MARGINALIZATION OF SINCLE MOTHERS

Paul Andrew Bourne, B.Sc. (Hons); Dip. Edu.



INTRODUCTION

Contemporary societies hold particular social prejudices through their interpretations of the world, which unfold in their actions, policies and thesis. Many systems are designed against stated groups. Single mothers are oftentimes viewed as outcast, and if they are young - the label is ?'whore'. This group is marginalized by societies in comparison to the orthodox married couple. Businesses' policies, directly or indirectly, fail to support single mothers. This begins from the socialization process of children. The socialization of children emphasizes ?'no sex before marriage', ?'marriage first', ?'sex after' and then ?'pregnancy. The status quo gives credence to marriage and make this an ontology. From the structure of our society, marriage gives privilege to fertility and childbirth. The community, therefore, treats unmarried women with child(ren) with disdain and instead of the business community offering a disassociated stance on the matter, it stocks a particular label on those people. This phenomenon is not limited to developing countries or particular ethnicity but it is an international issue that is multitudinous and recognizable.


SOCIALIZATION AND SOCIAL FACTORS

The socialization process is a thesis that explains the epistemological positions of many people. Man's existence is a social one and so he/she is a social being who is shaped by the environment and the society. While different ethnicities have a particular outlook on their social world, there are fundamental ?'culturalization' that is common across topologies, classes and time. One author examined single mother in African and his findings revealed that the socialization process explains the epistemology of citizens in regard to females. Calvès (1999) monograph identified socialization's acceptance of people in sub-Saharan African as the justification for the interaction between the sexes and the how society behaviours towards women. He penned these thoughts by stating that:

The timing and sequencing of family formation events - that is the onset of sexual activity, first marriage, and first birth - are believed to be changing in sub-Saharan Africa (Calvès, 1999, p.279)


Calvès' thesis highlights the orthodox epistemology of society and offers a rationale why continue to conceive particular group the way they do. Despite the changing views of African in this contemporary society, the preferred social yardstick is marriage, sex and childbirth as against cohabitation and/or single parenting. The socio-economic consequences of premarital childbearing is can sometimes be highly catastrophic as family ostracized members. This becomes even more burdensome for single mothers, when organization makes it extremely difficult to operate in both roles. Calvès (1999) forwarded a perspective that embodied the biases to which I am forwarding. He wrote that:

For women, in particular, marriage is still a crucial means of securing socio-economic status. In many African societies, women are still entirely dependent on marriage for access to land, capital, and housing; even women who are educated and have their own income cannot forgo marriage without important material loss (Calvès, 1999, p.291)


This argument is specialized to Africa as many academic experts around the world have written on issues and even some in Jamaica. The social world, in developing countries, is even more pressuring on single mothers as the demagogues, who are men, construct a setting that demeans particular behaviour. The social pressures of premarital childbearing-females are so direct that some of them in an effort to survive subtly seduced men. This oftentimes does not lead to marriage but more children, and in many instances deviant children. The community, the business fraternity, and bourgeoisie are socialized anti-premarital childbearing and so they become judgemental of single mothers. This group of people is ajudged on their sexuality as against their innate abilities or knowledge, and this is crucial in social mobility and professional acumen. Calvès (1999) offered a salient perspective on the rationale for social difficulties of premarital childbearing-women. He said that:
. . . focus-group discussions conducted among youth in Yaounde' suggested that single young men are often reluctant to marry a woman with a child from a previous relationship, fearing that the mother may retain emotional links with the child's biological father, and that they will have little control and rights over the child, . . . (p.298)



Single mothers are not only bombarded by the financial challenge of livelihood but the use of her sexuality as the measure of her value, and sometimes a prospective partner having internalized the social meanings in society, he intends to ?'play her'. These challenges are even intensified when particular age cohorts are explored by research.


AGE


Our contemporary world is anti-marital childbearing-women more so that when youth who become pregnant are criticized, ostracized and sometimes ?'left for dead'. When many discourse begins, and when young single mothers are discussed, this predominance many thesis as to the female's sexuality. On the other hand, when a woman who is at the end of her childbearing age (age 49) becomes a single mother, she is discriminated against as people believe this is to irresponsible.

Young mothers experience exclusions from formal education, barred from accessing certain resources and face an enormous challenge of attaining employment in many societies. This is further intensified when she request time because of illness of the child. The aged mothers survive the onslaught that were levied against young mothers but she must continue to justify her actions.


CONCLUSION


The state is the arm of the people that sees, addresses and mediates on the behalf of the disadvantage, and must ensure that inequalities are remedied as long as they exist. The orthodox expectation of social habitation is changing, and the state must legislate in order to current and reduce the present inequalities that arise because of social biases. The business demagogues must align themselves to new thesis, and remove themselves from any social-orthodox thinking that discriminates, isolates and penalizes against particular groups. There is a covert structure that segregates and distinguishes between certain people which fashions many of the perspective that we hold on people. We need to remove the biases that divides this society in order to fashion a society that has equality opportunity for all. Therefore, employers should institute systems that adequately alleviate some of the pressures of single mothers, and creates avenues that aid they social development. Fore mostly, the community must protect and nurture their young mothers and equally respect aged single childbearing-females.