Australian sole mothers and the life course: risks, needs, and policy opportunities

Divorce is now a stage in the life course of many parents in Western countries. However, women continue to shoulder the burden of risk arising from parenthood and relationship breakdown, resulting in financial insecurity in the lives of sole mothers. While paid work has been heralded as a way by which social ills like poverty might be addressed, the truth is more complex for women parenting alone. This article draws on data from a study on perceptions of sole mother poverty and welfare, exploring online responses to Australian news stories published on the Gillard government’s sole parent welfare amendments. Drawing on Carol Bacchi’s method for policy analysis, it analyzes the policy implications of sole mothers’ accounts of hardship, welfare, paid work, and caregiving during a period of intense welfare debate. These accounts highlight situations of insecure work and housing, difficulties accessing formal and informal childcare, the incompatibility of casual work and long employment hours with primary caregiving, the importance of government income support as a safety net, and the underpayment and nonpayment of child support. Accordingly, this article argues for more responsive and expansive policy measures that consider the employment, housing, welfare, and caregiving needs and circumstances of sole mothers, as well as greater policy recognition of caregiving.