Single Story Essay about Mother Free Example

Single Parents Families Story Essay

The single story I chose is a story of a single parent, a mother, who has to take care of her children and has no support from the part of her husband, who deceased, for example. As a rule, what we always learn about such stories is that these are sad stories of hard times for family, as a single mother struggles for survival, works hard, does overwork, and can hardly pay enough attention to her children to educate them and to take care of them. The conventional image of such family is the image of the family living in poverty, children having little contact with their mother, because she is always busy and has to work hard to provider for her family. This story is also the story of social inequality as single mothers, deprived of the support of their husbands are believed to be in the extremely difficult financial position and cannot always provide for their families, especially, if they have two or three children.

            The story of hardships of single parents family, where the single parent is a mother of two or three children originate from the time, when society was dominated by misogynistic ideology and prevalence of patriarchal values. Women held the inferior position in the US society for a long time and they were traditionally believed to be dependent on men. Instead, the public traditionally perceived men as breadwinner. In the past, the death of the husband meant the desperate position of the family and hardships for the entire family because women were incapable to provide for the family without the support from the part of men (Bonvillain 184). Such deep-rooted beliefs were grounded on the objective economic inequality of men and women in the distant past. Moreover, payment inequality was and, in a way, still is an issue in some industries.   

            Nevertheless, today, the economic disparity tends to disappear and the gap in the economic standing of men and women in the contemporary society has almost disappeared. At any rate, the gap between men and women is not so obvious now as it used to be a hundred or even fifty years ago. In spite of such changes, the deep-rooted belief in the position of a man in the family as a position of a breadwinner still persists. Probably unconsciously, people feel sorry and pity for single mothers, who have to raise up two-three children, being deprived of support from the part of their husbands. This is where this story is dysfunctional because women are not as helpless as they used to be in the past. Instead, if they succeed in their career, they can afford rising up two-three children, regardless of whether they have a husband or not. The economic “monopoly” of husbands is over but the public is still not fully aware of this fact. People still often ignore the fact that economic and career opportunities for women have expanded drastically and today women are capable to provide for their families and raise up two-three children without support of their husbands and without slipping to poverty. Instead, poverty is the story of low-income families, where husbands could and did hardly help to improve the quality of living. In other words, such families were low-income, when there were two parents and when they became single parent families. This is why the single story of a single mother rising up her children on her own in poverty and children being neglected is not always the case, but, as a rule, it is a subjective, biased perception of such families.

            Deep-rooted believes that shape the single story have a considerable impact on identity, perceptions of others, social relations, and social institutions. The single story affects people’s sense of self because children growing up in single parent families may experience the feeling of pity other feel in relation to them. They may also grow up with the sense of certain inferiority because their family was incomplete and they did not have a father in their family. Such perception of their self leads to the development of the identity inclined to certain inferiority and incompleteness. The story also affects the way people understand each other because children growing up in single parent family may believe children growing in full families cannot understand them. Mothers may also experience the problem of the feeling of pity from the part of their social environment that may interfere into their social relations because mothers have to prove their capability to provide for their families and to raise up their children (Bonvillain 199). Contemporary social relations become unequal because single parent families are a sort of victims in the public eye, because people believe they are unhappy and suffer from poverty and lack of parental attention. However, the situation in such families may be quite different. Nevertheless, the difference in the public perception of such families and the real position of such families results in the perpetuation of inequality in society. This inequality has become institutionalized because there are many non-profit organizations as well as government agencies that aim at helping single mothers to raise up their children. Such families are in a disadvantageous position from the public perspective.

            However, there are alternative stories which challenge and debunk the myth of poor, unhappy, and neglected single-mother families. Stories of successful women, who have two, three or even more children is the counter narrative to this ‘single story’. Many women are quite successful in their career and they can afford providing for their families. They also have as much time as parents in full families do have to communicate and interact with their children. They may give them as much care and attention as other mothers do. When viewed from the alternative perspective, the story shifts and turns out to be not as pessimistic as it may seem to be at first glance. If one follows the perspective of those most oppressed by it, the story turns out to be very sad and listener cannot help from feeling pity. In contrast, those able to see through the narrative can realize that it is not the matter of the number of parents or their gender but it is the matter of the quality of parents, i.e. their ability to provide for their families and to take care of their children.

            Therefore, the story of poor and neglected single-parent families can be changed, when the public gets rid of deep-rooted biases and misogynistic perspective on single mothers and their ability to provide for their family and to educate their children. People can change this story in their daily life and help to contribute to shifting the narrative. They just have to get an objective view on single-mother families and to take into consideration the fact that the rate of divorces in the US has already passed far beyond 50% that means that over a half of American families is potentially but not necessarily single-parent families. Such a large share of the population in the US just cannot live in poverty and neglect their children. On a broader scale, mass media could focus more attention on success stories of single mothers raising up their children, rather than depicting unhappy single mothers doing two jobs, living in poverty, and having no time to take care of their children.

Works Cited:

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. The Danger of a Single Story. YouTube, 2009. Web. Accessed on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Bonvillain, N. Women and Men: Cultural constructs of gender. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
close
Haven't found the right essay?
Get an expert to write you the one you need!
print

Professional writers and researchers

quotes

Sources and citation are provided

clock

3 hour delivery

person