Families have changed and solo motherhood is here to stay. There are more and more in our country and, in most of them, there is a woman as an adult figure.
This is reflected in the data of the report ‘There is only one mother: single parenthood, gender and child poverty’, which indicates that the number of single parent households in Spain would reach 1.9 million and that eight out of ten are headed by women.
But there is more. The risk of poverty of single-parent families supported by women is double that of those supported by men : 52% versus 25%.
“Greater poverty in homes with single mothers”
The report of the High Commissioner Against Child Poverty of the Government of Spain is blunt in its conclusions: “poverty especially affects minors who live in single-parent homes with single mothers.”
In 2019, the moderate child poverty rate in Spain reached 27.4%, with childhood being the only age group in which this indicator grew from the previous year and placing our country as the third with the highest poverty rate European Union child only behind Romania and Bulgaria.
In simple single-parent households and nuclei with non-cohabitants headed by women, this rate rises to 47% and 52% respectively, while, in the case of families with single parents, the figures are 25%, below average.
In order to understand what is considered a risk of severe child poverty , the study points out that it brings together four of these points caused by economic reasons: difficulty making ends meet, not being able to keep the house warm in winter, not being able to consume protein every two days , not being able to afford a week’s vacation, delaying the payment of supplies, paying the mortgage or the inability to meet unforeseen expenses.
Behind these problems, there are especially women, due to the difficulties in accessing the labor market, the temporary nature of the jobs they perform , the partiality of their contracts, unemployment, or the problems to reconcile family and work life, which still weigh mainly about women.
Despite having a similar or higher educational background than them, women continue to be the most affected in this area, according to the report, which also assesses the educational level of parents according to sex.
Economic and social reasons
The reasons for the formation of single-parent households include a separation or divorce, the death of one of the parents or the choice to raise a child alone or alone by birth or adoption.
This is indicated by this analysis, which shows that the concept of ‘single-parent household’ hides very different social realities, which explain why it is the households supported by a woman that suffer the highest rates of poverty and exclusion. It is not only the gender of the parent that influences the inability to pay bills , feed the children well or enjoy a vacation. It also has to see the number of children or partners in the house.
And it is that although in general women from single-parent families have equal or higher education than fathers in the same situation, unemployment rates do not reflect this reality, punishing mothers: they work three times more part-time than men .
This situation is even worse if they live with other partners: only one in four has a full-time contract and 20% of them are unemployed, ten points more than in the case of parents.
These data show that single mothers face greater difficulties in the labor market. The problems to reconcile parenting and work and the need for support from social and professional networks in order to develop their career add to the discrimination based on sex that women suffer in themselves.
And all these data correspond to the year before the coronavirus pandemic. We will have to wait to see what situation single-parent households are in at the moment, whether they are supported by women or men and how it affects children.
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