Learn the Facts

Did you know single mothers are the most marginalized and ostracized victims in America today? Marginalization, as defined by Cambridge University, is the act of treating someone as if they are not important; Harvard defines it as the treatment of a person as insignificant or peripheral. Ostracization is the exclusion of someone from society, friendship, conversation, privileges, etc. The American public views single mothers as unimportant or powerless, which promotes systematic regulation of their access to basic services and opportunities. As a direct result, childcare cost is inflated, single mothers are intentionally not considered for employment opportunities, and because of landlords who socially exclude them based on historical bias, they are forced into substandard housing.

 

Methodically regulating single mothers is not an uncommon practice; this form of prejudice is intentionally left unchecked to breed a toxic quality of life and lower standard of living in single mother households. Sounds terrible, right? It is! And although it can happen to anyone, it most often happens to victimize and control the group already fighting uphill battles in our society - single mothers! Marginalization and ostracism are barriers to advancement and happiness, and it is symbolic of a culture that is exclusive and discriminatory. Historically, single mothers have been disempowered and oppressed by influential and bigoted groups.

 

Furthermore, several years of research has uncovered other concerning and factual data. For example, when single mothers are pushed aside - marginalized or socially excluded - they suffer from being in a position with limited protection and they have the highest risk of poor health outcomes, which promotes poor self-esteem, a lack of self-efficacy, stigmatization, and homelessness. Generally harming society, single mothers shoulder the main burden of that impact: inflated childcare costs, employment iniquity, and housing inequality.

 

By getting involved in The Single Mother Advancement Project’s (THESMAP’s) social justice initiatives, you will help create powerful interventions in the political process and force representatives to listen to our, once historically silenced, group. Political action requires both organization and allyship to build a coalition of victims who will bring attention to the cause-and-effect change of the inflated childcare cost, employment iniquity, and housing inequity, the three leading barriers hindering the advancement of single mothers. By prioritizing this initiative, we can remove these oppressive challenges.