“Why can a single mother judge enjoy 32 weeks to care for her child when it is born and the rest of the single mothers can’t?” Many single-parent families wonder, after the ruling made public by the Supreme Court on the past 8 of March. Miriam Tormo, president of the Association of Single Mothers by Choice, responds that a Barcelona judge managed to establish criteria for the group of
of judges since 2021. “She requested it and the permanent commission of the General Council of the Judiciary published an agreement with that criterion for the judiciary,” she explains.
Faced with this inequality, many single-parent families, since 80% of this family model is headed by women, are using social networks to express their discomfort at the decision of the Supreme Court.
The high court has decided that single-parent families cannot add the other 16 weeks of benefits that would correspond to paternity. Two magistrates provided dissenting individual votes, but the Supreme Court has ruled that “it does not see legal coverage to endorse said permits.” It stresses that its function is “the application and interpretation of the rule, but not the creation of law.”
The key is that the Convention on the Rights of Children includes said right for “non-discrimination” to newborns regardless of the model of their family, but Spanish legislation does not include anything in this regard.
Some communities, such as Galicia, Castilla y Léon and Aragón, grant the 32 weeks to their officials. In Navarra it has been approved by its Parliament for public employees, but it has not yet come into operation.
Tormo defends that it is “another missed opportunity to guarantee fairness and equal treatment of boys and girls, whatever their family structure, as well as to advance in the legal recognition of our family model and in the elimination of discrimination that we bear”.
Faced with this discrimination, social networks are on fire to denounce such injustice. This is the case of 41-year-old Izaskun Gamen from Tudelana, mother of a three-month-old baby, who has not even covered her son’s face because she considers that “the cause deserves it.” To which she adds: “The sentence is discrimination against our sons and daughters, who have fewer rights than the rest.”
In the same way, another single mother has expressed herself on Twitter, “my son will not be able to enjoy it, but the children of colleagues and colleagues have been in the care of their parents for almost eight months and those of single-parent families have been in the care of half This is a fight for future single-parent families.”
“I feel abandoned, frustrated… Why can my son only be cared for half the time as one who has two parents? It is unfair and unfortunate, but we are not going to be submissive to this sentence,” says another. Even the Murcia delegate of the Association of Single Mothers by Choice, Ana Fioré, has launched a tweet giving voice to her two daughters, where they explain the inequality.
In addition, there are many discrepancies among the judges. In fact, eight higher courts of justice throughout Spain have ruled in favor of the extension. Now, says Tormo, “it is time to move the file to the executive branch and include the measure in the Family Law, although in its draft the socialist part of the Government excluded it.” In fact, in the Congress of Deputies and in the Senate, bills and motions in this direction have been voted in favor, including proposals from the PP.
This fight is not against judges and judges. In reality, the group of single mothers seeks to extend it to all families with only one parent, regardless of whether that family is headed by a man or a woman.
