Low-income mothers' citizenship in the time of welfare reform

The 1996 passage of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families signaled a reconfiguration of the citizenship expectations for low-income mothers from that of caregiving parents to paid workers. This dissertation examined three questions: (1) How did legislators construct low-income mothers' citizenship with regard to paid work and parenting in the welfare reform legislative discourse; (2) How do low-income mothers construct their citizenship; and (3) How have low-income mothers incorporated or resisted policymakers' conceptions of their citizenship?; Using a critical theory and feminist lens, political discourse and content analyses were conducted of welfare reform legislative debates and hearings. Analytic induction and grounded theory methods developed themes to conduct the discourse analysis. The content analysis assessed the prevalence of developed themes.; Fifty-one low-income mothers were randomly selected and interviewed with oversampling for racial-ethnic groups. Responses about mothers' notions of their parenting and political involvement were analyzed. Work orientation scales and paid work involvement on a Life History Calendar were also examined. The influence of legislators' discourse on low-income mothers' notions of their citizenship was assessed.; Both explicit and implicit constructions of citizenship emerged in the discourse. The explicit discourse contained extensive references to paid work, paying taxes, and independence as primary citizenship constructions. In contrast, the most prominent parenting theme was "parenting as non-work".; The most popular themes in the implicit citizenship discourse were that government should support parenting and paid work through certain programs and assistance. However, the idea that low-income mothers must abide by constrictive gender prescriptions was also common. Also prominent were beliefs that government support for paid work should be limited, as well as parenting was non-work and low-income mothers are dangerous.; One-third of interviewed mothers had worked extensively, and one-half had worked moderately. The more mothers worked, the more likely they were to vote, but also to report compromised parenting. Moderate and minimal workers less frequently noted problems in parenting, but voted less.; Legislators' explicit discursive construction of low-income mothers' citizenship was only as paid workers. Implicitly low-income mothers were still expected to be full-time parents, therefore expected to fulfill two full-time citizenship duties.