Single Mothers on Welfare in New York City: An Ethnography

Single motherhood, poverty, and welfare dependence
are key research topics for social scientists.
Research on urban poverty focuses primarily on
nonwhite mothers on welfare in inner cities, thus
rendering white mothers on welfare invisible. This
ethnographic study makes white single mothers on
welfare visible, and compares their experiences to
those of their black and Puerto Rican counterparts.
Specifically, it identifies how race/ethnicity,
class, and gender intersect and pave the different
pathways women follow into single motherhood and
poverty. Second, it examines the role of gender,
race/ethnicity, and class in confining women in the
secondary labor market, thus reproducing their
poverty. Third, it reveals the workings of the
welfare system as a street-level bureaucracy by
exploring the daily encounters between workers and
clients. This study, conducted at a time when
groundbreaking welfare policy changes were taking
place, also addresses the impact of these changes on
single mother's lives. Therefore, in addition to
urban sociologists and researchers of poverty,
gender, and social inequality, this book will be of
interest to welfare policy makers and administrators.