Lone motherhood, welfare and paid work : identities and experiences

Lone motherhood has long been a source of social, economic and political concern. With increasing family diversity and change involving patterns of parental separation and single motherhood, children are now more likely to spend some time in a lone mother headed family, compared with forty years ago. New Labour social policy has particularly raised concerns about the extent of poverty, low aspirations and disadvantage within these families. However, there is a concern that dominant discourses of alternative family forms present lived experiences in uniform and over-simplified ways. This study aims to explore the ways that lone mothers' understandings of their family responsibilities and support needs vary and the implications of their understandings for current policy and theoretical positions. These questions have been addressed through data collected from a qualitative study in which forty-three mothers from various social backgrounds were interviewed, during the period 1999 to 2001. Using a framework that examined mothers' commitments and capacities in context, the study reaches two conclusions that 0 ffer a way 0 f understanding the complexity and diversity 0 f lone mothers' experiences. Firstly, lone motherhood is conceptualised as constituted through experiences and discourses relating to living alone, mothering alone, being single, parenting across households and parental separation. These aspects of lone motherhood did not necessarily occur together. Each aspect of lone motherhood could also provide varied social experiences and offer diverse sources of identity and meaning. Secondly, the complexity of lone mothers' experiences is demonstrated through the inter-relationships between individual life trajectories and biographies, the local context of resources and opportunities and the wider material and cultural context. Lone mothers' negotiated their actions, values and decisions in relation to these contexts. The conclusions raise several implications for current policy and theoretical developments