In today’s society, women - having entered the workplace in growing numbers worldwide - are increasingly expected to earn wages whilst still being primarily responsible for raising children. While all parents confront the tensions of this double burden, for lone mothers, the situation can be especially acute as there is no other adult to share responsibilities and no access to a male wage. The revealing essays in this volume address a range of the dilemmas lone mothers routinely face, whilst also distinguishing important situational differences, and considering other social perspectives. It asks: * How can governments help without undermining their ability to enter the workforce? * Should the state indefinitely support lone mothers? * How should we measure the success of a policy? * What roles do ethnicity, race, religion, class and sexual orientation play? The impressive range of contributors to this volume speak from numerous contrasting perspectives. Here they study a variety of international settings such as Sri Lanka, the US, Germany, England and Norway, and in so doing, they allow the reader to draw powerful conclusions by comparing such issues and potential resolutions in varying countries and contexts. This book was previously published as a special issue of Feminist Economics.

Based on a long-term study of the policies of several European nations' lone mothers, this te×t reveals the contrasting attitudes in Europe towards lone mothers, and how they have been categorized and treated. Also e×amined is the role of men as both carers and cash-providers.

This book is the first study with feminist analysis on lone mothers’ economic dependency in Hong Kong. The implications of this study are considerable; it challenges both conventional thinking about families and the political and academic debates about social policy. This book sets out to examine the relationship between social security benefits and lone mothers’ labour supply in Hong Kong. Two particular aspects of the labour supply behaviour of lone mothers are explored: firstly, the possible effect of social security on lone mothers’ employment: and secondly, the knowledge and perception of social security benefits in the decision making processes of lone mothers in relation to taking up paid work. Evidence from this study suggests that there are three structural barriers which hinder lone mothers from taking up paid employment outside their family; inadequate support for child care, the low level of Earnings Disregard Policy which discourages lone mothers living on benefit from being self-reliant and thirdly, the low wages that lone mothers earn in the labour market.

This title was first published in 2000. This is a study which compares and contrasts how lone mothers' relationships to paid work and care-giving are constructed across 20 countries, and with what outcomes for lone mothers' levels of economic well-being. In doing so, the book explores from an international perspective, the implications of the re-orientation of lone mothers' citizenship within the UK policy field from that of care-giver to paid worker. The volume engages with feminist comparative social policy literature concerned with specifying a construction of citizenship appropriate to capturing international variations in women's social rights. By incorporating social rights attached to paid work and care, as well as those which enable lone mothers to move between sequential periods of paid work and care-giving across the child-rearing cycle, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature.

Based on interviews of lone mothers with young dependent children. Looks at the economic and social circumstances of a group of lone mothers in north Dublin.

How can researchers produce work with relevance to theoretical and formal traditions and requirements of public academic knowledge while still remaining faithful to the experiences and accounts of research participants based in private settings? Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research explores this key dilemma and examines the interplay between theory, epistemology and the detailed practice of research. It does this across the whole research process: access, data collection and analysis and writing up research. It goes on to consider ways of achieving high standards of reflexivity and openness in the strategic choices made during research, examining these issues for specific projects in an open and accessible style. Particular themes examined are: the research dilemmas that occur from feminist perspectives in relation to researching private and personal social worlds; the position of the researcher as situated between public knowledge and private experience; and the dilemmas raised for researchers seeking to contribute to academic discourse while remaing close to their knowledge forms.

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.