The social responsibility of nurturing children and providing the foundational values is often affiliated to mothers. In this scenario, working mothers come under the radar of trading off their responsibilities. Single mothers in a patriarchal set up go through extra miles of hardships and are prone to face exploitations a lot more.  

Nearly 8% of all households worldwide are headed by a single parent, 84% of whom are mothers. This translates to 101.3 million single mothers who raise their children alone, and the numbers are growing (UN Women, 2020). Kramer et al., (2015) addressed the discrepancy in income and poverty status between single mothers and single fathers by using the US Census of Population and Housing, Public Use Microdata Sample from 1990, 2000, and 2010 to investigate the differences in taxable income and poverty status between employed single mothers and single fathers. Kramer et al. discovered that single mothers were more likely to live in poverty than single fathers. 

A study by the National Library of Medicine predicts that due to internalised gender stereotypes women go through guilt while working a lot more than men. This guilt stems from single mothers unable to spend quality time with their children and not being there with them when needed. There are cases where mothers leave the child behind during their formative years when the child needs them the most which multiplies psychological stresses single mothers go through. 

Challenges

Historically women were not allowed to access public spaces and join the workforce. Single mothers consequently face myriad challenges while accessing these places. The challenges of meeting day to day essentials and providing the kids with a comfortable life makes single mothers work extra-hard. Here are a few challenges universally faced by single mothers: 

• Gender Pay Parity: The condition gets worse due to the gender pay gap that still exists. According to data by UN Women 2020, women make only 77% for every dollar earned by men. The gender parity is concerning for single mothers as they are the sole earners in the family.  Even though the workload and the skill sets required are equal or more, the gender pay gap remains constant and remuneration provided is far less than what men in the same jobs earn. This problem is seen to be occurring more in women of colour and those who are underrepresented within the spectrum. Single mothers from these underrepresented communities get severely affected through injustices exercised. 
• Lack of Social Protection: There are no policies designed for single mothers’ social and financial inclusion. The Single Parent Allowance Program in Maldives is one such policy for single parents, but the concept of parenthood is itself so gendered that policy building towards women needs separate emphasis. Infact, in skilled jobs women earn far less than men and contribute 30% less than men to their retirement accounts. Social security henceforth becomes a key component in a job and women receive 20% less than men which makes the number of single mother’s number even lower. 
• Savings and Expenses: Additionally, single mothers are at higher risk of poverty than married couples. In 2021, the official poverty rate for families headed by a single mother was 31.3%, approximately five times the rate (5.4%) for families headed by a married couple (Single Mother Statistics). This makes them be tight with their budgets and deny luxury and comfort. Another major reason for financial distress amongst single mothers can be because of the expenses of the child. Childcare costs can be high, particularly for single mothers if there is no financial dependence on the father or he refuses to provide alimony (in case of divorces). These expenses may deplete their budget, making it challenging to pay for other necessary bills. 

• Lack of evidence-based policy research: What is more concerning is the lack of evidence-based policy research and authorised data collection. A few countries have already started collecting data on single mothers. The highest proportion of single parents is seen in a few nations, including Ireland (24.3%), New Zealand (23.7%), and the United Kingdom (21.5%). In the United States, households headed by a single mother accounted for about 24% of all households with children in 2014. According to a study, 69% of Black adolescents live with just one parent. Despite having data, these countries are unable to implement policies for single mothers. Hence, collection of data is the first step towards tapping the larger financial inclusion goals. 
• But there are still countries like India who are far behind the process of single mother’s inclusion in the data collection. There is in fact no mention of single mothers in the census of India. The census is the backbone of any country for its growth and development. Including single mothers in the census will bring them into the focus and there will be data on them which can be further analysed by policy makers for informed policy making.  Moreover, many times if women are living in a joint family or with in-laws, they tend to take the male-head of the family as the breadwinner. Henceforth, there remains no proven data of total single mothers in the country. This makes it difficult for policy makers to design schemes and policies for them. There is also a sheer lack of financial products and services specifically designed for single mothers. Thus, a single mother’s financial conditions go unnoticed. There are many more countries like India where there is no proven data on single mothers. 

Way Forward

It is the need of the hour for government and policy makers to shift their lens towards improving the financial resilience of single mothers. Single mothers should be added in the data collection process categorically. Secondly, robust policies to facilitate childcare cost in terms of education/health should be implemented to reduce financial burden on Single Mothers. 

This follows up with financial literacy as another major concern primarily in low-middle income countries. There are a lot of women who do not know monetary management, future investments and returns. They either do it from some male head or by friends which increases the chances of misleads. Women of this category lack financial knowledge to pursue loans and end up taking loans at much higher interest rates. As, there should be more awareness and capacity building around financial literacy.

As mentioned, women generally face exploitation in the informal sector due to lack of labour protection. According to a report by Deloitte 2019, 95% of women in our country who are employed in the informal sector are highly underpaid or unpaid in a lot of work. A lot of time women does extra work on the same wage.  Single mothers then lose out on spending time with their children. Parenting these kids becomes a huge concern especially in developing nations such as India where there is a lack of accessibility to care workers. One way to tackle this situation is by creating awareness in the workplace because a lot of times these women are unaware about the exploitations they face. Another way is by providing Universal Basic Income which would allow women to take less work and spend more time parenting their kids. For single mothers, UBI can operate as a safety net, providing them with more control over their financial circumstances and empowering them to make decisions that will benefit the future of their family. Companies can give luxury to women working remotely. In this way, they can co-balance their work along with nurturing their kids.

Indeed, a comprehensive strategy that includes income support, affordable daycare, work opportunities, financial literacy, housing, healthcare, and legal protections is needed to improve the financial security of single mothers. Policymakers can enable single mothers to become more financially independent and support a more just and inclusive society by putting these policies into practice.