Single Mothers and the State: The Politics of Care in Sweden and the United StatesU.S. welfare rights activists have long envied women in Sweden, who benefited from social policies that made the incidence of poverty among children and solo mothers among the lowest in the world. This situation has begun to change with the rise of neoliberalism in Sweden from the late 1970s to the middle of the 1990s; social policy that had once dramatically improved the lives of solo mothers began to give way to policies that privatized their problems. Solo mothers in the United States were worse off, as conservative policymakers launched a clamorous campaign to restore the "traditional nuclear family" as the only guarantor of women's and children's well-being, blaming solo mothers for everything from juvenile crime to their own poverty. In this revealing and timely book, sociologist and former legal services attorney, Celia Winkler, charts the policies in Sweden and the United States that transformed the social and economic situation of solo mothers, who are an early warning of more general danger: the canary in the coal mine. |
Contents
Exploring Historical | 23 |
Introducing Women | 59 |
Creating | 101 |
Copyright | |
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AFDC African Americans Alva Myrdal Amendment American argued assistance benefits birth bourgeois child care child support guarantee child welfare officer child-care centers children born citizenship cohabiting conservative Dagens Nyheter debate dependent discourse discrimination divorce economic independence employers employment family form Family Law Family Law Committee family policy fathers federal feminists Frances Fox Piven freedom of choice funds gendered household housing ideology illegitimacy illegitimate income increased individual issue joint custody Justice labor force labor market legislation Liberal living male marital economic community marriage maternity insurance means-tested movement municipal Myrdal neoliberal out-of-wedlock paid parental leave Parliament part-time participation percent political poor poverty pregnancy problems proposal proposition public sector recipients reduced reform relationship responsibility roles single mothers six-hour day social policy society solo mothers solo parents spouses SSKF stay home Stockholm subsidies Sweden United University unmarried mothers wage wedlock women's labor workday workers