The Work of Mothers

Employment is increasingly important to poor mothers because they face both the need to supplement their inadequate public assistance benefits, and the eventual loss of benefits that will result from recent changes in welfare policy. At the same time, they are engaged in extensive unpaid caregiving work for which they find little support. This article examines how poor mothers balance productive and reproductive work and explores the factors that influence how these patterns are generated. The research uses long-term participant observation in an inner-city public housing development, and in-depth interviews among 56 resident welfare mothers to explore these questions. The findings illustrate that some mothers are already working at full capacity, managing labor market and caregiving work in the midst of circumstances-including gang violence, serious health problems among individuals for whom they have undertaken responsibility, and illogical and punitive welfare systems-that are far beyond their control.