Netflix’s Maid Reveals How Social Services Fail Single Mothers
Mini-series Maid explores and uncovers the harsh realities single mothers are faced with when navigating social welfare systems, yet risks reinforcing misled beliefs of the American dream
Inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir, Netflix’s Maid is a heart-wrenching mini-series in which single mum “Alex” (Margaret Qualley) escapes domestic abuse but soon faces homelessness and crushing poverty. The show is a harrowing watch as we, as the viewer, constantly despair about Alex’s precarious situation. Gruelling scenes though are intertwined with moments of magic that Alex continually seeks to create for her three-year-old “Maddy” (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet).
The series begins with Alex’s escape from the trailer she lives in with her daughter and abuser, “Sean” (Nick Robinson). Soon thereafter, Alex faces the grim reality of being a young single mother without any means of income. Social services hold not much more for Alex than classic Catch-22 solutions, “have a job to access daycare but make sure you have daycare sorted to get a job.”
Maid is a difficult watch, but Alex’s hard work pays off. At the end of the last episode, we see her and Maddy driving to Missoula, Montana, to start a new life as Alex received a scholarship for a creative writing course.
In the real world, such happy endings are rare. Stephanie Land tells her own story of escaping domestic abuse, facing homelessness, and breaking out of poverty through Maid. No doubt Land’s determination and talent have played a part in her success, but a significant amount of luck, and no doubt white privilege, also took their part.
The belief that hard work and talent will bring you success is particularly dominant in the US, a misled belief Maid risks reinforcing.
It is a misleading and dangerous belief as it justifies accepting poverty in wealthy countries such as the US and UK. Accepting the reality that poverty is not self-inflicted is difficult because it puts our own achievements into perspective. It means that we have to accept that our own accomplishments are not down to our unique talents but primarily to luck and the family that we have been born into.
“You get what you deserve” is a belief that lags behind reality and prevents real action to fix our social systems.
For single mothers, a lack of adequate, affordable housing, hard-to-get-by daycare, and discrimination on the job market are among the key contributors leading to poverty and homelessness.
In England, about 60% of people in temporary accommodation are women. A study by Shelter found that more than two-thirds (69%) of women who rent privately worry they will not afford anywhere decent to live if their relationship broke down.
Housing has become a luxury in many developed countries. As Shelter puts it, ‘housing is no longer simply a concern for low-income households, but an issue for everyone.’
UK house prices have been rising since 1993, without wages keeping up. According to the Nationwide affordability index, you now need to splash a third instead of a fifth on your monthly income on mortgage payments to own a house. Renting in the UK is often even pricier than paying a mortgage, rarely accessible for low-income single parents.
Coupled with the extortionate costs of daycare for children (an estimated 14 percent of median household income in the US, according to the St. Louis Fed), adequate housing is a luxury many single mothers simply cannot afford. For the majority, this results in a calculation of what leaves mothers worse off: jobless without daycare costs or maintaining a job paying hefty daycare bills while often having to come short on your job as your kid will need dropping off and picking up inside standard job hours.
Precisely for those reasons, many employers are hesitant to employ single mothers. In the UK, 77 percent of working mothers report facing discriminatory experiences at the workplace.
Many single mothers even report of being worried of being “found out” at the workplace, concealing that they that they have a child from their employers to avoid being passed over for promotion or being fired.
Single mothers must be supported to pursue a life in decency as they raise their children. Discrimination towards single mothers and an inadequate, failing social system must be addressed by decisionmakers.
To date, politics have paid little attention to the struggle of single mothers.
The responsibility to affect change cannot be placed on single mothers alone. Many single mothers fear speaking out as they worry it will risk them losing custody for their children.
And while Maid risks reinforcing the belief that hard work and talent will pay off eventually, it still does a good job at drawing attention to the struggle of single mothers and evokes empathy for those fighting with the cruelty of the social system.
It is time that society and policymakers begin to take notice of single mothers’ silent struggle.
