The barriers to economic self-reliance: An ethnographic study of low-income single mothers in Prince George's County Maryland

This study documents the economic insecurity and material hardship experienced by low-income African American single mothers and examines how single mothers' and social welfare service providers' perceptions differ with respect to the barriers hindering economic self-reliance. Research demonstrates that these women confront significant challenges in transitioning from welfare to positions of self-reliance. Participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews with women from transitional housing programs (THP) and a homeless shelter elicited data on: household economics, material hardship, and perceived barriers to overcoming poverty. Interviews with personnel from community based organizations and government agencies provided data on services in the community and revealed the barriers service providers perceived as impeding low-income single-mothers' economic self-reliance.;Approximately 78% of women in the THPs demonstrated medium to high levels of social welfare subsidy dependence and 33% accrued additional financial debt. Three themes emerge from women's experience with economic insecurity and material hardship: eligibility requirements for the receipt of social welfare benefits and the amount of financial assistance provided to low-income households are too low to aid families in need of support, social welfare programs do not meet the needs of low-income single mothers' households, and THP and shelter programs do not adequately equip women to become self-reliant. Providers and women also perceived multiple interrelated institutional and societal barriers to self-reliance. However, they articulated and explained these barriers differently because of their experiences and positions in society. Providers cited distal and underlying barriers to self-reliance, while women identified proximate and immediate barriers. Even though women in the two samples perceived and experienced similar barriers, differences in frequency of report, ranking, and saliency scores indicated particular barriers impacted women's households and women's potential for economic self-reliance differently. Perspectives from individuals on both sides of welfare reform demonstrate how the knowledge of what prevents women from achieving economic self-reliance differs and provides the basis for a renewed discourse on the effectiveness of policies and programs in lifting families out of poverty.