ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how various social policies and social practices increase the burden on lone mothers and restrain lone mothers' ability to tackle their problems, instead of helping them to solve their problems. Since lone mothers' problems are overlooked, official statistics and research on lone mothers in general are extremely scarce. No official census data on lone parents are published. The only official statistics available is a brief report by the Social Welfare Department, which presents some patchy information estimated from the 1991 population Census. Child care burdens mostly fall on women after a marriage break down. That is, most of the lone parent families are headed by females. Frequently lone mothers were unable to find jobs not because they lacked working ability, but rather because they were marginalized or excluded from the job market. The chapter shows how employers, or the employment system in general, discriminates against lone mothers.
