless, the study will still cover economic hardships since the two are closely related. The study will attempt to prove that single mothers are disadvantaged socially and economically. The study is segmented into two main sections; firstly, a background depicting researches in this field. Secondly, the study will present an argumentative literature attempting to clarify that single mothers do have a genuine problem not only economically, but as well socially in upbringing their children. To achieve this, the essay appoints Langston Hughes Poem ‘Mother to Son’ as a derivative reference point in developing this study. Research has traditionally focused in examining the emancipation of the female gender during their development. However, few researchers have intrinsically examined on the adult-life of single parents, more so in relation to women. The few efforts relating to this field like Williams (179) exemplifies that women suffer the greatest menace while trying support their single-parented families...
The Family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. With higher percentages of marriage ending in divorce, and higher rates of childbearing out of wedlock, single parent families are increasing rapidly. “Seventy percent of all the children will spend all or part of their lives in a single-parent household.” (Dowd) Studies have shown that the children of these families are affected dramatically, both negatively and positively. Women head the majority of single- parent families and as a result, children experience many social problems from growing up without a father. Some of these problems include lack of financial support, and various emotional problems by not having a father around, which may contribute to problems later in life. At the same time, children of single-parent homes become more independent because they learn to take care of themselves, and rely on others to do things for them.
It has been said, children from two-parent families are better off. The setting is also a factor to take into consideration. The increase in single- parent homes has had an extensive and negative effect on children’s development. 50% of marriages end in divorce. We have young people with young minds having children, they can hardly take care of themselves at the age of 21, yet they have decided to bring four children into this world to be raised by one parent. In some communities, majority of the children are being raised by a single parent. Statistics have shown that children raised in a healthy single parent home have more problems emotionally, psychologically, in school, and with the law than those raised in healthy two-parent homes. No matter how good a single parent is, that a single parent can NEVER do for the child how two present, committed, parent partners share and work together; communicate together and solve problems together as equals.
“ The Disadvantages of Single Parenting”. All- About- Motherhood. n.p. n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.
Many people nowadays are considered disenfranchised: the mentally ill, homeless, elders and many more. One major group that is often discriminated against are single parents. In recent years there has been a rise of single moms in the United Stated. With the increase of single parent households comes the rise of discrimination towards them. Single moms are often considered unhealthy for society and manipulative. Single mothers are discriminated against in the workforce and at social gatherings, and are often judged by society in general.