Lone Mothers and Genderfare: Positioning Lone Mothers in Welfare States

Abstract

In this chapter we examine how different sorts of welfare state position women, and how this positioning in turn presents a differentiated set of opportunities and constraints for lone mothers. While we refer to particular policies as appropriate, our concern is therefore not to provide a comprehensive account of different policies affecting lone mothers in different countries (for which see Bradshaw et al. 1996, Millar 1996). Rather, we wish to provide an analytical account of how lone mothers are differentially positioned by social policies in different countries. We have also been at pains to point out, in earlier chapters, that national state policy is only one of several social contexts in which lone mothers negotiate their lives. Nor should we see state policy as in some way autonomous from these contexts (see especially Chapter 2 on discourses). Nevertheless, in that national policies continue to provide or restrict access to resources, based on a concentration of collective social authority within the state, then the national context will remain particularly important in forming constraints and opportunities for lone mothers.