The 'working poor': Single mothers and the state, 1911-1950

Many historians and social policy analysts have claimed either or both of two standard beliefs: that many welfare mothers were historically exempt from participation in the labor force, and that these women played no significant role in the shaping of the welfare system. This dissertation challenges both claims by examining the work-oriented focus of three major arenas of the welfare state, and by exploring the responses of single mothers to state and national welfare policies in the first half of the 20th century.; The methodology used herein involves examination of the programs which most affected single mothers: the mothers' pensions programs, the Work Projects Administration, and foster care systems. In order to discern women's actual experiences of and responses to these programs, the author has studied case records of social agencies in Minnesota and letters from single mothers throughout the country to New Deal and World War II agencies. Since single mothers were not a cohesive group or political force in these years, their individual responses to work pressures and other features of the welfare system have been examined in detail. Data from Minnesota and national statistics have been used in order to provide both a case study and comparative analytical base.; The results gleaned from this research verify the hypotheses on which it is based. The mothers' pensions programs made low-wage labor necessary for most recipients; the administrators of the Work Projects Administration attempted (unsuccessfully) to exclude all women only because high unemployment rates among men made women's work a nuisance; and the foster care system was in large part designed to reduce welfare by forcing mothers to work and support their children in other people's homes. Single mothers receiving mothers' pensions and ADC worked trying to exert control over the type of work; at the same time they asserted their right to aid as mothers and their right to work on public work programs. They also struggled with the foster care system to retain control of their children through employment. While public administrators aimed to make child-caring as inexpensive as possible, welfare mothers' struggles helped to determine the outcome of welfare policies.