LIBERIA: Alarming Statistics Show More “Single Mothers”
…..95% Discovered – By: Augustine N. Myers – A research conducted in some counties of Liberia suggests that approximately 95 percent of women in the country are single mothers, which estimate gender experts say represents a single most significant gender-factor in national development because it clearly relates to women participation and representation.
The is based on the fact that while development and social assessment experts are finding out the problems confronting the African societies, indications are that factors of poverty are many while its consequences seriously affect our women population, especially the young ladies.
After having concentrated on alcoholism and prostitution and the role of youngsters in such habits, here is a picture of how it looks regarding the issue of Single Mothers in Liberia.
According the finding, instead of handling their own share of national development, single mothers are primarily concerned about the survival and upbringing of their children more than community participation; thereby creating a huge gap in development.
The lack of women participation tends to put more burdens on men. An un-authoritative research has shown that many men suffer from stroke because of stress at home. According to the research, men are suffering from stroke because culture and society have taught them to be the breadwinners of the home, which responsibility, if shared with women, could lessen the stress burden.
The research, conducted alongside the Gender Office of Grand Bass County and the Bassa Women Development Association, BAWODA, reveals that of the percentage, many women have become single-mothers as a result of several related and unrelated factors, including divorce, death, unhealthy cultural practices, early pregnancy, poverty, separation, exploitation, adoption, and donor insemination; the last two being rare cases in the Liberian society.
Though the statistics of single mothers in Liberia seems alarmingly, the research has categorized the percentage as also including mothers who are even married but evidently have to self-cater to their kids because of the father’s inability to take the task.
Supporting the argument that single mothers are not only women who have children but not married, Ms. Nitty Doepoe, Gender Officer of Grand Bassa County, said women who are compelled by tradition into unhappy marriages are also single mothers since they have to carry the physical, social and psychological caretaking of their children.
Another cause the research pointed out for single parenting is the notion of feminism. Mis. Julie Flangay, a ‘former’ single mother herself, is the Administrative Assistant to the Executive Director of the Bassa Women Development Association.
Miss Flangay noted that many women become single mothers because may be they got pregnant from already –married husbands and as such cannot find a space in the home of that man. According to her, because the man is married, a woman deliberately pretends that he is dead and plans to tell the child in the future that his or her father had died; thereby carrying the unnecessary burden of catering to the child.
Unin¬tended con¬se¬quences of fem¬i¬nism have had neg¬a¬tive effects, of course, in addi¬tion to the pos¬i¬tive ones. A previous research has shown that fem¬i¬nism move¬ment has eased the stigma on pre¬mar¬i¬tal sex and unwed moth¬ers; allow¬ing women to behave like men at the worst, sleep¬ing around, hook¬ing-up and delay¬ing seri¬ous relationships.
Various researches have shown that if there is a single group of people who are under appreciated more than any other group of people, it has to be single mothers. While everyone knows being a parent is hard, being a single mother tends to be even harder because not only does she have to play the roles of both parents, she is financially responsible for a set of bills that are usually paid by two incomes. Raising a child in a single parent household is obviously harder, and this can have some unwanted effects on the development of a child, especially in families where there is more than one child.
Miss. Nitty Doepoe and BAWODA agree that there are more teenage single mothers than older ones. Girl-mothers, as teenage mothers are called by the Gender Office, represent between 60-70 percent of the total percentage of single-mothers. Also, that there are more urban women as single mothers than rural women because traditions compelled many women to remain in marriages, even unhappy; while urban girls many times do not subscribe to such traditional restriction.
Strangely, though, the research discovered that women in Liberia are not willing to wait until they are older to have a baby and not waiting to get married before bearing children.
Although a World Bank statistics has shown a steady improvement in the life expectancy in Liberia, which stood at 54 yrs in 2000, 57 yrs in 2007, and 58 yrs from 2008 up to present, it supposes that many Liberian men don’t live up to the formal retirement age of 60 or 65 before death; thereby leaving children as burden over an already impoverished young mothers to cater to for the rest of their lives.
During the research, both the Gender Office in Buchanan and BAWODA agreed on certain unarguable effects single-mothering have on the greater society, which, if addressed, could significantly positively impart national development processes.
As a result of single-mothering, a spillover effect is felt in almost every part of the nation because single mothers are spread across the country. Lack of quality education for children, due to financial constraints, increase of crime due to a recycling-environment, early introduction to social and moral corruption are but a few effects single-parenting is said to have on the nation.
Because these children have not grown-up to see a family composed of both parents, because they grew up in rough environments and with low education background, they in-turn live as single parents themselves in the future because their own earlier foundation was poor and therefore may not be able cater to their own children. Family is not considered a value and virtue because many single-parent children did not grow up to enjoy the warmth of a family.
Moreover, single mothers suffer to find competent childcare as one wants to leave her child in a childcare center that is anything but the best. Gender issues are considered significant effect, too, as a mother who is a single parent may have a hard time teaching her sons about the things a father would normally cover and a single father may have a hard time discussing female issues with his daughters.
Another effect considered during the research is ‘carrying the world on one’s shoulders.’ In this case, when there’s only one parent in the household, all of the family responsibilities lay on that person’s shoulders. Cleaning the house, cooking meals, keeping up the yard, paying the bills, keeping an eye on the kids and all of the other parental responsibilities are the sole responsibility of that parent.
Other social effect such as feeling lost and alone was highlighted. According to gender experts, many single parents find themselves feeling isolated at one point or another. They don’t really relate to singles without children because single parents have an entirely different set of priorities and responsibilities. Introducing one’s child to those she is dating becomes difficult because having an array of boyfriends or girlfriends running in and out of the child’s life isn’t good for anyone. Many single mothers are confused as to when a significant other should be introduced to the child.
At the end of the research, both Mis. Doeple and Mis. Flangay agreed that there are positive effects of single mothering, but they only represented a drop in an ocean of negative effects because women are the ones that carry the burden all alone. Because women who work in the public and private sectors of Liberia are inclusive of the 95% single mothers, the gender-experts noted that they are vitally contributing to the economy of the country in their own respective ways. Market women, farmers, who are mainly single mothers working in the informal sectors of the country, contribute immensely to the economy of Liberia, yet they carry the burden of single-parenting.
Besides Liberia, surveys have shown that other countries like the United States of America, too, suffer one of the highest percentages of single-parenting. As of 1998, there were 12.8 million single mothers heading households. In 1998, more than half of all first births were to single women, about 53 percent. Fig¬ures show that 41 percent of chil¬dren born in 2008 did not have mar¬ried par¬ents; up from 28 per cent in 1990.
By comparison, Britain has the worst teenage pregnancy rate in Europe with 45 percent of children born outside of wedlock in 2008. When Labour came to power in 1997, 36 percent of children were born outside marriage.Records show that around the world, women make up the majority (70%) of the 1.3 billion people who live in poverty. The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (1996) estimates that women constitute almost 60 percent of the world’s population, perform two-thirds of all working hours, receive only one-tenth of the world’s income, and own less than 1 percent of the world’s wealth.
The poverty of families headed by women can be attributed to the fact that women’s roles are primarily domestic (mother, homemaker), undervalued, and unpaid. In addition, when women work for wages they make significantly less than their male counterparts. Even full-time employment does not guarantee financial security, given the structure of the labor force, the lower wages paid in female-dominated occupations, and the lower human capital investment of single mothers (education, training, and work experience).
However, even when controlling for education and work place experience, women earn less than men, a global pattern that holds true across all racial and ethnic groups throughout the occupations. Recent census released by the Liberia Institute for Geo Information Service (LISGIS) shows the poverty rate in Liberia stands at an alarming 68%, but according to the report, the poverty rate is mainly focused in about six counties including Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, River Cess, Grand Kru, River Gee and Grand Gedeh counties.
The census also shows that there are 18,000 more women than men in Monrovia and more women in the four counties that have commercial activities and avenues for employment. There is little over 3,000 (3,282) males over the females nationwide but the females population dominate the male populations in the four counties with the highest populations, while the male hold a slight lead over them in the other counties that fall in the other five counties that come next as far as highly populated counties are concerned.
