Single Mothers In The Bible

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagar_(Bible)

The story of Hagar.

I might go through and find all of the single mothers mentioned because I think there are more but this is the one most familiar to me.

My point in mentioning these things is because single mothers are still really discriminated against, especially poorer ones, by the State, and by many religious institutions. Some women are single by choice and others become single because someone passes away or leaves. The same thing could be said for single fathers too, but I think some who really discourage single mothers, in this area, for whatever reason, esp. if they're christian, might want to read more about some famous single mothers who have been very important in history.

And God did not agree with, and would not have agreed with, taking the child from any of these mothers, even though they may have been outcast or were poor, for whatever reason.

I am not trying to judge or be harsh, at all, with an example of misinformation people get about the Bible, but here is one:
http://www.gotquestions.org/single-mothers.html

In this clip, someone asks if the Bible talks about single mothers and the person responding says there is no mention of single mothers. This isn't true. There are several examples of single mothers. Several other links do bring them up too. If I have a little time I will find them.

I am finding a lot of widows who had children whom the prophets helped too. They are referred to more often as "widows" but they were also single mothers. These women were important enough to the prophets to be noted as receiving their special attention.

This link I found that I like, I should give credit to. It mentions references to both single fathers and also, many single mothers and special admonitions as well, on how to treat them:

http://www.dianedew.com/singlpar.htm

When "widow" is used as a term, I think of older women with no children, but while reading through these verses, it should be noted that most of the widows were single mothers. They didn't call them "single mothers" then, they were widows or single mothers because they were cast out (Hagar is most notable) or forced to leave. There were also women who were single mothers because they had children out of wedlock and it was the custom (then) to marry the woman or the woman couldn't marry someone new (until the NT when divorce was allowed for abandonment and other reasons).