Understanding the Needs of Single Mothers Pursuing Higher Education

Introduction

Education has been recognized as a basic human right, per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as stated in Article 26: 1) “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. 2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.”

Education has also been pointed out as a pivotal and essential element for societal advancement (Cabaguing, 2017, as mentioned in Bustillo, Bustillo, & Vie Sayson, 2024). Research findings show an increase in symptoms of depression during the postpartum period after dropping out of school due to pregnancy (Agnafors, et al., 2019), highlighting the importance of education for the mother’s mental health as well. Despite this, women who are currently raising children and pursuing higher education are, first, seen as unconventional, and second, navigating complex challenges that non-parent students do not have to deal with, having a dual role, typically involving managing academic demands, parental responsibilities, and financial pressures, at the very least (Bustillo, Bustillo, & Vie Sayson, 2024), within a system that has not been designed to welcome and adapt to students who manage several responsibilities at a time.

Managing time is possibly the most significant challenge, especially for women raising children on their own while pursuing a degree, spending an average of 9 hours per day on care and housework, compared to under 2 hours a day in women with no children (Reichlin Cruse, et al., 2018). The academic demands are typically not structured for those who have parental responsibilities as well as work responsibilities outside of school, even though 20% of higher education students are parents, and 43% of them are single mothers (IWPR analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education, 2023). Mothers have to balance their caregiver’s responsibilities of taking care of their child[ren], their homes, and attending to several other things like their child’s education, health, and well-being which also impacts the ability of these women to engage in activities that are physically and psychologically necessary for overall health like sleeping, eating, exercising, and socializing (Reichlin Cruse, et al., 2018).

Simultaneously, the financial burden of attending college or graduate school while raising children is another substantial barrier. While non-parent students have to worry about course and materials’ costs, mothers also have to worry about stable housing, access to food, and childcare costs. This often leads to a substantial increase in student loan debt and possible future economic insecurity. It is expected that the intersection of single motherhood and financial hardship exacerbates these challenges, as single mothers are less likely to have access to spousal or family support (Stack & Meredith, 2017). In the United States, according to the 2021 U.S. Census

Bureau, there are eleven million single-parent families, and 80% of those are headed by women, meaning one in six children under the age of eighteen is being raised by a mother only– without a father or second parent involved. Of those households led solely by mothers, 23% were considered poor, where 35% of them were Black, 34% were Latin, and 26% were White. Per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as stated in Article 25: 1) “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of her/himself and her/his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care, and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond control. 2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.” It is a basic human right to be able to live in good quality conditions for a mother and for a child. However, almost a third of single mothers reported being unemployed the entire year, and 27% reported being food insecure. For those who were employed, the national yearly median income reported for single-mother households was $49,214 compared to $101,517 for coupled households. A third of this population spent more than half of their income on housing, putting them at higher risk of homelessness. Single mothers currently represent 60% of homeless families and 21% of the total homeless population in the country. Moreover, it seems extremely relevant to mention that the average annual cost for center-based childcare services averaged over 40% of the national median salary; in Illinois, specifically, the average center-based childcare service cost was $13,762, and the female median income was $27,434, per the US Census Bureau of 2020, positioning Illinois as the 7th most expensive state in the country for center-based childcare services. Per these statistics, a woman who is a single mother earning the median income in the state of Illinois ($27,434) with a full-time job that requires her to pay at least the average cost of center-based childcare service to be able to work ($13,762), leaves her with $13,672 to cover all other living expenses, including housing which in Illinois it averages around $1,038 per month for rent as of 2020 (US Census Bureau); this means she has around $100 left every month after only paying for housing and center-based childcare. These statistics put a challenging context into single mothers who are pursuing higher education.

In conclusion, it appears that systemic barriers are a major problem for single mothers who want to pursue higher education, including high educational costs, rigidity in educational settings, high childcare costs, and lack of resources for single mothers to balance all these demands at once while providing food and housing stability for their children. Despite these challenges, student-parents typically perform better academically than non-parenting students, when given the right support and environment (Anderson, et al., 2023). This constant stress and worry are detrimental to their mental health, pressuring them to sacrifice what they can to get through, which typically includes their physical and mental self-care.

Based on the Sustainable Developmental Goals, it appears that working on Goal #4 Quality Education: “Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all” is a crucial pursuit for a fairer and better quality of life in general, which naturally and organically would work on Goal #5 Gender Equality, empowering all women and girls as well as getting closer to achieving gender equality.

The federal government has a policy in place, Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS), that provides grants to institutions of higher education to support and or establish on-campus childcare services to serve the needs of low-income students who are raising children. This policy has been active since 1999, after the enactment of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (Edgerton, 2024). The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported serving 3,300 students with funds to afford childcare in 2019 but having over 4,000 students on a waiting list. As of Fall of 2023, UIC became a recipient of the federally funded by the U.S. Department of Education grant, providing affordable, high-quality childcare for infants, toddlers, and young children, as well as comprehensive wrap-around support, study-play areas across campus, accessible lactation rooms with counseling support, and family events. The program, Little Sparks, is available for UIC students. It also provides students who are parents with resources, including access to a library to find guidance on child development and parenting education and training, as well as other resources. UIC also offers a Student Parents Online Community for parents and an athletic club for children to engage in fun and educational activities called Sparky’s Kids Club, as well as the Women’s Leadership and Resources Center and Office for Access and Equity to discuss potential pregnancy and parenting accommodations