Ellen K. Scott

Dangerous Dependencies The Intersection of Welfare Reform and Domestic Violence

Using longitudinal, ethnographic data, the authors examine how the pursuit of self-sufficiency in the context of welfare reform may unintentionally encourage some women to develop alternative dangerous dependencies on abusive or potentially abusive men. In this article, the authors document how women ended up relying on men who have been abusive to them either for instrumental assistance or for more direct financial assistance as they struggled to move from welfare to work. The authors also document how some extremely disadvantaged and vulnerable women became enmeshed in even more dangerous dependencies as they hit time limits and fell through public and private safety nets into drug addiction and sex work. The authors frame this discussion of dangerous dependencies with the recognition that dependency relations are necessary and inevitable components of carework. They argue that the discourse of self-sufficiency should acknowledge the fact that careworkers are productive citizens to the same extent as paid laborers and grapple with the question of the means through which they can support that productivity when personal resources are limited and paid labor is temporarily or permanently impossible.

CREATING PARTNERSHIPS FOR CHANGE Alliances and Betrayals in the Racial Politics of Two Feminist Organizations

The author examines the social construction of racial-ethnic identity and expectations for alliances based on identity in two feminist organizations. She considers the conditions in which assumed alliances work and fail, finding that race played a different role in the search for friendship and political connection among white women and among women of color. Women of color saw racial alliances as crucial in settings dominated by whites and often felt betrayed when alliances failed. White women did not speak of their connections with one another as racial alliances, nor did they express betrayal when they failed. When assumed alliances failed, women were often surprised by unanticipated cross-racial connections. Such connections provided insight to the politically constructed nature of all alliances, even those based on identities. These insights, created in and through the differences between these activists, represent the opportunity for chosen alliances, what June Jordan calls “partnerships for change.”

“I Feel as if I Am the One Who Is Disabled” The Emotional Impact of Changed Employment Trajectories of Mothers Caring for Children with Disabilities

Despite the 1970s middle-class feminist dream that women could have it all—families characterized by equitable distributions of household labor and interesting careers—the decades since have told a different story. In the U.S. context of a neoliberal labor market and privatized systems of family care, mothers still struggle to negotiate the conflicting demands of family and employment, particularly when caring for children with disabilities. Though an extensive literature examines labor market participation for mothers of children with disabilities, few scholars have examined the emotional impact of their altered career plans. Drawing from a sample of 40 single- and two-parent families, the author examines mothers’ accounts of care for children with disabilities, focusing on their emotional experiences of their changed employment trajectories.

Understanding the Relationship Between Instability in Child Care and Instability in Employment for Families With Subsidized Care

Through the federal child care funding and unspent Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds, states provide subsidies for child care to some employed parents who are income-eligible. Subsidies cannot alter labor market conditions or stabilize low-wage jobs, but they can stabilize child care arrangements. With stable child care, policy makers hope parents’ workforce participation will be more stable. While researchers agree there is a strong relationship between stability in child care and stability in employment, how they are related is not clear. What drives instability in child care and instability in employment, and does instability in one arena affect the other? How might subsidies affect stability in either arena? Using data from in-depth interviews with 44 parents who received child care subsidies in Oregon, we explore the nuanced and often complex relationship between child care stability and employment stability and the effect of subsidies on that stability.

Making Ends Meet During the Great Recession: How Child Care Subsidies Matter to Low-Wage Workers

In the last 15 years, the triumph of neoliberal politics in the United States has been marked in part by the end of welfare “as we knew it” and the long-coming disappearance of the family wage. Remnants remain, such as work supports like child care assistance. In the current context of high unemployment, legislators are debating eliminating child care subsidies. To understand recent employment experiences and the effects of subsidies on the employment of less educated single mothers, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with recipients of child care subsidies in Oregon and found that the subsidies were imperative to their employment.

Struggling to Pay the Bills: Using Mixed-Methods to Understand Families’ Financial Stress and Child Care Costs

Purpose – This study examines parents’ financial stress associated with obtaining care for young children while employed in unstable low-wage jobs. The child care subsidy program aims to both improve child care quality and support employment, and we expect that a substantial infusion of resources into this program would reduce parents’ financial stress. Methodology/approach – We use a mixed-methods research design to study parents’ financial costs of child care, how predictable the cost of child care is to a parent, and what strategies parents employ to manage child care costs. Findings – We find that parents perceive the subsidy program essential to their ability to manage the needs of their children and working. Yet, receiving subsidies does not appear to alleviate parents’ financial stress because child care costs continue to consume a large share of the familys income and subsidy policies make it difficult for parents to predict their portion of the costs. Parents manage the large and unpredictable expense of child care by decreasing other expenditures and increasing debt. Practical implications – Changing subsidy policies so they better fit the reality of these families’ lives could result in a more substantive stress reduction. States can reduce unpredictability by reducing and stabilizing participants’ child care cost burden and revising eligibility policy. Originality/value of paper – This research project fills an important gap in our knowledge about financial stress of low-income working families, provides insights into the role subsidy program participation plays in these parents’ lives, and informs discussion of subsidy policy.

Effects on children as parents transition from welfare to employment

How can welfare and employment policies help families cope better as parents as they make the transition from welfare to employment? Our research addresses this question by integrating two very different, but complementary, lines of research—random assignment social experiments on the effects of welfare and employment programs on low-income adults and children, and longitudinal, qualitative interview studies of families who experienced the 1996 welfare-reform changes. Together, these studies point to the benefits for children of policies and programs that increase family income as they increase employment.

Mother-Ready Jobs: Employment That Works for Mothers of Children With Disabilities:

Feminist researchers focus on work–family conflict and the impact on maternal employment. They find jobs are not structured to allow for work–family fit. Using qualitative data, I examine those unusual circumstances in which work does work in the challenging case of mothers of children with disabilities. Their experiences make clear the problem for all caregivers when employment is based on a male model, and the importance of workplace norms that diminish work–family conflict. I find that with flexibility, paid leave, job security, and health insurance, that is, with jobs that policy analysts refer to as “good jobs,” and Randy Albelda calls “mother-ready” jobs, caregivers can manage work and family. I argue that through a combination of mandatory workplace restructuring and social supports, the state could facilitate the reorganization of jobs so that they are mother-ready and therefore make possible the performance of daily required tasks as care givers and employees.