The risks of being a lone mother on income support in Canada and the USA
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 27 July 2010
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how neo‐liberalism shapes income support policy and lone mothers' experiences in Canada and the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
A critical comparative analysis is undertaken of how Canadian and US governments take up sociological concepts of risk, market citizenship, and individualization, whether explicitly or implicitly, in the design and administration of neo‐liberal income support policies directed at lone mothers. Specifically, the contradictory life circumstances that Canadian and American lone mothers experience when they access income supports that are designed ostensibly to construct/reconstruct them as citizens capable of risk taking in their search for employment and self‐sufficiency are compared.
Findings
The paper finds that the realities for poor lone mothers are remarkably similar in the two countries and therefore argue that income support policies, particularly welfare‐to‐work initiatives, underpinned by neo‐liberal tenets, can act in a counter‐intuitive manner exposing lone mothers to greater rather than lesser economic and social insecurity/inequality, and constructing them as risk aversive and dependent.
Research limitations/implications
The economic and social implications/contradictions of neo‐liberal restructuring of income support policies for lone mothers is revealed.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to broader scholarship on the gendered dimensions of neo‐liberal restructuring of welfare states in late modernity.
Keywords
Citation
Gazso, A. and McDaniel, S.A. (2010), "The risks of being a lone mother on income support in Canada and the USA", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 30 No. 7/8, pp. 368-386. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443331011060724
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited