Brittany writes:

I think you are too harsh on single mothers. Not all unwed mothers are bad people; they just made a mistake. Maybe their boyfriend pressured them into sex and he left when she got pregnant. You can have sex one time and get pregnant. I was born before my mom and dad were married but if my dad had left my mom would have been a single mother. Yes, my mom did have premarital sex but that did not mean she was a slut because she was only with my dad and they were engaged. Yes, some single mothers did not care but what about the ones that just made a mistake?

Laura writes:

Raising a child alone in modern society is one of the most difficult things a person can do. Even when it is handled well, something is missing from the child’s point of view. It is certainly better than abortion and many unmarried women lead lives of selfless devotion to their childen without any support from men. Unmarried women who end up pregnant and who cannot put an infant up for adoption to one of the many infertile couples waiting for children deserve the sympathy and support of their close friends and relatives. But they should not receive any endorsement or applause from the culture at large. They should not be supported through government assistance. It is callous to both women and children to encourage single motherhood in any way.

There are always unfortunate victims of cultural standards. The alternative is a loss of well-being for many more. Ethics is not like mathematics. There is only so much precision we can acheive. Trying to make the gray areas black or white is impossible. We have to accept that there are individual cases that do not comfortably fit our definitions of right or wrong. These gray areas cannot keep us from generalizing. That is the first of our ethical principles.

Steve writes:

I’ve been reading your posts about single motherhood, and I think it would be very interesting to see what you would have to earn (gross), to match what a single mother receives from the Government. At 2002, I heard in my state that one would need to gross $41,000/year to match the benefits a single mother receives “for free.” I tried Googling for equivalent rates for today, but was unsuccessful.

Laura writes:

The state has usurped the role of father. What ever happened to welfare reform?

The inclusion of unmarried mothers in assistance programs for unwed mothers was a central plank of anti-maternalist feminism as early as the late fifties. For these activists, the entry of married mothers into the workforce and government benefits for single mothers were two sides of the same coin. They both undercut public recognition and celebration of traditional sex roles.

Please follow and like us: