When reading Knowledge Is Power by Maria Cristina Rangel, to be honest, I really hated the way she talked about her life as a student of Smith College and a mother of two children, and how the welfare system let her done. At then, I thought that it is the basic human right to bear children but I also thought everyone should be responsible for the choices they make; poor single mothers do have their rights to give birth but they should consider their own abilities of providing their children with good environment to grow up. I thought Maria wanted to avoid making money by attending Smith College so that she can receive financial aids from both Smith College welfare system.
However, now I realized that what I thought is just the typical view that this society hold towards poor single mothers. We think single mothers are poor because they are lazy. That is why Lyndon Johnson “called for limits on payments to non-marital children and complained that their mothers “sit around and breed instead of going out to work” ”. Since the Second Wave, as many feminists required equal opportunities for women to work outside, the view that women can be independent by working hard is prevalent among the society. Therefore, poor single mothers are simply targeted for not working hard for their own lives and thus are not pitiable. However, ironically, while this society charges these poor single mother for not working hard, it does not truly provide women with equal opportunities and equal pay. And more importantly, while women seeking work outside home, they are still the main caregiver so that women are actually caught by both outside work and domestic work while being expected to perform well on both sides.
Providing poor single mothers and their children with better welfare is of crucial importance and France and Scandinavian have proved that better welfare can encourage women to be more productive.
However, I think the author is quite nominal in emphasizing that “(they) mobilized not to speak for poor mothers but with them”. Although she tries to distinguish them who worked against Personal Responsibility Act from these feminists of the Second Wave by declaring that she and other elite middle-class feminists did not work from a status far from the real situation of these poor single mothers, she does not provide any voice from these mothers in the whole reading. Those who required better welfare for poor single mothers are still those who did not need the welfare at all.
Unfortunately, many people in our society think along the same lines as the statements in the first paragraph. Many people do not realize that single mothers are for the most part the result of their circumstances. Our society based on capitalism- which thrives and depends on inequality- some people must be rich and some must be poor. Those who are poor receive inferior education and health options. Sexual education is scarce in these environments and thus many children inherit the habits of their parents. This cycle is quite hard to break. Sadly, many single mothers must do whatever it takes to support their family, which generally means taking a dead end and low paying job / not finishing their formal education. Yes, some people are irresponsible and do not think before they act. However, I am inclined to believe that the way we treat single mothers is a societal issue in which we area all at least semi-responsible.
ReplyDelete