Dis-integrated policy

Welfare-to-Work Participants' Experiences of Integrating Paid Work and Unpaid Family Work

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2172137
AutoresRhonda Breitkreuz (0000-0003-0062-4190), Rhonda S Breitkreuz, Deanna L Williamson, Kim D Raine (0000-0002-3906-8219)
Ano2010
Volume13
Fascículo1
Páginas43-69
Data de publicação2010-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCommunity Work & Family (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1366-8803 • E-ISSN: 1469-3615
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13668800902923753
OpenAlexW2038508122
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas15
Referências citadas6

Using a critical feminist theoretical lens, we followed 17 families for one year – as they attempted to make the transition from welfare to work – eliciting narrative accounts of their day-to-day lives. We used an institutional–ethnographic methodology to analyse the data. Our study shows that the juncture at which unpaid caring work and paid employment meet may be more difficult to negotiate for low-income lone-parent families than for coupled, middle-class employed families. Findings reveal that the unpaid work that happened on the edges of a paid work day, what we refer to as 'the work outside the work', took considerable time and energy for participants, making it difficult for them to procure and/or sustain employment. This was due to a number of factors including their limited access to economic and non-economic resources, and the complex nature of their lives, including struggles with day-to-day functioning and childcare arrangements. These challenges, combined with the realities of the low-income labour market made it difficult, if not impossible, for most participants to effectively integrate work and family. These findings suggest that the dis-integrated nature of welfare-to-work policies, which overlooks the actualities of low-income parents' lives, limits families' ability to become self-sufficient

Economics · Labour economics · Market economy · Narrative · Negotiation · Paid work · Social science · Sociology · Unpaid work · Welfare · Welfare reform · Women's work · Work (physics · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Work-Family Balance Challenges