Caring or working: a matter of choice for lone mothers? Possibility to choose versus structural constraints

Résumé du document

This paper will deal with lone mothers and their labor market participation. Lone motherhood, that we will define, implies to be worker and care giver at the same time. It is thus interesting to see if the Welfare States help them by giving them the choice to be care givers or workers or if they oblige them to play a defined role (care giver or worker) by structural constraints, and how they support them. We will focus on three countries (Norway, France and the United Kingdom) and see that lone motherhood is seen differently in these countries leading to different kinds of policies. However, the problems that remain are the lack of available childcare institutions and the discriminations in the labor market. It is thus in this direction that politicians have to turn their future policies. Furthermore, a more precise definition of the work line/caring line has to be done, to determine if and when lone mothers must work.

Extraits

[...] Implementing a work support policy toward lone mother's means in most cases to increase the suitable childcare. To Green, it is the key to ensure that lone mothers enter and remain in employment (Green, 1996). The second condition to make work possible and worthwhile for lone mothers is to struggle against the discriminations they have to face in the labour market. Lone mothers are discriminated because they are supposed to be less flexible, more likely to be absent, less involved in their work. [...]

[...] Increasing the employment rates of these women is not the solution to their poverty problem. Different authors underline the role of the tax and benefit system in the reduction of poverty among lone mothers. Kilkey and Bradshaw (Kilkey and Bradshaw, 2001) classify 15 countries according to the social transfer package paid to a lone parent with a child aged below 3 and having on half-average earnings. The three countries we have focus on present different profiles. Norway is in first position in the social transfer package classification, France third and the United Kingdom at the latest position (fifteenth). [...]

[...] So in 1996, a reform has been adopted, encouraging lone mothers to move from welfare to work, by cutting a great part of the benefits for lone mothers who care (Land, 2001). This latest measure is of course unfair for lone mothers. Take the example of income tax: in the United Kingdom, lone parent's family is taxed in the same basis than dual earner families. In France, income taxation is fairer. Indeed, it is calculated according to the number of people in the household. [...]

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