Since she burst on to the scene, Madonna has consistently shocked her audiences. From the release of her sex book to the spray-on leotard she sported at fifty-years old, Madonna always manages to provoke a reaction and win crucial column inches.

Yet no performance has ever sparked debate in quite the same way as her decision to adopt a second Malawian child. Those who fault the superstar’s intention to adopt three-year old Mercy James are not perturbed by Madonna’s status as a single-mother. Indeed, few have doubted that she would provide a good home. Rather, the widespread criticism that shrouds Madonna’s quest concerns the methods employed to achieve the adoption and its potential effect on Mercy’s family who remain in Malawi.

Ten years ago, eyebrows would have been raised at any single woman who sought to raise a child alone. Does Madonna’s case – the nature of the criticism she received as precise rather than overarching– prove that single motherhood is not only socially acceptable, but actually preferable in some instances?

Single motherhood is arrived at by many paths. In the past it was almost always perceived negatively; the result of an unplanned pregnancy or the endpoint of broken marriage. Yet, presently, as more and more women are choosing to raise children alone, single motherhood has become acceptable and perhaps even esteemed.

That’s not to say that women who choose to raise a child alone do not face particular difficulties. Single motherhood often goes hand in hand with financial strain. For single mothers in Greece, Portugal and Spain, welfare support is limited. On the other hand, most Scandinavian countries are more accommodating. Indeed, the University of Bergen conducted a study investigating the relationship between the mental health of single mothers and the level of financial support available to them. Those single mothers who had greater access to state benefits were generally happier and more fulfilled. Single mothers in Scandinavia had been able to remain longer in education and, when interviewed, felt more satisfied with life than their Southern European counterparts.

A second difficulty is that single-mothers cannot always achieve a healthy and practical work-life balance. The UK has the highest proportion of single mothers in the EU, while having one of the lowest employment rates as well. The British campaign group One Parent Families claims that single parents do not receive sufficient support to find work and has accused the government of doing little to help single parents meet with childcare costs. Alarmingly, parents in Britain are expected to pay approximately 70% of costs, while parents in Europe pay only 30%. Importantly, in many Scandinavian countries, which boast higher employment rates for single parents, there exist generous parental leave arrangements, unlike in Britain. Equally important is how in Britain, unlike in Spain and Italy, the extended family does not feature strongly. As a result, British single-mothers must look further a field to secure satisfactory childcare arrangements.

Happily, our present world is becoming more open-minded about the shape that a family can inhabit. It is no longer assumed that children raised in single parent families will receive an inferior upbringing to those raised in two-parent families. However, Randi Anderson, a single mother and the founder of the online community Single2Mother, believes that while the stigma attached to single motherhood may have subsided, it has not been completely erased.

“Millions of children are being raised in single-parent households and the divorce rate is outrageous,” she says. “People need to realize just how outdated this stigma really is and how our perception of being alone is quite distorted. It is based on ignorance and lack of understanding.” Anderson is confident that modern single mothers radically defy the stereotype. Insisting that single mothers are taking responsibility and managing their own lives and the well-being of their children, Anderson is eager to see the stereotype dismantled once and for all.