Unpaid work and social policy: Engaging research with mothers on social assistance

From Action Research

This study considers the area of unpaid care giving work as central to a gender analysis of public policy. The findings resonate with other published literature on this topic and suggest more nuanced research is needed regarding the ways Social Assistance (SA) policies impact the lives and experiences of unpaid work provided by parents living in poverty. Throughout the data gathering workshops, the women discussed the effects of social policies, shared survival strategies, came to recognize and validate their unpaid work, and eventually held face-to-face meetings with policy-makers.  This work assisted the participants in linking their unpaid work with social policy and finally, in taking significant socio-political action.

Abstract

The interlocking issues of gender, unpaid work and multiple forms of representation or lived experiences with social policy are complex. The study ‘Who Benefits: Women, Unpaid Work and Social Policy’, supported by Status of Women Canada, and guided by an advisory group consisting of women’s and anti-poverty organizations was based inSaskatchewan,Canada. The study interrogated how mothers on social assistance (SA) defined and understood unpaid caregiving work with small children; and the impact of social welfare policy guidelines that pushed SA recipients to find paid employment. Using action research and original, creative methods to gather data, the research simultaneously created a non-threatening environment for discussion, information-sharing, support and knowledge creation among participants. Overall, findings in the study resonate with other published studies on low-income women and unpaid work. Unique to this study particularly, were the action research process and outcomes which provided ways to address the needs of the study participants and to catalyze participant-led actions. The study assisted the 28 participants in linking their unpaid work with social policy and finally, in taking socio-political action. Actions included meetings with government, press conferences, and an uptake of recommendations by advisory group organizations. Independent of the research, the participants continued to meet after the study concluded, action research, mothering, social assistance, social policy, unpaid work, women and poverty

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Article details

Title: Unpaid work and social policy: Engaging research with mothers on social assistance

From: Action Research (June 2011 vol. 9 no.2)

Authors: Cindy Hanson and Lori Hanson

DOI: 10.1177/1476750310388053 

 

 

Tags: action research, mothering, social assistance, social policy, unpaid work, women and poverty