Mommunes: Cohabitating Single Moms

What would the world be like if all the single moms out there simply moved in together to share the tasks of child-rearing, housekeeping, and working?

Photo courtesy SheKnows.com

This is the idea explored by a recent article by Amy Levin Epstein I discovered at the parenting help-site Babble.com. The article describes the trials and experiences of women who, upon feeling stressed by the demands of single-parenthood, decided to share housing with other women in the same situation as roommates. The story reports that these women found some very positive synergy in living with women who understood the demands of parenting and who they felt comfortable sharing child-rearing energy with.

The idea of shared parenting is not a new one. Rural societies, Jewish kibbutzim, and other systems have often provided cultural standards that embraced the idea of shared parenting. The commitment to the "nuclear family" as the gold-standard for parenting is truly a fairly recent phenomenon.

According to our textbook (Social Problems, 10th ed. - Coleman & Kerbo), the rising frequency of single-parent families is one of the most significant trends among U.S. families today. Statistically, the frequency of single-parent households has risen from 11% in 1970 to about 28% in 2004. Of these single-parent households, more than 80% are headed by women.

So, is it feasible to move away from the standard of one biological-set per household and collapse many families into a single space? If people can accept the stigma of not achieving that ideal of a white-picket fence and the "supermom" (or "superdad") who can simultaneously be an earner, teacher, medic, counselor, disciplinarian, and friend to their kid(s), then this new form of blended families could really take off - especially during this economic climate of prolonged recession.

Movie Night for USC Students

SOCY 340 Students,

One of our class members, Julia, has kindly brought it to my attention that the campus group EMPOWER is showing the film "Corridor of Shame" on campus tomorrow (Thursday) night. This is an amazing documentary that walks you through the halls of some of the crumbling educational infrastructure of our state. If you have ever asked yourself "how did someone make it through high school without using a computer?" or "why are high school dropout rates so high?" - you must see this film.

The EMPOWER group is showing the film from 7pm to 8pm in the Honors Residence B110 (click here for a campus map) in a session called "Diversity Dialog."

Do I need to offer extra credit to convince you to go? Ok, fine - I will. If you go see the film and write up a 200 word reaction paper to the film (Q: How did watching the movie change your perspective on education in SC?) then you will receive 25 points of extra credit. (HEY! That's a much as a whole quiz!)

If anyone else knows about events like this, let me know ahead of time so I can offer them to the class.

NYT on U.S. Income/Wealth Inequality

Great news for all the visual-learners out there (or anyone who likes a nice graph to simply complex ideas). The New York Times has a great graphic describing the changes in income, wealth, and labor in the U.S. over the past several decades.

Haley to Pass on Fed Health Dollars

According to The State, Governor Haley is signaling that she will join with some other Republican governors and opt-out of receiving millions of dollars in federal aid for health care. Specifically, the money is intended to help the state set up its own health exchange to comply with new national healthcare standards (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare, depending on your political leanings).

Two elements here caught my eye as a Midlands-area social problem. First, is the question of "what happens if the state just ignores the standards?" By my understanding of the law, states that "fail to progress" run the risk of having decisions made for them by federal regulators beginning in 2013. Unless Gov. Haley's calculation is an assumption the law will change prior to that time, it seems like the state is risking losing control over a major part of its budgetary independence.

Secondly, and more immediately troubling is the statistic that one-in-five SC residents under the age of 65 does not have health insurance. (Those over 65 are not typically at risk of being uninsured due to Medicare policies.) That number seemed high to me until I did some additional browsing through research about South Carolina's insurance coverage rates.

This report, created and distributes by Families USA (a non-profit foundation for health care consumers), describes the situation as even more dire. According to their statistics, one in three South Carolinians (under 65) was without insurance for all or part of 2007-2008. How they arrive at this number is an interesting process that we may speak about more in-class. That aside, the number of uninsured is especially concerning when you look at the racial/ethnic distribution of insurance gaps in the graph to the right.

Why such a difference? Well, automatically my hypothesis was that this is an intensification of resource loss by unemployment rates. However, at the very next point in the document, this pie-chart suggests that many families without health insurance are employed. In fact, the "unemployed" make up a very small (< 5%) part of the sample.

If anyone wants to look into the uninsured and health care access as a social problem for a long-term project, these numbers would probably form an interesting starting point of identifying the depth of the social issue facing Midlands-area families. Of course, you will want to use all of the stat-critical techniques we are learning in the class!

Columbia Suveillance Follow-Up

The Free Times currently has a lead story about the decision to install more cameras around downtown streets. Of particular interest, the report describes that many of the cameras are privately-owned, so their recordings are not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests for release.

Just something to think about before you head down to Five Points. Smile!

College Costs Creep Upward

Credit: NY Times

A recent New York Times article describes how the cost of attending college has risen many times faster than the average income of the U.S. family. Since a college degree is often considered the base-level requirement for entry into professional career, are we closing doors of opportunity by out-pricing the middle class?

For those of you who are college students now, did you have conversations about the cost of attending, taking on personal debt, or establishing a budget before you started college?

Alcohol Violations Freeze Fraternity Rush

In news that will shock very few, alcohol consumption - including underage drinking - has been observed on a college campus. What is newsworthy is that University of South Carolina officials responded to numerous alcohol-policy violations by freezing the entire fraternity recruitment period (otherwise known as "rushing").

According to the Daily Gamecock, Jerry Brewer, USC's Vice President of Student Affairs, elected to suspend the recruitment process for campus fraternities due to the severity of the alcohol violations. Additional reports from The State indicated that four incidents required medical assistance, one of which required hospitalization.

In the wake of the shutdown, the University will open hearings about the violations and design a plan to move forward beginning today. Not to be outdone, leaders among USC's Greek system composed a contrary statement that seeks to pin blame for the events on the Office for Greek Life for driving alcohol consumption underground. [Read the statement at The Daily Gamecock here: PDF.]

So, to the social problem question: Is this behavior indicative of a larger, cultural problem? Is underage drinking more or less common/severe than in the past? Was the University justified in its decision to suspend fraternity recruitment?