Devaluing Mothering at Home: Welfare Restructuring and "Motherwork"

Authors

  • Maureen Baker University of Auckland

Keywords:

Welfare policies, Health problems - Mothers

Abstract

This paper discusses the challenges lone mothers face when attempting to exit from "welfare." Public discourse claims that children "need their moms" but welfare policies often devalue mothering at home by focusing on paid employment. Interviews from New Zealand suggest that these policies can raise stress levels and contribute to existing health problems.

Author Biography

  • Maureen Baker, University of Auckland
    Maureen Baker is a Canadian who works at the University of Auckland in New Zealand as Head of the Sociology Department. She has written numerous books and articles on families and comparative social policy.

Downloads

Published

2004-04-01

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2004): Special Issue: Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work

Section

Original Research

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Authors are aware that articles published in Atlantis are indexed and made available through various scholarly and professional search tools, including but not limited to Erudit.

3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to preprint their work, that is, post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Read more on preprints here.