argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Being a single mother, an option that grows
  • Since 2019, the number of women performing the process of unmarried motherhood by assisted reproduction in Gipuzkoa has increased fourfold. The Basque Journal reveals that social taboos are overcoming and that new family models are making room in society.
Mikel Garcia Idiakez @mikelgi 2022ko irailaren 27a
Vecteezy

According to the Gipuzkoan newspaper, the mean age of the fertility clinic of San Sebastian is 34 years, and they are usually women up to 40 years old: women who want to have a child but do not have a partner, or women who have had a couple who do not want a child.

References and obstacles

The data reflect that the choices that move away from the traditional family model are no longer taboos gradually, since outside Gipuzkoa the trend is the same. In this sense, the only mother Argian Raquel Orgillés stressed the importance of the referents, and their growing presence helps those who have this opportunity in mind.

However, the structure of our society is still based on the traditional family, something that the single parents live immediately after the birth of their child: those who choose to be parents without a partner only have maternity leave in Hego Euskal Herria, when couples with children can offer a longer period to care for them in the first months. When single mothers have resorted to justice, they have achieved the number of days that correspond to the two members of the couple to care for the newborn, understanding that otherwise the child receives discriminatory treatment, but many have no means, possibilities or forces to go to court. And they also claim that the law is a right that must be collected.

There are also many examples in everyday life that tell us that our administrative, economic and social structure still does not take account of the single parent.