Single Moms, Benefits, and Earning a Living Wage
by Single Minded
The best way to support single moms is to hire them for good, meaningful work and pay them a fair wage for it.
In the world of being a single mom and knowing hundreds of them, there is nothing we want more than to provide for our families in an honest, hardworking way. There are as many reasons why a woman is raising children on her own as there are single-parent households. Our circumstances are varied. Predominantly, we want work. We know how to work hard. We will do anything we can for our children and to provide our children a high quality of life.
Welfare or benefits can be a lifesaver for many. This is not an attack on meaningful and important avenues for emergencies. These are social structures we have in place for such times. However, this does not need to be a normal fallback. Single mothers want to work. We want to earn our living and support our families with pride for a job well done.
While some political groups like to vilify single moms for taking welfare, liberal groups while possibly meaning well, create an enabling environment for the sake of “social justice,” or other political agendas.
This still does nothing to actually empower single mothers to generate income, provide meaningful work within a community, and support her family. As noted in this Atlantic article How Poor Single Moms Survive, single moms are, unequivocally, undeniably, incredibly resourceful. We will do anything to keep our children safe, fed, and give them the best chance at succeeding in their lives. We work hard.
As a single mom myself, what I have seen time and time again is self-labeled feminists will loudly proclaim their position in support of my right to access welfare or other government benefits. But they will not hire me, or the hundreds of other highly qualified, capable and hard working single moms I know. On the flip side, it is often the self-proclaimed “conservatives” who will and do hire women, including single moms, to do meaningful work within communities.
We do not want charity. We want work. We are hard working members of our communities and society. We want to be in a position to support our families. This often does not take high-salaried jobs, but reasonable pay for the area where we live. One of the most important ways to strengthen our economy is to pay an American’s salary. It is time for those who most vocally, or politically, support feminism to make the commitment to hire single moms for meaningful work. Without that, we’ll continue in the same cycle.
The other side to this is, of course, supporting women-owned businesses. Sometimes that takes additional effort. Sometimes it means giving greater scrutiny to the landscape of small businesses you could support and finding the ones owned and operated by the women who are supporting their families. In addition to this being a way for a mom to support her family, it is also a way to keep the family together while doing so. Able to be their own bosses, we can manage our time with our families and include them in reasonable operations of the family business.
Why is this important? Because we can have communities where members within the community support those less advantaged by giving them opportunities to work. When you support the small businesses, or the hiring, of single moms or women who are supporting their families, you are giving her every right to believe in her own worth and value. She won’t need a welfare system to fall back on.
It is truly amazing what the resourcefulness and resilience of single moms can accomplish. Ask any of them. And then wait for the answer, listen to what they do, and hire them for it. It is truly amazing how much good it can do on a personal level and then the ripple effects on a community or social level when women who must provide for their families are able to do so through their time, expertise, and talents.
Single Minded is a single parent working hard to raise and provide for children.
