<doc.id=3523.b1>
<title> Sweden's Increasing Numbers of Underprivileged Single Mothers </title>
Over the last couple of years we can see a visible trend in the Swedish society of an increasing number of low-paid single mothers who are struggling for their existence. All statistics does show (according to an article in UNT 8/2) that the single parents have the lowest salaries in society. Moreover it says that vast social gaps have arisen over the last three years and single parents are getting poorer when at the same time a great deal of people are increasing in wealth. How come that these vast gaps have arisen in society? Why does single mothers have such a hard time economically? This essay will deal with some probable causes of why single mothers are getting more and more destitute. 

To begin with Sweden had an economic recession beginning in the 1990s, which meant that the government had to save a large amount of money in order to pay back the national debt. The government demanded reductions in schools kindergartens hospitals etcetera, and as a result many people lost their jobs. Single mothers were of course also very much affected by the reductions in housing allowance, child benefit, and supplementary benefit, which could be a reason for single mother's situation today. Strangely enough we seem to have a boom in Sweden at present and the unemployment rates have actually decreased, yet single mothers have a rough time managing the economy, which make this reason less plausible.

Another reason is the rather newly established family pattern. During the last twenty years the family has changed from consisting of mother father and child to contain only a child and a single parent. Society's view of divorces has turned and made divorces much more legitimised and less shameful than it was twenty years ago. Furthermore it has lead to that women very often are single providers. The consequence of having single custody of a child and being the only provider in the family is that it demands a higher salary to cope.

After all the main reason for women's lessen wealth must be the kind of job sector they work within and the salary they maintain. Women often work within the public sector -at hospitals kindergartens and with old-age-care or in super-markets and kitchens, whereas it is more common for men to work as bosses and advisers or with technique and IT. In"SN" 3/2-01 there is a list of the average full time salary in many professions and with a quick glance one can easily grasp that the typical female professions have the lowest incomes. 

A teacher (year1-7) does for instance earn 15200 SEK a month a Children's Nurse 13953 SEK and Medical Staff earns 15716 SEK when on the other hand male dominated professions gain much higher wages. To take some examples we have a boss of Finance that earns 31290 SEK a Graduate Engineer 30203 SEK and at last a Computer Specialist that earns 21332 SEK. Even within the same business there are differences in income. For the same post women get lower salaries than men. 

LO's given report on "differences between sexes and social classes" (Sjukgymnasten 1/01) asserts that there still is a widespread sexual segregation where jobs traditionally dominated by female employees are valued with a lower salary, than jobs traditionally dominated by men. One example of this discrimination is depicted in a correspondent to UNT 26/1-01 where a female doctor receives a lower salary than her male colleagues in question, since she has been at home taking care of her newborn baby. 

The consequence for low-paid women is a necessity to work full time if they want to stand a chance of survival. What is more most single mothers need time to look after their children and hence often prefer to work part time. An article in SN 5/2-01 takes up the situation for trained nurses whose monthly salary is solely 14000 SEK (in Gnesta community and there are of course municipal differences) and they claim that it is untenable to cope if they do not work full time. The article also states that all new appointments within the old-age-care are full time since anything less is not valuable.

Lastly the low-income earner's salaries are not adapted to the prevailing prices of food, clothes and housekeeping. Over the last few years the market prices have increased drastically but still the incomes have not been enhanced. 

There are many reasons for single mothers to stay behind. Some professions - mostly male dominated - are apparently higher estimated than other female dominated ones and it seems to be of higher value to work with technique than with people. Even more the incomes within the public sector are not adapted to the growing market prices. As long as professions dominated by women will be looked upon as subjugated to typical male professions, Swedish single mothers will remain underprivileged.
</doc>