In Spain there are almost two million single-parent families, the majority headed by women, according to official data, but the majority of regulations that protect families are still based on a two-parent model, that is, two parents. It is one of the main complaints made by the Single Mothers by Choice (AMSPE) association, which this Thursday presented its demands. These families demand that their situation “be recognized” and regret the “discrimination” that they still face.
Among other things, they focus on the Family Law being processed by Congress and which equates rights only to single-parent families with two children to the large general category, leaving out those with only one child, that is, 70%. , of them. The association considers it an advance to only equalize those with two children and “resolves historical discrimination based on marital status” because widows with two children were already recognized as such, but they demand that those with one be included as well.
On the other hand, they ask that caregiving permits be also equated to those of two-parent families “to guarantee the rights of children not to be discriminated against due to their family model and equal rights for conciliation.” In this sense, on November 6, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the provisions that deny that these families can extend their parental leave and enjoy not only 16 weeks but also the leave time that would have corresponded to the other parent.
In this way, Social Security is forced to recognize up to 26 weeks of leave for single-parent families, while the law is changed. They are the 16 weeks that correspond to any parent plus another ten from the other parent (not 16 because six are simultaneous for both), argues the Constitutional Court. Single mothers, for their part, demand that the leave be extended to 32 weeks by adding both leaves. “Single-parent families only have the permissions derived from a single parent to attend to the same needs of the boys and girls and do not alternate care with anyone,” they argue.
In addition, the association asks that their families have “official recognition.” “There is still no state definition of what a single-parent family is,” explains María Guruceta, advocacy coordinator at AMSPE. In fact, the current draft Family Law mentions them as “family situations in which there is only one parent,” which in his opinion “reflects the lack of consensus and precision in their legal treatment.”
That is why they propose that the definition included by the Federation of Associations of Single Mothers (FAMS) be accepted and that considers a single-parent family to be “one in which there is only one parent, whatever the reason: because it is like that in the origin, due to death or disappearance, or due to loss or non-exercise of parental authority of one of the two parents.”
The case of Pilar Peces, a single mother by choice of two daughters, exemplifies some of the barriers that these families face. She has a 37% disability, but is not recognized as a large family even though if she were part of a marriage in which each parent had a 33% disability she would be able to access said recognition, she complains. “I have always felt like a weirdo, like a family member,” he says.
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