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Book Cover
E-book
Author Hennessy, Judith

Title Work and family commitments of low-income and impoverished women : guilt is for mothers with good jobs / Judith Hennessy
Published Lanham ; Boulder ; New York ; London : Lexington Books, 2015
©2015

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Description 1 online resource (v, 184 pages)
Contents Intro -- Title Page -- The Paradox -- Historical Context -- Work Commitment -- Family Commitment -- Work and Family at the Welfare Office -- Survey Findings -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Methodological Appendix -- References -- Index
Summary "Conflict between work and family life is an all too familiar experience for many Americans. The difficult choices facing women who combine paid work with childcare are the subject of a deluge of books and articles in addition to an ongoing public debate about how women and men should balance their work and family commitments. Although we know a great deal about the social and cultural environment fueling these contradictions among middle-class and upper middle class women, we know little about the forces that influence poor and low-income women. Work and Family Commitments of Low-Income and Impoverished Women addresses this omission and gives voice to women in poverty as it traces the moral and cultural structures that help shape the meaning and value of paid work and motherhood among a group of mothers who rely on welfare or a combination of low-wage work and welfare to provide and care for their families. This portrayal of poor women's lives rarely enters the work-life debate over women's choices, generally characterized as between mothers who have to work versus those who choose to. Judith Hennessy puts low-income women front and center to shed light on less explored aspects of the moral and cultural foundations of contemporary work and family conflict from interviews and survey data of a group of low-income and poor mothers on and off welfare. Hennessey explores the paradox in American society where combining paid work with caring for children continues to generate considerable ambivalence (and often guilt) on the part of married middle-class mothers for devoting too much time to paid work and supposedly neglecting their children. While poor and working class mothers who might otherwise rely on welfare are relegated to working at low-wage jobs outside the home in fulfillment of their family responsibilities"--The Publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed
SUBJECT Arbeit, ... gnd
Čubrilović Familie : 19. Jh.- gnd
Börngen, ... gnd
Subject Work and family -- United States
Working mothers -- United States -- Social conditions
Working poor -- United States -- Social conditions
Poor women -- United States -- Social conditions
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
Poor women -- Social conditions
Work and family
Working mothers -- Social conditions
Armut
Niedriglohn
United States
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021675945
ISBN 9780739186800
0739186809
9780739186800
1498550541
9781498550543