You also can't assume why the father is out of the picture. Sometimes, the father could be falsely imprisoned or even passed away.

It's because of fucking Reagan. He's the dipshit who coined the term welfare Queen. Which painted a picture of single mothers that both Republicans and Democrats have held in their minds for the last 40 fucking years.

My first thought too. I mean it is true society has a fucked up stigma about single mothers, but the blame lies with society not the term single mother.

On the flip side you hear single father, and society's immediate response is "aww, that brave man!" That is not to say being a single dad doesn't actually come with its own set of weird societal day to day problems and prejudices, but the broad surface level response to the terms "single dad" vs "single mom" certainly seems to trend towards "what an upstanding man" vs "what an irresponsible ho."

Thank you! Glad to see I'm not the only one in between all these comments praising this nonsense.