Single Mothers

Sunday Times 13 July 2014

In Justine McCarthy's article about Joyce McSharry, who was separated from her mother in the Bethany Home in 1951, the solicitor David Phelan of Hayes & Sons disclaimed knowledge of an irregular 'Adoption Agreement' written by the firm (Quest for lost mother ends at graveside, News, last week).
    In the 'Agreement' Ralph Walker of Hayes & Sons, nephew of Bethany Home residential secretary Hettie Walker, was named as the 'attorney' of Joyce's mother, Emily Sheppey.
    This was so as to arrange a future legal adoption without consulting Emily.
    Derek Leinster and I wrote to Hayes & Sons between 2010-11.
    The firm also wrote the 'Adoption Agreement' which saw Derek handed to a dysfunctional family in 1945.
    In 2011 a representative volunteered without explanation that he approached a retired partner to see if he could shed light on the mystery. The person concerned is a son of the Bethany Matron. She witnessed the 1951 'Agreement' and remained as matron until the home closed in 1972.
    He too was “not aware of the existence of any records relating to Bethany Home”.
    I wrote again on July 3 with regard to the Emily Sheppey 'Agreement', indicating that this indicated ongoing engagement between the home and the firm.
    I am informed that such documentation should not be destroyed and also that, if destroyed, a record would normally be kept.
    Mr Phelan wrote to me at 8.39pm on Friday July 4th that unsuccessful "searches have been carried out", and that therefore "there is nothing more we can do".
    I suggested to Mr Phelan that "If the documents have been removed from your firm you are unlikely to find them in it".
    I also asked Mr Phelan to consider calling in the authorities if he concludes that important documentation was removed in a possibly unauthorized manner.
    Whatever he decides, Children separated from their parents in the Bethany Home would appreciate if Mr Phelan could provide them with more information.

Niall Meehan, Faculty Head, Journalism & Media, Griffith College Dublin.

Planning for a Baby:  https://youtu.be/2iwLh6XCnq8

Pregnancy with IBD: https://youtu.be/br0kciD8xJk

Motherhood with IBD: https://youtu.be/TQjt8pnMv4I


Our aim is to provide an understanding of the experience of women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who have made the transition to motherhood. A total of 22 mothers with IBD were recruited from around the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. The central concept—Blurred Lines—offers a novel frame for understanding the transition to motherhood with IBD through identifying parallels between having IBD and becoming, and being, a mother. Parallels clustered into three main themes: Need for Readiness, Lifestyle Changes, and Monitoring Personal and Physical Development. Hence, women with IBD are in some ways well prepared for the challenges of motherhood even though, as a group, they tend to restrict their reproductive choices. We recommend health professionals initiate conversations about reproduction early and provide a multidisciplinary approach to pregnancy and IBD in which women have confidence that their ongoing treatment will be integrated successfully with their maternity care.

Within the last decade, births to unmarried women in the United States have risen dramatically, presenting challenges for young women to complete high school and attend college. This article presents a review of programs and services designed to support single mothers in completing high school and accessing postsecondary education. We highlight both problematic and effective aspects of these programs with particular attention to whether they support the educational access of Latinas and African American single mothers.

The URBEX project aims at increasing our knowledge of the spatial dimensions ofurban social exclusion and integration by comparing eleven cities in six countries in Europe. The comparison is made on the basis of a common statistical analysis and the application of a common analytical framework and commonly designed fieldwork. The programme’s focus is on the spatial patterns of exclusion, and on the extent to which concentrations of deprivation create added problems for the development of effective policy responses. The research investigates and compares the extent to which groups
experiencing social exclusion are spatially segregated in different European cities. It also examines whether spatial segregation aggravates exclusion and whether this makes
the task of combating exclusion more difficult. Moreover, it considers the trajectoriesand coping strategies of individuals in a condition of need, how they enter this condition and how they try to cope with and get out of it. Finally, it considers the impact of
different policy initiatives designed to combat exclusion in areas where problems of deprivation and exclusion are concentrated.

映画やテレビドラマなど、様々なメディアは、視聴者を楽しませるという目的は無論であるが、脚本家のメッセージや考えを視聴者に届けることももう一つの目的である。現在、分類すると日本で放送されているドラマはホームドラマ、刑事ドラマ、学園ドラマなど様々なジャンルがある。その一つは「社会派」というジャンルである。
　「社会派」ドラマとは、現実の社会問題に重きをおく。株式会社ビデオリサーチの調査の結果によると、他のジャンルに比べると、社会派ドラマの数は少ない。さらに、1977 年から 2013 年まで 30％の視聴率に超えた社会派ドラマは全てのドラマに比べると、３％に満たない。しかし、社会問題を描く日本の連続ドラマは次第に増えてきた。最近、人気のある社会派ドラマは、2008 年の『ラスト・フレンズ』という連続テレビドラマである。このドラマは、社会の様々な問題について描くドラマである。ドラマ上の登場人物はそれぞれの問題を抱えている。この研究は、二人の登場人物、主人公の「美智留」と、副主人公の「瑠可」に注目し、生活、言葉遣い、社会問題、女性としての価値など、女性の近況、女性として日本の社会にどのように生きていくかを中心に取り上げる。

Background: The issue of grandparents’ support provided to their families is  undertaken in Polish literature very seldom. There are no studies concerning single mother families. The purpose of the article is to examine the extent to which grandparents provide support to grandchildren brought up in single mother families, and determine the relationship between the grandparents’ support and the grandchildren's quality of life. Materials and Methods: The survey data were collected from 119 people from single mother families. The Student's Life Satisfaction Scale SLSS was used to test the quality of life and the Social Support Scale (SWS) was used to test  the strength and type of support from grandparents. Results: Mother's parents are involved in each of the considered types of support in a higher degree than father's parents, regardless of the place of residence of the single mother family. In small towns maternal grandparents provide information support more often than paternal grandparents, maternal grandmothers engage in instrumental aid to grandchildren more often than paternal grandparents. In cases of families living in large cities,  when the paternal grandfather gives instrumental, emotional or evaluative support, grandchildren assess their quality of life significantly better. The assessment of quality of life is also higher in cases of maternal grandfather’s emotional engagement in support for grandchildren. Conclusions: The results suggest that the grandfathers’ (particularly paternal grandfather’s) support in the single mother family is positively connected with quality of life of grandchildren. It can be assumed that supporting grandparents contribute to strengthening the resilience of whole family.

Universal Credit is a new benefits delivery system designed to streamline UK benefits and tax credits and encourage work. This paper examines Universal Credit’s effect on lone parent and low-paid households. Lone mothers, identified as a moral and financial risk, face conditionality which ignores barriers to employment. Universal Credit also extends conditionality to lower-paid workers and their families. It encodes contradictory gendered messages. While individual parental responsibility is increasingly socially and legally emphasised, unemployed or low-paid parents may be forced to spend minimal time with children under threat of sanctions or workfare. Universal Credit demonstrates a clash between market-liberal economic ideals of labour flexibility, and conservative valorisations of the good mother and (married/heteronormative) family, enhanced by ‘recovery’ discourses of thrift and responsibilisation. This paper argues that such moral/economic incoherence will penalise ‘workless’ and ‘part-workless’ citizens who cannot fulfil neoliberal ideals of the private, self-sufficient family unit in hostile economic conditions.

This article assesses the wide range of experiences with illegitimacy in eighteenth-century Antwerp. It exposes many instances of pauper agency, yet also cautions against simply assuming that all single mothers were similarly forceful in their dealings with illegitimacy. Four key factors affected the options a single mother had at her disposal in dealing with illegitimate pregnancy: the way poor relief was organised, the relative accessibility of judicial processes, the administrative settings, and the prevailing ideas about illegitimacy and morality among the general community. The article shows how these factors changed in the final quarter of the eighteenth century, impacting the strategies that single mothers could adopt. 2

Batu Belah, Batu Bertangkup is a popular Malay folktale that warns children of the dangers of disobeying their parents. In the story, the children's disobedience causes the suicide of their mother – an outcome which has arguably influenced many generations of Malay people to fearfully submit to their elders. The tale has survived through various media such as oral stories, movies, and countless children's books. However, with the recent publication of AdiFitri Ahmad's graphic novel Taubat Si Tanggang ('The Redemption of Si Tanggang'), old folktales, which include Batu Belah, Batu Bertangkup, are fitted with new endings, articulating new perceptions of old morals. I will analyse the choices taken in the development of the Batu Belah, Batu Bertangkup tale through the perspective of evolutionary literary theory, employing Michelle Scalise Sugiyama's idea of Machiavellian intelligence. Sugiyama (2005, 189) argues that storytellers have the power to influence their audience through their stories, either upholding or questioning cultural values. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of the storyteller as a figure of authority, investigating the various methods employed in telling the different versions of the popular Malay folktale and how they are a type of strategy used to affect the mind-set of its audience.

This article explores the treatment of unmarried mothers by the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) at the Cape of Good Hope during the VOC period (1652-1795) in the belief that by concentrating on this exceptional group of people much is revealed of normative practices. For most of its history at the Cape during this period the DRC was not overly biased against unmarried mothers and their illegitimate children, continuing to baptise such children and never acting against the mothers. This changed in the 1780s when the Church started to deny access to its two sacraments – baptism and Holy Communion – to illegitimate children and their parents. Through a detailed exploration of baptismal petitions for illegitimate children and censure cases involving unmarried mothers, this article reveals the growing obsession with regulating the conduct of single women. It is suggested that the origins of this movement lie both in local Cape developments, viz. the socio-economic upheavals caused by the Revolutionary wars, and – perhaps primarily – in changing attitudes towards motherhood created by Enlightenment ideas and Pietistic religion. At the Cape this new ideology was disseminated by the DRC minister H.R. van Lier who used existing Reformed dogma about the sacraments to regulate the morals of unmarried mothers.

The entrepreneurial experience of single mother entrepreneurs remains largely unexplored. This paper addresses the issue by investigating the challenges single mother entrepreneurs encountered in their entrepreneurial ambitions to ensure the survival of their businesses, improve their quality of life, and contribute to the development of society. This study's data relied on empirical evidence and current research on single mothers worldwide, focusing on African single mothers. Study findings revealed that the main challenges faced by the majority of the single-mother entrepreneurs were closely related to the lack of financial support, entrepreneurial skills, and business resources, stigmatisation by society, as well as issue in balancing their domestic and business responsibilities. To ensure the survival of their businesses, single mother entrepreneurs are mostly dependent on their informal support system and inner strengths. Although useful, the informal support system cannot support the business survival of their businesses and strengthen their financial position. Besides,their internal motivation and creativity assist them in attracting potential customers and competing in the market. Based on the preceding, this studyinforms government and regulatory authorities about the training, support, and financial resources that this group of entrepreneurs requires.

In the last several decades, neoliberal discourse has dramatically reshaped welfare policy in the Western industrialised world through its emphasis on economic participation, self-reliance and personal accountability. Literature shows that institutional discourse about sole mothers shifted during this period – from one that historically viewed them as morally irresponsible to one that increasingly views them as welfare dependent and economically irresponsible.  However, less is known about the role of neoliberal discourse in shaping people’s perceptions of sole mother poverty and welfare.

This study explores online news comments about the Gillard government’s sole parent welfare amendments – a period of intense welfare debate.  Specifically, this research asks, what are online media commenters’ perceptions of sole mother poverty and welfare in an age of neoliberalism? A thematic analysis of online comments, posted between May 2012 and March 2014, was conducted in NVivo 11.  The comments were then examined within an analytical framework that drew on Bacchi’s (2009) ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ method, as well as Foucauldian ideas and feminist perspectives. 

Findings reveal that the most dominant perception of sole mother poverty and welfare use is that they arise from the characteristics and choices of sole mothers, for example their alleged laziness and reproductive and parental irresponsibility.  However, sole mother commenters speak about the implications and consequences of the 2012 welfare amendments for their lives, with many fearful of the future.  These women share stories of hardship, abandonment, trauma and resilience.  Their comments reveal multiple barriers to financial security, such as inaccessible and unaffordable childcare and the underpayment and non-payment of child support.  Crucially, this research finds that across the comments, paid work among mothers is normalised, productivity is conflated with paid work participation, and care work is devalued or rendered invisible.  These findings suggest that a ‘good’ mother is no longer one who stays at home and nurtures her children.  In an age of neoliberalism, a ‘good’ and ‘responsible’ parent is one who participates in paid work regardless of gender and caring responsibility.

In addition to the overarching discourse of neoliberalism, other dominant discourses and alternative perspectives are reflected in the comments of online media commenters.  The influence of several scientific discourses, as well as activist discourses that have become institutionalised over time, such as those that emerged from women’s and fathers’ rights movements, are echoed in the comments.  Alternative perspectives consider the impact of social and circumstantial factors in the lives of sole mothers and often reflect lived experiences of poverty, welfare use and sole motherhood. 

Overall, this research uncovers a multiplicity of perceptions of the causes of sole mother poverty and welfare use in Australia.  Nevertheless, it finds that political discourse and other dominant discourses play a significant role in shaping how people perceive policy issues, such as sole mother poverty and welfare use.  This finding has implications for sole mothers and others who experience poverty or marginalisation as negative attitudes lead to stigmatisation and discrimination and impact on policy in a ‘vicious cycle’ (Schofield & Butterworth 2015).

The book answers fundamental questions about the processes of social negotiation of mentality shifts in communist Poland. Taking divorce, single motherhood, domestic violence and abortion as examples, it analyzes the level of acceptance toward tabus grounded in tradition, and the course of negotiating new meanings and using social exclusion when dealing with new phenomena. The author uses not only national documents, but also ego-documents and cultural texts to prove the macrosocietal dictatorship in the years 1956-1989 contributed not to the revolutionization of society at the family level, but to its perpetuation. The family references made by the communist authorities, especially in the last two decades of their regime, can be treated as one of the factors legitimizing the system

According to yoga tradition, the subtle body is a part of us that we can’t see or touch—it’s where our energy flows. It is also referred to as the energy body. There are seven key points in the subtle body that are thought to be vortexes of energy, known as chakras. When energy becomes blocked in a chakra, it triggers physical, mental, or emotional imbalances that manifest either in psychological symptoms such as anxiety, lethargy, or physical symptoms such as poor digestion. The more one studies these centres and their nature, the more she comes to understand the difference between various psychological and therapeutic points of view. In the present paper, the psychological aspects of each chakra are explored and the result of the synthesis or integration at each chakra is discussed.

Die Beziehung zwischen Müttern und ihren Söhnen gilt  weitgehend als problemlos. Allerdings hat die Forschung dieser Beziehung nur wenig Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Einer der Gründe dafür könnte sein, dass dieses Verhältnis weniger problemlos ist, als nicht nur angenommen, sondern vor allen Dingen auch gewünscht wird. Dieser Tage ist es üblich, dass Frauen weder mit körperlichen Gewalthandlungen noch mit sexuellen Übergriffen auf ihre Kinder in Verbindung gebracht werden, vor allem auch nicht mit ihren Söhnen. Wer die Entwicklung von Männlichkeit verstehen möchte, muss auch in Betracht ziehen, das sexuelle Grenzüberschreitungen während der Kindheit im Leben erwachsene Männer in verdeckter Form zum Nachteil von Frauen und von Männern sich niederschlagen.

Family is the backbone of all children and children are supposed to grow in a family setting where both mother and father plays their respective roles in providing them a sense of security and stability but when it is done single handedly it becomes quite difficult to perform up to the expectations. In recent years, there has been a sudden rise in the phenomenon of single parent families in India due to multiple factors including the influences from western society. The present article is an attempt to review the available literature on single parent families, their causal factors, strengths as well as its weaknesses. Furthermore, the positive and negative impact of single parenting on adolescent's physical, psychological, emotional, behavioral, educational and social wellbeing is also discussed in detail. Besides, this paper suggests few strategies for single parents so that they can easily manage and cope up with the difficulties they face in such situations which might be helpful in improving the wellbeing of their adolescent children.

What is the relationship between Mizrahi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relevance of gender justice activism to the 2014 Gaza War and Israel’s foreign policy?

Wrapped in the Flag of Israel Second Edition examines neoliberal bureaucracy in the Global South using feminist critical race theories. It interrogates the relationship between the State of Israel and its Mizrahi single mothers who are at the forefront of Mizrahi feminism. It also presents a model of bureaucracy as divine cosmology that preempts the agency of disenfranchised Mizrahim who are Israel’s demographic majority. Mizrahi protests fall flat when the Israel-Palestine conflict dominates the headlines. While most studies of neoliberal bureaucracy employ a Foucauldian or Marxian lens, this book illustrates how Israeli bureaucracy draws on a theological essence that fuses religion, gender, and race into the foundations of citizenship. It sets out to understand why Mizrahi mothers remain loyal to a state that injures them though its bureaucratic system.

The extensive Afterword to the Second Edition connects intra-Jewish racial and gendered dynamics to the 2014 Gaza War. It tracks sequences that began with social protest and ended with elections that bolstered Israel’s political right. In between came bloodletting between the IDF, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel’s neighboring Arab states. The 2014 Gaza War was a watershed, but not only in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Under the smokescreen of war, Israel accelerated neoliberal economic reform. The first victims of this restructuring were Mizrahi single mothers. Palestinians, however, would pay the highest price for Israel’s Mizrahi-Ashkenazi rift.

Jedną z konsekwencji drugiej wojny światowej, będącej jednocześnie jednym z największych problemów społecznych powojennej Polski była niespotykana dotąd na tak wielką skalę ilość samotnych matek i nieślubnych dzieci. Zachwianie fundamentów istniejącego ówcześnie świata, wszechobecna przemoc, migracje, towarzyszący im chaos i zerwanie więzi rodzinnych oraz upadek wartości skutkował bardziej swobodnym podejściem do kwestii seksualności, ale także powodował znaczny wzrost przemocy seksualnej, szczególnie pod koniec wojny.
Jak dotąd, temat ten nie został dogłębnie zbadany, a dokumenty w archiwach państwowych są rozproszone i niekompletne. Tymczasem, dzięki materiałom przechowywanym w Bibliotece Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego możliwe było odtworzenie sytuacji, w jakiej znajdowały się samotne matki i ich dzieci w latach 1947-1948, a także pośrednio, tuż po zakończeniu wojny. Powołany przy UŁ Polski Instytut Służby Społecznej przeprowadził badania obejmujące zagadnienie pozamałżeńskiego macierzyństwa oraz działalności Domów Matki i Dziecka w Polsce. Obraz wyłaniający się z zachowanych ankiet, wywiadów i raportów jest przygnębiający, tylko dwie na 34 istniejące placówki spełniały podstawowe normy. Jedną z nich był Słupski Dom Matki i Dziecka – pierwszy tego typu zakład założony na ziemiach polskich po 1945 r. Źródła wskazują, że była to instytucja wyjątkowa i unikatowa w skali całego kraju. Było to miejsce, do którego zjeżdżały się kobiety z całej Polski, przekonane, że było ono jedynym, które gwarantowało anonimowość, tak bardzo oczekiwaną przez same zainteresowane. Kobiety traktowano tam z szacunkiem i godnością, co, jak wynika z łódzkich badań, wcale nie było oczywiste i powszechne. Taką opinię Dom zawdzięczał osobowości założyciela tej placówki oraz pierwszej kierowniczki.
W tekście opisane zostały badania nad Domami Matki i Dziecka z 1947 r. ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem DMiD w Słupsku. Dodatkowo, jego działalność w latach 1945-1949, od powstania zakładu aż do zmiany jego kierownictwa, ukazana została w świetle innych dostępnych źródeł, pochodzących przede wszystkim z prywatnych kolekcji.

The Mother and Child Home in Słupsk in the light of research carried out
by the Polish Institute of Social Service. An attempt to preserve the anonymity and subjectivity of women and children in the post-war chaos

One of the consequences of the Second World War and, at the same time, one of the biggest social problems in post-war Poland was an unprecedented number of single mothers and children born out of wedlock.
The shaken foundations of the world, omnipresent violence, migrations, the chaos and broken family ties accompanying them as well as a decline of values resulted in a more lenient approach to sexuality and caused a significant rise in sexual violence, especially towards the end of the war.
So far this topic has not been examined in any great detail, with the documents in state archives being scattered and incomplete. Yet thanks to the documents kept in the Łódź University Library it has become possible to reconstruct the situation of single mothers and their children in 1947–1948 and, indirectly, also shortly after the end of the war. A team from the Polish Institute of Social Service established at the University of Łódź carried out a study of extramarital motherhood and the operation of Mother and Child Homes in Poland. The picture emerging from the surviving surveys, interviews and reports is depressing — only 2 out of the 34 existing homes met the basic standards. One of them was the Mother and Child Home in Słupsk, the first such institution founded in Poland after 1945. Sources indicate that it was a unique institution in Poland, attracting women from all over Poland, women who were convinced that it was the only place guaranteeing anonymity, which they wanted so badly. They were treated there with respect and dignity, which, as is suggested by the Łódź study, was by no means obvious and common. The Słupsk Home owed this reputation to its founder and its first manager.
In the article the author describes a 1947 study of Mother and Child Homes, particularly taking into account the Mother and Child Home in Słupsk. In addition, its operation in 1945–1949, from its founding to a change of its management, is presented in the light of other available sources, primarily from private collections.

This chapter examines former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s withdrawal of welfare benefits to 150,000 single mothers on the day of her historic ‘misogyny speech’, 9 October 2012. The contrast between the rhetoric of equality and the Fair Incentives to Work Bill was striking because it symbolised the discrepancy between women’s standing as ‘individuals’ in liberal-democratic societies and their standing as mothers. This chapter develops the argument, outlined in the author’s new book, that women are normatively free as ‘individuals’ in liberal-democratic societies, but remain constrained as mothers performing unpaid, invisible, carework. Redefining women actively engaged in mothering as ‘unemployed’ as the Fair Incentives to Work Bill did is a pernicious outcome of unfettered liberalism, which presupposes that all individuals are free to compete on the same terms.  In the context of declining marriage and declining welfare, it is argued that this erroneous assumption has produced the problem of women’s poverty.

After the death of their husbands African women, who are living in patriarchal societies, experience cruel mourning and purification rituals, which they have to undergo and they are often stigmatized and accused of being witches. In this fatal situation, God is often their only anchor, God, who already appears in the Bible as the protector and father of widows and orphans. In the Old Testament, two book are named after widows, the Book of Rut and Judit, and in the New Testament there are numerous widow stories, primarily in Luke, which are all characterized by a special relationship with God. However, the reality in the ancient world was as follows: there was a large number of widows, working in the churches, which displeased the officials of the communities. They didn't only takeover charitable activities, but they missionized and were even paid for it. 1Tim 5:3–16, which categorizes widows, was read and interpreted by widows in Tanzania. It is demonstrated how they deal with a text, which was written for them as widows. They didn't allow themselves to be influenced by restrictions, in fact they drew out positive results. It is also highlighted how the widows interpret 1Tim on their cultural background, how they position themselves and see themselves as brides of Christ.

Single – mieszkańcy dużych miast, doskonale wykształceni, dobrze sytuowani finansowo, pracoholicy skupieni wyłącznie na rozwoju własnej kariery zawodowej, przyjemnym spędzaniu czasu wolnego i wydający mnóstwo pieniędzy na konsumpcję dóbr luksusowych. To stereotyp singla przedstawiany w mediach. Czy to prawdziwy obraz życia w pojedynkę? Wyniki jakościowych badań empirycznych wskazują na to, że nie jest to do końca autentyczny portret wielkomiejskiego singla. Prezentacja będzie dotyczyć przede wszystkim problematyki stylu życia polskich singli w kontekście pracy zawodowej, konsumpcji dóbr i usług, form spędzania czasu wolnego, relacji towarzyskich i stosunku do życia w pojedynkę. Pozwoli przybliżyć podobieństwa i różnice, które charakteryzują tę kategorię społeczną, zarówno w kontekście wyborów życiowych, jak i stylu życia. Być może dzięki temu łatwiej będzie zrozumieć czemu jednych singli nazywa się oswojonymi, a innych zranionymi lub bezkompromisowymi.

Please consult the book's 2nd edition, above

Three prints of the 1st edition were sold between April 15, 2014 - July 31, 2015. The book went out of print and its adventures in publish-land are discussed here:
https://www.academia.edu/41932472/Jadaliyya_-_New_Text_Out_Now_Author_Interview_with_Smadar_Lavie_on_Wrapped_in_the_Flag_of_Israels_Revised_Edition_with_the_New_Afterword._January_20_2020

This study aim of this research is to see the differences of psychological well being between single mother who join the support group and doesn't join the support group. Single mother who join the support group usually have the same situation and condition, so they can share eatch other. Sharing the same situation they felt may raise psychological well being. Otherwise single mother didn't join the community unable to share there situation they felt witch is lower theire psychological well being. Psychological well-being as self-development and self-fulfillment needs of someone who is affected by the surrounding environment. The subject of this study consisted of 50 single mother who follow or join the support group, and 50 single mother who did not follow the single mother support group. The method of quantitative applies in this study. This study uses Psychological well being scale by Ryff (1989), then analyze it using T test. The result of this study showed a significant difference between a single mother who join the support group and do not join the support group. (p= 0.001 <0.05). Pendahuluan Single mother adalah wanita yang ditinggalkan oleh suami atau pasangan hidupnya baik karena memutuskan berpisah, bercerai atau meninggal dunia dan kemudian dia memutuskan untuk tidak menikah melainkan membesarkan anak-anaknya seorang diri (Papalia & Diane , 2008). Menurut Ellison (2005), seseorang yang menjadi single mother akan menghadapi situasi-situasi yang menantang, seperti penyesuaian diri dengan status sebagai single mother, tanggung jawab yang lebih besar untuk mencari nafkah bagi keluarga, sehingga pada umumnya situasi-situasi tersebut menyebabkan stress pada single mother .

Kim są single i singielki i ile osób żyje bez partnera w Polsce? Jaka jest dynamika życia w pojedynkę – kto i jak długo najczęściej pozostaje bez pary? Jaki jest stosunek osób niemających partnera do życia w pojedynkę – ilu jest singli wyboru, czy planują tak żyć na stałe i czy są ze swojego życia zadowoleni? Czym różni się życie singielek i singli? Jakie doświadczenia specyfikują życie bez pary przed trzydziestką, a jakie później? Jakie są biografie intymne singli i singielek – czy i w ilu związkach byli, dlaczego są sami, jakich partnerów szukają, czy prowadzą aktywne życie seksualne?
Przedkładana czytelnikowi książka daje odpowiedzi na te i inne jeszcze pytania dotyczące doświadczeń osób żyjących w pojedynkę w Polsce. Celem publikacji było stworzenie szczegółowej, kompleksowej i komplementarnej charakterystyki osób żyjących w pojedynkę w odwołaniu do badań na reprezentatywnej próbie dorosłych Polaków. Uwzględniono więc w niej różne zmienne empiryczne, których wzajemne relacje definiują charakter bycia singlem i singielką. Podjęto także próbę analizy doświadczeń związanych z życiem bez pary jako etapu biograficznego kobiet i mężczyzn. Celem było także rozpoznanie tej sfery życia singli i singielek, która dotąd w badaniach zjawiska życia w pojedynkę nie była podejmowana, czyli intymności i seksualności.
Intencją autorów było przygotowanie opracowania będącego źródłem szczegółowych danych w którym opis przeważa nad interpretacją. Raport ten przeznaczony jest nie tylko dla badaczy przemian życia intymnego, rodzinnego, ale także dla wszystkich osób szukających informacji statystycznych na temat życia w pojedynkę – studentów, dziennikarzy/publicystów itp.

In the Netherlands, single mothers, run a high risk of becoming poor, even though this country has a well-developed welfare system. This study brings together many partial life histories of single mothers of different cultural backgrounds and origins and shows that poverty is not solely material deprivation. Through its in-depth account of the ways single mothers construct their everyday lives, this book sheds light on the many social, cultural and structural dimensions of poverty. In a context of economic hardship, gender inequality and stigmatization, the interviewed women give meaning to their daily subsistence. They develop a wide range of livelihood strategies, exchange support with family and friends, struggle to be socially respected and are proud to raise their children in a decent way.
In the past decades, the number of single mother households has increased rapidly, not only in the Netherlands, but also on a worldwide scale. This study contributes to a better understanding of this profound transformation of household and family structure. Because single mothers often have to face economic hardship, insight in the way they deal with their situation is crucial to enhance our knowledge op poverty.

Foreword by Sylvia Chant
Chapter 7 with Gerdien Steenbeek

RESUMEN

Las madres solteras por elección están dando soluciones muy diversas a la cuestión de la ausencia del "padre" en sus proyectos familiares. Se trata de una diversidad que depende de múltiples factores (condición socioeconómica, nivel de estudios, etapa de desarrollo de dichos proyectos, la generación, etc.) pero, principalmente según se desprende de nuestro estudio, de las vías utilizadas de acceso a la maternidad en solitario: adopción internacional, reproducción asistida o relaciones sexuales con fines reproductivos. Sin embargo, los profesionales y expertos que intervienen en este colectivo, en diferentes momentos de sus proyectos, no toman en consideración esta pluralidad de experiencias, sino que parten de presupuestos y concepciones relativamente prefijados y homogeneizadores que provienen, principalmente, de los enfoques psi. Este discurso experto no incorpora las experiencias y vivencias de las madres solteras por elección en lo que se refiere al abordaje de la ausencia del padre, sino que deja marcas y consigue constreñir su discurso, generando en ellas sentimientos ambivalentes y contradictorios.

ABSTRACT
Single mothers by choice are finding diverse solutions to the question of the absence of the father figure in their family arrangements. This diversity depends on many factors (socio-economic situation, level of studies, stage of development of these projects, the generation, etc.) but, mainly, according to the results of our study, the ways used to attain single motherhood: international adoption, assisted reproduction, or sexual relations intended for reproduction. However, the professionals and experts involved in this sphere, at different points of their projects do not take into consideration this plurality of experiences, but rather start from relatively fixed and homogenizing presuppositions and preconceptions which come primarily from the psy- approaches. This expert discourse does not incorporate the experiences and situations lived by single mothers by choice, including the way of facing the absence of the father but that leaves marks and ends up constraining discourse and generating ambivalent and contradictory sentiments in the mothers.


PALABRAS CLAVE | KEYWORDS
madres solteras por elección | monoparentalidad | maternidad | ausencia del padre | disociación de roles |
singles mothers by choice | monoparentality | maternity | father absence | role dissociation