The effects of family, work and welfare on mothers' poverty in the United States and across western nations

Abstract

In this dissertation I examine how the family, market and state affect poverty outcomes among mothers and single mothers. In so doing, I enrich the gender and state literature with methodological approaches from the international literature on poverty. I examine the extent to which predictions from these theories are supported by evidence of mothers' and single mothers' poverty and labor market outcomes across nine Western nations. In a more applied vein, many of my questions concern how the U.S. could ameliorate its high poverty rates among mothers and single mothers. My findings challenge several of the gender and the state theories and suggest that more complex questions could lead to better measures of mothers' economic outcomes. I conclude by discussing what kinds of social policies could improve mothers' economic well-being, in the U.S. and across other Western nations.