Lone Mothers, Paid Work and Gendered Moral Rationalitie

Why are most British lone mothers unemployed? And is 'welfare to work' the right sort of policy response? This book provides an in-depth analysis of how lone mothers negotiate the relationship between motherhood and paid work. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, it focuses on social capital in different neighbourhoods, local labour markets and welfare states. Criticising conventional economic theories of decision-making, it posits an alternative concept of 'gendered moral rationality', and sets up new frameworks for understanding national policy differences and discourses about lone motherhood.

Auteur

SIMON DUNCAN is Reader in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Bradford. He has been appointed Hallsworth Fellow at the University of Manchester for 1998-99, is organiser of the ESRC seminar series on parenting, motherhood and paid work (with Rosalind Edwards), and is programme leader in the ESRC research unit of Care, Values and the Future of Social Policy. Major publications include Housing, States and Localities, The Local State and Uneven Development, Success and Failure in Housing Provision: European systems compared, The Diverse Worlds of European Patriarchy and Single Mothers in International Contexts. ROSALIND EDWARDS is Reader in Social Policy at South Bank University. She is currently researching parenting and step-parenting after divorce/separation, and children's understanding of parental involvement in education. Major publications include Mature Women Students: Separating or Connecting Family and Education, Mothers and Education: Inside Out? (with M. David, M. Hughes and J. Ribbens), Single Mothers in an International Context: Mothers or Workers? (co-edited with S. Duncan), and Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research: Public Knowledge and Private Lives (co-edited with J. Ribbens).

Résumé
Why are British lone mothers less likely to be in paid work than in most other western countries? And is 'welfare to work' the right sort of policy response? This book sets out to answer questions like these through in-depth analysis of how lone mothers negotiate the relationship between motherhood and paid work. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, it focuses on social capital in different neighbourhoods, local labour markets and welfare states, and throughout makes particular comparisons with lone mothers in Germany, Sweden and the USA. In so doing, the book provides a critique of conventional economic accounts of decision-making, and posits an alternative concept of 'gendered moral rationality' which can better account for lone mothers' labour market behaviour. It also sets up a new framework for understanding political and policy discourses about lone motherhood, and develops a concept of 'genderfare' with which to understand national policy differences.

Contenu

Acknowledgements List of Figures List of Tables How to Explain the 'Problem' of Lone Motherhood: An Introduction Understanding Lone Motherhood: Competing Discourses and Positions Lone Mothers in Neighbourhoods: Material Contexts and Social Capital Lone Mothers and Gendered Moral Rationalities: Orientations to Paid Work Lone Mothers and Paid Work: Human Capital or Gendered Moral Rationalities? Lone Mothers in Labour Markets: Employment Availability and Geography Lone Mothers and Genderfare: Positioning Lone Mothers in Welfare States Economic Decision-Making and Moral Rationalities From National 'Welfare to Work' to Local 'Welfare to Work' Bibliography Index