Choosing Work and Family: Poor and Low-Income Mothers' Work-Family Commitments

This article sheds light on the work and family lives of those women with greater constraints on their work-life choices than the professional mothers driving the so called opt out revolution. I use qualitative interviews of a diverse group of poor and working class women on and off welfare to examine the issue of choice in work and family life. I find that low-income mothers share much of the concern expressed by social conservatives over mothers' increased time in the work place. They invoke a shared understanding of the responsibilities of motherhood setting themselves apart from more advantaged mothers who purportedly choose work over family responsibilities.