Doctoral Dissertation Research: Learning to Love Labor: Low-Income Mothers, Work-Family Balance, and Public Assistance

博士论文研究：学会热爱劳动：低收入母亲、工作与家庭的平衡和公共援助

• 批准号: 0327030
• 负责人: Mary Blair-Loy
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-08-15 至 2004-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0327030&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Learning; Love

Recent decades have witnessed dramatic changes in women's lives in the U.S., including higher employment rates among mothers. Additionally, the 1996 welfare reform, The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PROWRA), ended low-income mothers' entitlement to cash grants to care for dependent children and initiated time-limited support that mandates work as a condition of state support. This dissertation research analyzes evolving models of wage work and motherhood through the experience of low-income women facing welfare reform. While much of prior research portrays low-income women as passive recipients of state policy, this study theorizes them as agents creatively responding to cultural and moral definitions of work and family as well as to the financial resources given or withheld by the state. The research questions are as follows. To what degree do low-income mothers' work and family decisions reflect the cultural assumptions about paid work and family responsibility embedded in welfare reform? By the valorization of women's participation in wage work, does welfare reform reshape women's taken for granted definitions of being a good mother or a good worker? Or do low-income women reject and resist these cultural definitions? Finally, how do low-income women themselves actively engage and reshape present-day cultural understandings of work, welfare and family? The population of this multi-method case study consists of 1300 women in Spokane, WA, who have enrolled in a program intended to lead to self-sufficiency. Methods include in-depth interviews and a self-administered survey of a stratified random sample of this population. The qualitative approach in this study is designed to capture the meanings and self-definitions of poor women themselves in meeting the demands of work and family. The survey data allow comparison of themes and patterns found in the qualitative sample across a larger sample. This project will contribute to sociological understanding of work-family conflict among low-income women, a group largely ignored by work-family researchers. The research also demonstrates how social policy can develop out of broader social trends and cultural models while at the same time crystallize and reinforce these trends and models. This study brings together the publicly shared moral dimension of the welfare state with contemporary work and family practices. The study's broader impact will be its potential to inform the decisions of policy makers and others concerned about consequences for women and children in the wake of welfare reform.

近几十年来，美国妇女的生活发生了巨大变化，包括母亲的就业率较高。 此外，1996年的福利改革，即《个人责任与工作机会协调法》，终止了低收入母亲获得现金赠款以照顾受抚养子女的权利，并启动了有时限的支助，规定工作是国家支助的一个条件。本论文的研究透过低收入女性面对福利改革的经验，分析了有薪工作和母性的演变模式。 虽然以前的研究描绘低收入妇女作为国家政策的被动接受者，这项研究的理论，他们作为代理人创造性地回应文化和道德的工作和家庭的定义，以及财政资源给予或扣留的国家。 研究问题如下。低收入母亲的工作和家庭决定在多大程度上反映了福利改革中关于有偿工作和家庭责任的文化假设？ 福利改革是否通过稳定妇女对有薪工作的参与，重塑了妇女被视为理所当然的好母亲或好工人的定义？ 还是低收入妇女拒绝和抵制这些文化定义？ 最后，低收入妇女本身如何积极参与和重塑当今对工作、福利和家庭的文化理解？ 本多方法案例研究的人群包括华盛顿州斯波坎的1300名妇女，她们参加了旨在实现自给自足的计划。 方法包括深入访谈和自管理的调查分层随机抽样的人口。 本研究采用定性方法，旨在了解贫穷妇女在满足工作和家庭需求方面的意义和自我定义。调查数据允许在更大的样本中比较定性样本中发现的主题和模式。该项目将有助于从社会学角度理解低收入妇女的工作-家庭冲突，这是一个基本上被工作-家庭研究人员忽视的群体。 这项研究还表明，社会政策如何能够从更广泛的社会趋势和文化模式中发展出来，同时又能具体化和加强这些趋势和模式。这项研究将福利国家的公共道德层面与当代工作和家庭实践结合起来。 这项研究的更广泛影响将是它有可能为决策者和其他关心福利改革后对妇女和儿童的影响的人的决定提供信息。