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Mothers First, Not Work First

Listening to Welfare Clients in Job Training

Boston University, USA, kcooney{at}bu.edu

This article builds on current research on welfare reform examining the perspectives of welfare recipients as they experience the policy enacted at the street level. The study aims to provide more information about the gaps between the assumptions embedded in welfare legislation and the complexity of welfare recipients’ lives. Engaging critical theory, the article examines: (1) the internalization of the schemas undergirding welfare reform using data from focus group interviews; and, (2) the strategic action of welfare recipients using ethnographic data collected from the same welfare-to-work program. Analysis of focus group interviews suggest that schemas embedded in the political discourse surrounding welfare reform are more internalized by the native born, English-speaking welfare clients. The grounded theory analysis identifies two coping strategies invoked by women in the welfare-to-work program: affirming motherhood and strategic acceptance of sanctions. The author concludes with a brief discussion of the potential for broader political action.

Key Words: critical theory • family • grounded theory • welfare reform • work

Qualitative Social Work, Vol. 5, No. 2, 217-235 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1473325006064258


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