Dissertation Research: Needs Interpretation and the Construction of Gendered Citizenships: New Social Welfare Policies in the Netherlands and the United States

这个博士论文项目分析了国家如何在解释单身母亲的需求时构建性别公民身份。福利办公室是公民与国家面对面交流的场所之一。利用“需求解释”的概念，我们展示了以政策执行者为代表的国家如何与与女性育儿、工作和护理相关的性别需求的构建有关，以及这些性别需求的构建如何构成女性公民身份的基础。荷兰和美国最近的政策变化为分析福利国家如何构建单身母亲这一女性群体的需求提供了机会。一般来说，个案工作者和案主之间互动的结果是由个案工作者和案主双方的知识水平、判断力和意识形态所决定的。与此同时，福利国家制度和女性劳动力参与率的差异也会影响社会工作者引导单身母亲进入劳动力市场的努力。此外，妇女对自身需求的看法影响她们与社会工作者所代表的国家的互动。为了了解这些过程，将观察客户-个案工作者的互动，并对每个国家的客户和个案工作者进行深入访谈。这将表明，似乎以非常相似的解决办法来解决单身母亲问题的政策，是否会在最终构建的性别公民身份类型方面产生不同的结果。这些观察和访谈将集中于与母性、工作和照顾相关的某些需求如何变得突出，而其他需求则被忽视，以及在此过程中如何阐明单身母亲公民权利的新基础。

This doctoral dissertation project analyzes how the state constructs gendered citizenship as it interprets the needs of single mothers. The welfare office is one of the locations in which citizens meet the state face-to-face. Using the concept of "needs interpretation" we show how the state, represented by those who implement policy, is implicated in the construction of gendered needs associated with women's mothering, work, and care, and how these gendered needs constructions form the basis for female citizenship. Recent policy changes in the Netherlands and the United States offer the opportunity to analyze how welfare states construct the needs of one group of women, single mothers. In general, the outcome of the interaction between caseworkers and clients is determined by the levels of knowledge, the amount of discretion, and the kinds of ideologies held by both caseworkers and clients. At the same time, differences in welfare state regimes and in women's labor force participation rates will also affect caseworkers' efforts to channel single mothers into the labor force. In addition, women's own perceptions of their needs affect their interactions with the state as represented by their caseworkers. To understand these processes, client-caseworker interactions will be observed and in-depth interviews conducted with both clients and caseworkers in each country. This will show whether policies that appear to approach the problems of single mothers with very similar solutions have different results in the type of gendered citizenship ultimately constructed. These observations and interviews will focus on how certain needs associated with mothering, work, and care become salient while others are ignored and how in this process new bases of single mothers' citizenship rights are articulated.