Let's Be Fair
First of all, I think the supermom image needs to be removed because people are beginning to believe that the supermom is the ideal mom that every mom should be. Those who do not meet the supermom standards are considered to be “bad� mothers. Hochschild (8) found that more mothers than fathers questioned their parenting abilities. It’s hard to say where that stems from, but I’m willing to bet that part of it comes from the supermom ideals. I think men and women (regardless of race/class) need to start sharing more equal responsibilities within the household. Then, mothers wouldn’t be examined so closely when it comes to deciding whether or not she’s a “good� mother. There needs to be more images of the working dad or “the new man,� and work vs. parenting advice books should not be restricted to women (Hochshild, 26.) This is not to say that men should take over the working mom’s role entirely, but that mothers and fathers should be on equal grounds.
Case workers need to have better training, and DCFS needs to be better organized. A small minority of children taken away from their mothers were actually physically harmed or neglected. Their mothers love them, and often provide much better care for them than the state (Appell, 356). The focus needs to be placed solely on the needs of the children. That’s where much of the problem lies. Client service plans need to be realistic and with the intent to reunite the family, rather than punish the mother for her “bad� mothering (Appell, 230).
Well-functioning mothers should not be seen strictly as being personally competent, but rather socially competent (Hochschild, 23). Successful mothers have many resources available to them. There needs to be more jobs made available for mothers, along with better pay. 46% of working women earn below $10,000 a year (Hochshild, 25). Any job is a good job for those in poverty, but people can’t get a good job unless they’re educated, but people can’t get educated unless they have a decent job to pay for the education. There needs to be a better system in place that will allow this cycle to break.