SINGLE-PARENT WOMEN (original) (raw)
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In post-industrial societies, the individualization of the family process, which puts the individual at the center of the family, is changing this institution beyond recognition. As part of this evolution, individuals and their human rights, together with their obligations and responsibilities, become the basis for the family institution and for its legitimization. Consequently, family frameworks, whose roles and legitimate boundaries were established in the past in ways that served the interests of society and ensured its biological and cultural continuity, are becoming frameworks in which the individual is at the center. At the same time, thanks to ethical and political changes and the achievements of medical technology, for the first time in human history an individual can separate marriage, fertility, parenthood, and the establishment of a household to the extent that the socio-cultural climate allows. Consequently, the phenomenon of singleness is taking hold, and new family frameworks are forming. These include, inter alia, single-parent families, same-sex families, cohabiting families, and transnational families. Such families, known in the literature as 'new families', exist alongside nuclear families (the normative modern families) and more traditional family frameworks, such as extended families-multi-generational, monogamous, or polygamous families-whose members live under one roof. At the individual level, these processes generate many possibilities and broaden the autonomy of the individual, but at the same time they also may create lack of clarity, instability, and confusion. Moreover new and unresolved issues in the areas of education, social policy, and the welfare state, as well as in the juridical sphere, are raised. These issues stand at the heart of public debates and at the center of 'the battle over the family' in
Single-parent families: Category at increased risk of poverty
There are very few scientific researches on family structure, especially on single-parent families, and they do not follow the rapid changes within the family structure. Therefore, we can draw conclusions on problems and difficulties in single-parent families based on a small number of researches conducted. Society is expected to provide families with the greatest protection and support possible, regardless of the type of family, so that they can fully fulfill their tasks and responsibilities within the community (Maleš, 1999). However, the society’s response to the needs of families, and especially of single-parent families, is not quick, strong or effective enough. Apart from the phrase “single-parent family”, other phrases were once used in professional literature as synonyms, such as: “abandoned” or “incomplete family”, “deficient family”, “broken family”, “truncated” or “fractional family”. However, due to their stigmatization and negative connotations, such phrases have since ...