Party leaders sign historic pledge for single parents

23 February 2010

David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg have each pledged to challenge prejudice against single parents as Gingerbread kicks off its Let’s Lose the Labels campaign today.

Launching the month Gingerbread celebrates its 92nd birthday, the Let’s Lose the Labels campaign will challenge stereotypes of single parents.

In 1918, Gingerbread (then the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child) was challenging the “Bastardy” acts that stigmatised children born out of wedlock.  Although a lot has changed in 92 years, single parents are angry about the labels that are used today.  Too often they are portrayed as scroungers or bad parents.  

• Eighty three per cent of single parents surveyed by Gingerbread said the media portrays them in a negative light. (1)

Despite a steady climb in lone parent employment,(2) single parents are still often portrayed as scroungers. New research from YouGov shows that almost two thirds (65%) of the public believes that less than half of single parents work.(3)  In fact nearly 60% are working.

The number of people who think most single parents don't work has increased (at a time when the single parent employment rate is going up).(4)

Recent evidence has confirmed that most children growing up in single parent families turn out fine, but many single parents are depicted as bad mothers, responsible for ‘broken’ families. 
 

Populus polling confirms that the wider public overestimates how many single parents are teenage and never married. (5)  In fact only 2% of single parents are teens, the average age is 36 and most have been married.  

Gingerbread Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:

“Single parents are fed up with being portrayed as ‘benefit scroungers’ or ‘bad mothers’.   We want to lose these labels in the run up to the general election and welcome support from party leaders as a first step.” 

The Lets Lose the Labels campaign calls on key opinion formers in politics and the media to pledge to avoid labelling single parents, and to pay attention to the language they use.   

• Gingerbread is asking the top 30 politicians with most influence over single parents’ lives and the top broadcast and press outlets to sign its pledge to tackle prejudice, in the run-up to the election (6). Members will be contacting local MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates to ask them to sign the pledge.
• Gingerbread is asking single parents to contribute examples to its  ‘Wall of Shame’ and ‘Wall of Fame’ at www.gingerbread.org.uk so we can highlight good and bad practice.
• AMV, Britain’s largest advertising agency, has produced pro bono a viral ad challenging the labels - narrated by actor Peter Capaldi (view at www.gingerbread.org.uk).  This will run on YouTube.
  

Notes to Editors:

Gingerbread is the charity which works nationally and locally, for and with single parent families, to improve their lives. We achieve change by championing their voices and needs and providing support services.  

The charity runs a Single Parent Helpline and advice service on 0808 802 0925 (free to mobile networks) and publishes a range of free publications on every aspect of one parent family life, including benefits and tax, child maintenance, housing and employment.   Gingerbread also runs a membership scheme and several return-to-work projects for single parents, working with private, public and other voluntary sector organisations to deliver these.

Gingerbread’s forerunner, The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, was founded on February 14th 1918.

At Gingerbread’s request, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have each signed the following Lose the Labels pledge: I promise to challenge prejudice against single parent families and support Gingerbread’s campaign:

A Briefing on the campaign outlines what Gingerbread means by losing the labels. We want to see an end to stigmatising language about single parents, an end to gratuitous mentions of single parenthood in areas where this is irrelevant to news stories, and for facts about single parents to be accurately presented.

([1]) Gingerbread survey of 850 members December 2008.

(2)  The proportion of single parents in work has risen from 44 per cent in 1997 to 57 per cent in 2009.

(3) Figures from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 1,503 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 14th - 15th February 2010.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

(4) In 2008, Populus polling found that the average estimate for the proportion of single parents in work was 41%. In 2010, YouGov polling (see above) found that the average estimate was 34%.

(5) Polling undertaken by Populus for Gingerbread, 2008.  On average members of the public estimated the proportion of single parents who are teenagers as 15 times higher than the actual figure. Fifty-five per cent of single parents have been married; when the public were asked to guess the average answer was 39 per cent.

(6) The 30 MPs are: Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling, Yvette Cooper, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, John Denham, Alan Johnson, Helen Goodman, Stephen Timms, Dawn Primarolo, David Cameron, George Osbourne, Theresa May, Michael Gove, Andrew Lansley, Caroline Spelman, Chris Grayling,Maria Miller,,Andrew Selous, David Gauke, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Julia Goldsworthy, Chris Huhne, Norman Lamb,David Laws,Steve Webb, Annette Brooke, Paul Rowen,Colin Breed.

Gingerbread will be asking the following top 10 newspapers and top broadcast news outlets to sign its pledge: The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Star, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent, ITV News, Channel 4 News, BBC, Sky, BBC Wales.

Further information from Gingerbread press officer Jane Ahrends on 020 7428 5416 or 0788 1951138.