Aug

6

Why Do Some People Hate Single Mothers

Posted by Summer M

August 6, 2008 |

dna

Single moms in the UK got a nasty bite in the news from a flaky article declaring they were trying to rope men into fatherhood with false allegations of paternity. Anyone who didn’t read the article and walk away cursing is a stronger soul than me. The supposed story, headlined as One in five fathers wrongly identified by mothers in Child Support Agency claims seemed to be written by a man with a personal agenda at stake.

The articles own numbers don’t seem to add up. There are around 121,000 cases not yet cleared by the government yet. The figure of 1 in 5 actually comes from only 3,474 tests that have been ordered, a mere fraction of the total number of cases in backlog. A number not high enough to be considered as an accurate representation of the whole as well as not being a random sampling but from cases where the father pushed for the testing. The journalist picks up his personal ax to grind with frustration that while only 19% of the so far tested paternity suits have been false no women have yet been tossed into jail for stating the wrong name.

Because obviously it couldn’t have been a mistake, a misunderstanding, confusion, or fear. No, clearly women are just out to get the poor men. Right?

He even goes on to say that because the mothers have not been tossed into jail or at least forced to pay for the paternity tests then women face no consequences of making false paternity claims. Except, you know, the mental stress of not knowing who the real father is and the emotional stress of being dubbed a loose woman. But I guess those things don’t count as real consequences.

Image source - clix


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Christopher Waldrop on August 6, 2008 1:31 pm

    I’ll admit up front that I know diddley about statistics, but this article is looking at 3474 women. The total number of cases is approximately 121,000, so the author based his assumption that women are trying to “rope” men into marriage with false paternity claims on 2.87% of the total number of cases. And, as you note, these are cases where the father pushed for the testing. Wait, if the father (or the man who may be the father) pushes for the testing, why should the mother be held responsible? And even if the 19% figure holds true for all 121,000 cases that’s still just 22990 cases out of the total–not even close to a majority.
    It sounds like this was written by a guy who’s got more than an axe to grind; it sounds like he’s probably facing multiple paternity suits himself, and doesn’t want to take any responsibility for his wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am attitude.

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