Bengston VL

Bloch K

Brianna Turgeon

Charmaz K

Collins PH

Crittenden A

Domhoff WG

Edin K

Ferguson KE

Fischer CS

Garey AI

Gross C

Hays S

Johnson JL

Kohn M

Ladd-Taylor M

Lareau A

Massey DS

Moynihan DP

Nelson MK

Neubeck KJ

Piore MJ

Ryan W

Smeeding TM

Van Dijk TA

 Dominant ideologies about poverty in the USA draw on personal responsibility and beliefs that a ‘culture of poverty’ creates and reproduces inequality. As the primary recipients of welfare are single mothers, discourses surrounding welfare are also influenced by dominant ideologies about mothering, namely intensive mothering. Yet, given the centrality of resources to intensive mothering, mothers on welfare are often precluded from enacting this type of parenting. In this paper, I conduct a critical discourse analysis of 69 interviews with Ohio Works First (USA) program managers to examine how welfare program managers talk about and evaluate their clients’ mothering. My findings suggest three themes regarding expectations and evaluations of clients’ mothering: (a) enacting child-centered mothering, (b) breaking out of the ‘culture of poverty’ and (c) (mis)managing childcare. </jats:p

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Critical Sociology

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Welfare-to-Work Program Managers’ Expectations and Evaluations of Their Clients’ Mothering

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Welfare-to-Work Program Managers’ Expectations and Evaluations of Their Clients’ Mothering

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