But it strikes me that at the very least the two lines should be reversed ie sole mothers should have a higher employment rate than partnered mothers. And they would have if we didn't have such generous state support.
Sweden has no DPB equivalent and look at the results.
In Sweden 73% of women work – only 3 percentage points below male employment rates; 97% of households with children have someone in work; more than 70% of the mothers with children and 80% of sole mothers have jobs.
Sweden also has a much lower rate of teenage birth, which, as I have argued many times before, is a significant feeder into long-term DPB dependency.
There must be a considerable row occurring among the left between the feminists who want women in the workplace and the feminists who want women to have unfettered access to state support for their lifestyle choices.
If National form the next government the argument will be between conservatives who don't much care for the negative effects of the DPB and those who think a mother's place is in the home.
There is another position. What's wrong with letting and expecting people to make and pay for their own choices?
3 comments:
Basically I support your stance Lindsay - but I do wonder why you are so quick to only point the finger at the DPB mums? Often DPB babies are planned with full knowledge of Dad who pretends he doesn't live with "mum". And also often with full knowledge of the wider welfare dependent community. I have heard serious conversations in lower socioeconomic families about the need to pop out another baby as the youngest is about to reach the age of independence. It seemed fueled by a need for enough of a drug and alcohol budget in the wider family circle - a bit like pulling your weight in accessing a gravy train. That Mum I heard being railroaded did have the baby planned at a boozy twenty long party (general picture) but later bucked the system running as normal in her community; by getting a job. Got more possessive over her income - boyfriend left so now she is criticised as a bad Mum and a renegade. I don't know that you fully understand the pressures and deep community investment in welfarism in some sectors. Or that just judging the birth giver alone is helpful. It is about changing community or underclass values, and I guess your voice & or ACT's contributes to that.
Rachael, The environment you describe is quite familiar to me. I've personally encouraged DPB mothers not to get 'railroaded' as you put it. They deserve a future and something of a life for themselves too. But only they can make the difference, as you have identified. Yes, they need encouragement and support to make it. I try to offer that by getting personally involved through a community volunteer group. And you couldn't be more right. It's about changing values. Sometimes the people I interact with have never been exposed to any other way of thinking. Nobody has recognised their good points, their strengths, much less expressed that recognition or praised them. Which is exactly why we need more people to get involved at a personal level instead of letting the govt perpetuate a hand-out mentality masquerading as compassionate support. It isn't.
Thanks for giving other readers an insight. Matters of privacy limit what I can and cannot write about.
The only effective and efficient solution is to stop the handouts
do that first, and the rest will follow.
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