Paul Andrew Bourne, B.Sc. (Hons); Dip. Edu.
INTRODUCTION
Contemporary societies hold particular social prejudices that surface primarily because of their interpretations of the world, which unfold in actions, policies and theses. Many systems are designed against stated groups. Single mothers are oftentimes viewed as outcast, and if they are young, – they are labeled ‘whores’. This group is marginalized by societies in comparison to the orthodox married couple. Policies, directly or indirectly, fail to support single mothers. This begins from the socialization process of our children. The socialization of children emphasizes ‘no sex before marriage’, ‘marriage first’, ‘sex after’ and then ‘pregnancy. The status quo gives credence to marriage and makes this ontology. From the structure, marriage gives privilege to fertility and childbirth. The epistemology of this is embedded in tradition, religiosity, biased academic writings and socialization. The community, therefore, treats unmarried women with child (ren) with disdain and the business community, instead of, disassociating itself from such a stance; it stocks a similar label on those people. This phenomenon is not limited to developing countries or particular ethnicity but it is an international issue that is multitudinous and exceedingly recognizable.
SOCIALIZATION AND SOCIAL FACTORS
The socialization process is a thesis that explains the epistemological positions of many people. Man’s existence is a social one and so he/she is a social being who is shaped by the environment and the society. While different ethnicities have a particular outlook on their social world, there are fundamental ‘culturalization’ that is common across topologies, classes and time. One author examined single mother in African and his findings revealed that the socialization process explains the epistemology of citizens in regard to females. Calvès’ (1999) monograph identifies socialization’s acceptance of people in sub-Saharan African as the justification for the interaction between the sexes and the how society behaviours toward women. He penned these thoughts that:
The timing and sequencing of family formation events – that is the onset of sexual activity, first marriage, and first birth – are believed to be changing in sub-Saharan Africa (Calvès, 1999, p.279)
Calvès’ thesis highlights the orthodox epistemology of society and offers a rationale for a continued perception of a particular group. Despite the changing views of African in contemporary society, the preferred social yardstick in the assessment of relationship is marriage, and not cohabitation and/or single parenting. The socio-economic consequences of premarital childbearing are sometimes very catastrophic as families ostracized and in some cases disassociated themselves from those members. This becomes even more burdensome for single mothers, when organization makes it extremely difficult for them to concurrently operate in both roles. Calvès (1999) forwarded a perspective that embodied the biases of tradition-contemporary societies to which this paper alludes in an effort to highlight inequality. He wrote that:
For women, in particular, marriage is still a crucial means of securing socio-economic status. In many African societies, women are still entirely dependent on marriage for access to land, capital, and housing; even women who are educated and have their own income cannot forgo marriage without important material loss (Calvès, 1999, p.291)
This argument is not specialized to Africa as many academic and researchers, around the world, have written on the issues and even some in Caribbean and in particular Jamaica. The social world, in developing countries, is even more pressuring on single mothers as the demagogues, who are men, construct a setting that demeans particular group. The pressures on premarital childbearing-females are direct and intense that some of them in an effort to survive fall in the subtle web of men. This oftentimes does not lead to marriage but more children, and in many instances deviant beings. The community, the business fraternity, and bourgeoisie are socialized anti-premarital childbearing and so they become judgemental of single mothers. This group of people is a judged on their sexuality as against their innate abilities or knowledge, and this is a crucial hurdle for social mobility and professional acumen. Calvès (1999) offered a salient perspective on the rationale for social difficulties of premarital childbearing-women. He said that:
. . . focus-group discussions conducted among youth in Yaounde’ suggested that single young men are often reluctant to marry a woman with a child from a previous relationship, fearing that the mother may retain emotional links with the child’s biological father, and that they will have little control and rights over the child, . . . (p.298)
Single mothers are not only bombarded by the financial challenges of survivability but the use of their sexuality to evaluate their worth; and sometimes a prospective male partner having internalized the social meanings of society, ‘plays her’ as the prior father. These challenges are intensified when age is brought into the discourse.
DEMOGRAPHIC FACTOR
Our contemporary world is anti-premarital childbearing females so much so that when youth become pregnant they are criticized, ostracized and sometimes ‘left for dead’ by the same society that failed in the socialization process. When many discourse begins, and when young single mothers are included, this predominance the thesis, as to the female’s sexuality is thoroughly review without including the parents and the donor-male. On the other hand, when a woman who is at the end of her childbearing years (age 49) becomes pregnant, she is discriminated against as people perceived her decision to be irresponsible.
In many societies, young mothers experience exclusions from formal education structure, barred from accessing certain resources and face an enormous challenge of attaining employment. This is further intensified when she request time because of illness of her child. The aged mothers survive the onslaught that is levied against young mothers but they must continue to justify her actions.
CONCLUSION
The state is the arm of the people. It is expected to see, address and mediate on their behalf; and in the process it is to ensure that inequalities are remedied as long as they exist. The orthodox expectation of social habitation is changing, and the state must legislate in order to current and reduce the present inequalities that arise because of social biases. The business demagogues, on the other hand, must align themselves to new thesis, and remove themselves from any social-orthodox thinking that discriminates, isolates and penalizes against particular groups. There is a covert structure that segregates and distinguishes between "certain people", which fashions the perspective of society. We need to remove the biases that divides the society in order to fashion a society that has equality opportunity for all. Therefore, employers should institute systems that adequately alleviate some of the pressures of single mothers, and creates avenues that aid they social development. Fore mostly, the community must protect and nurture their young mothers and equally respect aged single childbearing-females.