us ess
Entering the
workforce is
difficult, yet
necessary, for
displaced
homemakers.
AARON ROBINSON
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
wenty years ago,
Sharon May became
a statistic.
A difficult divorce left
the young mother of four
in the lurch. She had no
job, no work experience,
and an ex-husband she
says took little responsi-
bility for raising the chil-
dren.
"I came out of a time
when our fathers took
care of us, and then our
husbands took care of
us," says Ms. May, now
55. "I had no ambition to
do anything other than
volunteer work."
Without training, she
was unable to get a job
that paid enough to sup-
port her family, and
made ends meet with odd
jobs and some financial
assistance from her rela-
tives.
Ms. May, who today
holds a sales position
with Meyer Jewelers at
Twelve Oaks Mall, fell
into the ranks of
America's displaced
homemakers, or women
who have lost their hus-
bands through divorce or
death and have been
thrust into the labor
force to provide for their
families. These former
full-time housewives
have come to represent a
distinct and burgeoning
labor resource in a
nation that currently
employs 4.2 million sin-
gle working mothers.
As
defined
by
Michigan Public Act 594
(1978), which provides
aid to recently separated
parents, a displaced
homemaker is any par-
ent of a dependent child
who has relied on the
support of another indi-
vidual, and who sudden-
ly loses that support
because of a divorce or
death. Because the law
further stipulates that
Anita Gilbert is a
relative newcomer
to the workforce.
PTA To Payroll
the parent must have
worked in the home for
at least 10 years and
held no permanent job
outside the house, the
overwhelming majority
of people who fit the pro-
file are women between
the ages of 45 and 55,
and their numbers have
been growing steadily for
the last 20 years.
According to the 1990
census, the number of
households headed by
single women with chil-
dren under 17 increased
230 percent in the last
two decades, from 2.8
million in 1970 to 6.6
million in 1990. About 9
million women in
America, or about 10
percent of the female
population, are divorced
or widowed (compared to
6.5 million men, or 7.5
percent of the nation's
male population).
Today, as many as 16
million Americans may
qualify as displaced
homemakers under the
law, according to the
Displaced Homemaker
Network in Washington
D.C.
In the Jewish commu-
nity, many of these
women look to Jewish
Family Service (JFS) and
Jewish Vocational Ser-
vice (JVS) for help. JFS
provides counselling to
96 families headed by
single women while JVS
runs a program to help
about 55 newly single
women per year prepare
for the hectic job market.
According to JFS associ-
ate director Margaret
Weiner, the statistics are
marginally better for the
Jewish population than
for the nation as a whole,
with 35 to 40 percent of
Jewish children growing
up in single-parent fami-
lies compared to about
50 percent of children in
the general population.
Ms. Weiner says there
are generally two types
of situations JFS encoun-
ters: one where the dis-
placed homemaker fami-
ly experiences some
problem and approaches
the organization for help,
and another where an
outsider notices prob-
lems in the family and
asks JFS to intervene.
"When a marriage goes
down the tubes, a lot of
dreams go down with it,"
says Ms. Weiner, who
believes many women
become overwhelmed by
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