Recession hits hard in families headed by women
— -- Single mom Linda Qualls of Philadelphia has been struggling to make ends meet for her and her three daughters since she was laid off from her job as a payroll clerk for the city of Philadelphia in January.
Qualls, 39, had to apply for food stamps and government medical assistance, experiences that she said were "a little hurtful as far as my pride."
But Qualls is trying to stay optimistic.
She will complete a nursing certificate program in August and plans to continue on to become a registered nurse while working at night. She is collecting unemployment benefits and receives child support.
"I am doing the best that I can," says Qualls, mom to Aliyah, 14, Autumn, 5, and Adia, 3. "They encourage me, 'Mom, you can do it, you can be a nurse.' … They are my inspiration."
More than 1 million women who are heads of family households, a category in which the majority are single moms, were unemployed in March, straining budgets that were, in many cases, already tight and affecting children across the country.
Recession worsens problem
Even in good times, women who are heads of household are far more likely to be unemployed than women who are married. But the recession has amplified the gap: The unemployment rate for women who head households was 10.8% in March, vs. 5.4% for women who are married and live with their spouses. The overall unemployment rate was 8.5% in March, the highest in a quarter-century.
"Married people tend to fare better than unmarried people," says Donna Ginther, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic and Business Analysis at the University of Kansas.
Behind the gap:
•Women who are married and lose their jobs may be able to drop out of the labor force and wait for the economy to improve, living on their husbands' income. In that case, a woman is not considered unemployed.
A single woman likely cannot wait to look for a new job.
"If you're a single wage earner, there is nothing to fall back on," says Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank.
