Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society Advance Access published online on June 1, 2007
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, doi:10.1093/sp/jxm007
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wage-Poor Mothers and Moral Economy
Direct all correspondence to Lisa Dodson, Department of Sociology, Boston College, McGuinn 408, Chestnut Hill, MA 0267
Correspondence: E-mail: lisa.dodson{at}bc.edu
"You have to choose ... and what mother's choosing this job over her child?"This article explores the subaltern work and family care practices of 300 low-wage women. Although US welfare reform enforced the labor market as the sole route for family support, many, often singlemother, families remain wage impoverished. Their work habits orbit around keeping children safe and defy market norms. Furthermore, in wage-poor America and beyond, this defiance is understood as morally legitimate, representing a hidden challenge to an economic ideology that subordinates humanity to the market.