Single Parenthood Research Paper

Midterm Soc 111AC

1) Gerson Argues that family structure is not as important as family pathways for the children of the gender revolution, and this is because there is no more typical family like there once was — male breadwinner family, there is much more diversity in family structure. Family structure is the way that the private family is organized; individual families are structured in various ways that in the past were not common: single parent families — children only live with one parent, dual earner families — both parents work and contribute financially, and the breadwinner —parent works and provides monetary support but is aloof from the family while the other tends to all the needs of the household. Children of the gender revolution …show more content…
There are different forms of support of single parent families to try and alleviate some of the risk factors associated with child poverty, but as the number of single parent families continues to rise, the concern also increases because it is requiring more financial resources. Many also wonder if single parent are utilizing the forms of support correctly, or if they should even be receiving any from of aid. In the past government/policy makers have tried to reduce divorce rates by incentivizing marriage through workshops and couples counseling. Marriage incentivizing was a way to try to reduce the number of single parent families, but it was not very effective nor was it addressing the millions of families who were already single parent families. A more effective way of trying to reduce single parent families would be to provide a living-wage employment for men and women because the research shows that men who are employed and earn more money, in turn, marry more. If both men and women are earing more then they can begin to buy assets (e.g. a house) or even invest in themselves in the form of education. The government is already trying to facilitate acquiring assets, but this may not be the best way to help poor single parent families because they need to have extra money to invest in assets and many are only able to acquire …show more content…
Marriage became less attractive when women began to earn wages fro themselves, but there are various reasons why women are choosing not to marry. Many poor women choose not to marry because they do not think that they have reached a certain standard of living, and others choose not to marry because they would not want to damage the institution of marriage by getting a divorce. Divorce in the perspective of many poor women is also seen as a huge failure and many want to avoid this, blow to their pride. Also, the meaning of marriage has been changing, before is was necessary to have a socially sanctioned relationship with someone and to start a family, but now that is now longer necessary and it is seen a passage to social acceptance or validation. Cohabitation may be a better fit for ideation of poor women. That is, many say they will not marry is they have not attained certain milestones, like buying a house or reaching a point of stability, but this is unrealistic specially on their income, but many poor women desire to become mothers. Feminism is also a big contributor to why women do not marry their children’s fathers; if they feel their father is inadequate then they do not have to marry them because they do not need to rely on him to support her family, even if it means that they will have low standards of living. Moreover, the meaning of motherhood